By Alice Mitchell,
Project Weight Loss Editor
September 29, 2008Nowadays, you are not a celebrity if paparazzi don’t photograph you with a yoga mat. Singers and actresses like Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Meg Ryan practice yoga regularly. Don’t they look great? Their advice is simple: connect your mind, spirit and body, all together through Yoga.
With the body of a 20-year-old, even though she’s nearly 50, Madonna is promoting yoga, as a healthy lifestyle, in the media, with all the chances she gets. That is why she is considered the guru of Yoga. She is practicing a faster version of yoga, called Ashtanga yoga, which strengthens muscles in the body. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has also discovered the benefits of yoga, so she built a studio in her home in London especially for yoga practice. She confessed yoga makes her become a calmer and more centered person.
Meg Ryan practices it every single day, at home. She started taking up yoga classes one her career as an actress began to shine and felt like she had no control over it. She said that yoga, as a meditation technique, helped a lot by making her focused on the important things in life. Because of the satisfying results, Ryan tried to educate her audience, through media, about the benefits of practicing.yoga.
Even though celebrities brought yoga in the publics attention, researchers say it goes back more than 2000 years. Yoga is not only about mental health like positive thinking, peace, happiness, it’s also about physical health or “yoga body”, which includes, as we have often seen, strange, contorted poses. The most well-known yoga positions are: tree, triangle, cobra, and lotus, which improve balance and coordination. There are five main groups of Yoga: traditional, Bhakti, Raja, Jnana, and Karma. You can start practicing yoga at any age and the benefits are tremendous: increased flexibility, toned and rejuvenated body, stronger muscles, pulmonary, digestive, lymphatic, and cardiovascular systems purified of toxins, balanced nervous system and so on. There are over 15 million people which include yoga in their life only in the U.S.
John Stirk, one of the leading yoga teachers in Britain said that "when people start yoga they often start with the physical, then find they are relaxed. It's good to learn postures slowly and carefully with an experienced teacher.” He doesn’t exclude the possibility of injuries, especially as a beginner. "I've seen many people who have injured themselves by pushing themselves too hard and too far. A lot of bodies don't need things done to them, they need things undone. They should follow the body, not work against it”, he added. So, get a mat and start practicing Yoga today!
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