Relax Your Way to a Healthy Weight
May 11, 2009
Americans suffer from an epidemic of obesity. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. citizens are now classed as overweight, and another third are considered clinically obese. Excess weight increases the risk of heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and certain cancers, as well as dying too early in life.
Some blame the American diet full of junk food with empty calories. Others say the frenetic American lifestyle causes excessive stress, and that many people turn to food as a comfort mechanism. Some studies are beginning to find genetic links or physical conditions that contribute to obesity.
Most importantly, scientific studies are finding these days that obesity is a complex disease that requires individualized treatment. Surprisingly, one of the techniques that may help obesity is the practice of Yoga.
Yoga works in many beneficial ways. Its poses, called asanas, provide physical exercise that burns calories. It relieves much of the stress that causes some people to overeat. Its focus on breathing and meditation provide an alternative philosophy to the Western practices of overconsumption.
Yoga began in India, and some of its practices have been documented as back in history as 5,000 BCE. Its name, Yoga, derives from a Sanskrit word “yuj,” which means to join together, to concentrate. “Yuj” also can communion, a sense of unity. These roots clearly indicate the holistic union of body, mind and spirit that are Yoga’s goals.
Most Americans think of Yoga solely as physical exercise, but in reality Yoga encompasses such things as lifestyle, attitude, choices and philosophy. Practicing Yoga asanas simultaneously involves body movement attuned to breathing, observing how the body feels as it moves and breathes.
While in Western cultures body, mind and spirit were separated centuries ago by the philosophy of thinkers such as Descartes, Yoga teaches the body and mind how to work together, thus benefiting the spirit as well.
Beyond a greater mind and body awareness, yoga also promotes meditation, a practice that seeks to calm both mind and body. Georg Feurerstein, PhD, a scholar of Yoga, describes the state of meditation, called “dhyana,” as a state in which “an internalized object fills the entire space of consciousness.”
For instance, a person might meditate on his or her breathing, focusing not only on the timing of breath, but on how the body feels as air moves in and out. Such a strong internal focus can cause a person’s awareness of the environment outside the body to fade away, but the mind becomes remarkably clear.
Instructors and students believe that Yoga enables practitioners to develop strong spirits as well as bodies. In other words, by cultivating greater physical strength, flexibility and calm through dedicate Yoga practice; one also becomes able to withstand the temptations of an immoderate lifestyle.
Those with weight problems especially can benefit from gaining the internal capacity to make good choices, especially at the dinner table.
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