Simple yoga poses to practice

Yoga originates from ancient Indian practice of Yog, which means union. It involves exercises and Asanas that help to align your body and mind through different body postures, stretching, breathing exercises and relaxation of mind. Through all of these, it aims to align the physical and mental health of a person to allow improvement of their body fitness in addition to taking control of their mind in a positive way. This will help improve one’s way of living. 

Yoga has a lot of other benefits apart from the above: it increases flexibility of the body, as it involves a lot of varied body postures, and improves muscle strength, respiration, energy and metabolism. Yoga also helps to improve your cardio and circulatory health; keeping your heart fit, and it helps with weight issues. The asanas of Yoga are meant to have an internal effect on your body parts and organs, and this helps in boosting a person’s immunity and bettering their ability to fight different infections or diseases.

There are certain poses and asanas that I do on a daily basis, and I would recommend beginners to do them too as they have a lot of benefits and are easy to begin with. I have included a picture of the asanas for better reference and some main benefits associated with them.

The garland pose or Malasana(in Sanskrit)

This is also relevant in today's times where people cannot go out much; they tend to spend a lot of time at home either working or sitting on the couches and can suffer from poor posture and back pain.

This pose helps with hip flexibility as it is a hip-opening yoga posture that helps to lengthen and open the hips, hence creating more mobility for all your daily activities. It also helps with the abdominal muscles and improves the function of the colon. This pose also helps with the attainment of inner peace as sages in ancient India would often sit in meditation for long periods and offer prayers; therefore, it can be used to attain concentration and focus too.

The standing tree pose or Vriksasana

This pose is easy for beginners and has a lot of benefits which help the entire body to achieve balance and carry out day-to-day tasks better. The main benefits include enhancing the balance and stability of the body and help in achieving balance in other aspects of life. This pose requires concentration and focus when trying to balance one life aspect, and so it helps with building the concentration level, which is particularly useful for students.

The mountain pose or Tadasana

Another easy pose for beginners which allows you to fully stretch your body upwards, hence the name ‘mountain pose’. This Asana activity has several benefits; the biggest benefit is that it helps in posture correction by making your spine agile as it requires a full stretch from the heels. It improves blood circulation, balance and also makes your knees, thighs and ankles stronger. When in this pose, you have to maintain the balance and stand for at least 15 seconds which helps you attain more focus and balance that you can use in your overall life too.

These are the three good poses that I would recommend to begin with; however, there are more that can be found as one advances to the next levels of practicing yoga. One must make it a part of their daily lifestyle as it has a lot of benefits and improves the quality of your life greatly. It can help you achieve mental and physical balance, which is something we all need more than ever in these current times.