How Yoga Helps Your Sciatica, Health and Wellbeing

The benefits of yoga are that you can expect your back and body to become stronger and much more flexible, and your mind to become more settled and clear.

The postures are called asanas and these are designed to produce beneficial effects in several ways:

The position of the asana causes an increase in blood circulation to the specific target organ or gland.

The position of the asana often produces a slight squeezing of the organ or gland. This has the effect of massaging the organ or gland and stimulating it.

Deep breathing and visualizing the target area sends an extra supply of prana (life energy) to the area.

What Are "Asanas"?

As mentioned above, yoga postures are called asanas. Asanas are gentle stretching movements designed to help balance the mind and body. They develop suppleness and strength, and rejuvenate the whole body including the back and spine, brain, spine, internal organs and glands. 

As a result, it is likely your sciatica and back pain will reduce and possibly even disappear.

Asanas work by increasing the blood and prana (energy) supply to these areas and by stimulating them with a gentle squeezing action

They were designed with economy of time and effort in mind. Most of them work on more than one aspect of the body at the same time.

For example, the twist asana benefits the spine, adrenal glands, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

Where Did Yoga Come From?

It is a philosophy that began in India an estimated 5,000 years ago (the Yoga Sutra scriptures are believed to be the oldest source of the practice).

What Are The Most Popular Yoga Exercises?

Salute to the Sun - Surya Namaskara. Strictly speaking the Salute to the Sun is not yoga, but it is almost universally used as a warm up to a yoga routine, or as an exercise in its own right.

It consists of a series of 12 (or 24) positions per round where a round is repeated a number of times.

The exercise is designed to loosen up your body and massage your internal organs, plus massage and stimulate your nervous system. Prana (energy) flow is freed up and distributed and the exercise helps bring all the systems of the body into balance.

It exercises the lungs, expelling stale air and perspiration is encouraged which helps eliminate toxins.

Here's more information on the Salute to the Sun yoga exercise.

What Are The Spiritual Aspects of Yoga?

Yoga is well known for the benefits provided by its physical exercises, but this is just one aspect of the practice. It provides a framework for spiritual growth and mastery as well as developing the physical and mental body.

Within the physical practices, yoga connects the movement of the body and the fluctuations of the mind to the rhythm of the breath.

By connecting the mind, body, and breath you learn to direct our attention inward and through this process recognize habitual thought patterns without labelling them, judging them, or trying to change them. You become more aware of your experiences from moment to moment.

Yoga sometimes interweaves with other philosophies such as Hinduism or Buddhism, but it is not necessary to follow those paths in order to practice or study it. Neither are you required to change your own religious beliefs to practice it.