The Five Principles of Yoga

Practice of Yoga helps in attaining a healthy body and mind.

There are Five Principles of yoga for attaining proper health and peaceful mind.

Principle 1: Proper Relaxation

For rejuvenating your nervous system and achieve inner peace, let go the stress in the muscles and lay the whole body at rest. This makes you feel relaxed and refreshed. This relaxation is passed over into all your activities and helps you keep your energy and let go of all worries and fears.

Principle 2: Proper Exercise

This principle concentrates for physical body movements. Proper Exercise is achieved through the Asana (yoga postures). The asanas are designed to systematically work on all parts of the body and regulate the physical and physiological functions of the body. For example stretches and tones the Muscles and ligaments, improves the flexibility of the spine and the joints, and improve blood circulation.By practicing these yoga regularly makes the body feel relaxed, gives more strength and energy, and make you feel younger. Each movement and stretch should be guided by breath, making your movement and your breath coordinated and feel like one and the same. The execution of the Asana is beneficial to the body, and also contributes to spiritual and mental growth.

Principle 3: Proper Breathing

Proper Breathing should be deep, slow and rhythmical, making use of all the parts of your lungs to increase your oxygen intake. Regulating the length and duration of your inhalation, exhalation, and the retention of air in your lungs or the pauses between breath is also very important. Pranayama or Breathing Exercises teaches how to recharge the body and control the mental state by regulating the flow of Prana (the vital life energy). This helps in achieving a calmer and more focused mind, and increases the energy level.

Principle 4: Proper Diet

Proper Diet is nourishes both mind and body.Improper diet results to mental inefficiency and blocks spiritual awareness. Proper Diet in Yoga also means eating only when hungryand eating in moderation. Food should sustain our body. It should keep the body light and supple, the mind calm, and it should also help in keeping a strong immune system.

Bad eating habits will cause our senses to be dull that we won't even notice how much we eat or how it tastes and may result to ailments.

Principle 5: Positive Thinking and Meditation

The way we think highly affects our way of life. Practice keeping a positive point of view in life, this will make possible in having a diplomatic mind. Positive thinking and Meditation helps remove negative thoughts and keeps the mind under perfect control.