If someone will ask me to list everything I learned about yoga in my life, I could not stop telling about it. As far as I can recall it was never mentioned. Even with yoga's growing
Popularity you still can't expect the average people to actually know much about it.
Does that mean you shouldn't discuss your yoga practice with other people?
Not necessarily. The primary reason to talk people is knowledge. Although
yoga has enormous potential to heal, not all of its practices are advisable for everyone.
If you're young and generally in good health and not pregnant there's probably
not much you need to say. If you develop an acute injury, such as a strained back,
a muscle pull, or a sore shoulder, you might ask your doctor if you should restrict
your practice for a while, but this is also something a good yoga teacher should be
able to help you with.
The older you are and the more chronic medical conditions you have, such as
high blood pressure, diabetes or arthritis, the more important it is that you get
your doctor's approval for your yoga practice. Your overall level of health and
fitness is a pretty good predictor of which practices put you at risk of injury or
other complications.

Yoga is so much more than a weight-loss program, but it has helped many people
shed extra pounds, even some who have spent years trying to slim down in other
ways without success. Records show that a complete yoga program which includes asana,
breathing techniques, and meditation can peel off the pounds.
How does yoga do it? The most obvious explanation is all the calories
burned practicing asana. Still, many students
lose weight even when their yoga practice is gentle and doesn't burn that many
calories.
A less obvious explanation is that yoga helps reduce stress. In
response to stress, levels of the hormone rise; for people who continue to
worry, those levels can stay high. Elevated levels of that not only stimulate
eating, they ensure that any additional calories are efficiently converted to fat.
Worse, under the influence of it, that fat tends to get deposited in the
abdomen, a particularly unhealthy place. Big bellies are linked to insulin
resistance which is a precursor to Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes and heart disease. By
combating stress, yoga helps normalize its levels.
The regular practice of yoga also boosts your ability to feel
what's going on inside your body. This awareness helps you detect not only
whether, say, your hamstring is tight but also whether your stomach is already
full. Many people with weight problems have little awareness of their hunger and
continue indulging long after they're sated. Besides having greater bodily
awareness, people who practice yoga learn to examine their emotions that whether
it's fear keeping them from doing a handstand or loneliness prompting late-night
trips to the fridge. Yoga teaches that you are not your emotions and that you don't
always need to act on them.
If you struggle with overeating, try paying closer
attention to your eating habits which are even if you can't alter them right now. If you find
yourself about to eat when you're not really hungry, assess the emotions that may
be fueling your appetite. It's also useful to eliminate distractions. Resist the
temptation to read, watch TV, listen to music, or talk with a friend while you eat.
Instead try to make your meal a meditation, tuning into the taste, texture, and smell of the food. If you find yourself slipping into thought, just notice that and
return your attention to the food and your body's response to it.
Don't get wrapped up in all the hype
about diets. Instead of adopting a short-term strategy to drop a few pounds
(which may backfire and result in twice the weight gain), focus on finding a
balanced approach to eating and exercise that you can enjoy and that can keep
you healthy over the long haul.
Each year, millions of Americans suffer from debilitating back pain. Despite
Western medicine's phenomenal advances and powerful technology, two of the
most commonly prescribed solutions are painkillers and surgery but do little to
address the underlying causes of pain and can potentially cause side effects. In
truth, a one-size-fits-all solution is impossible given that the causes and
manifestations of pain which includes arthritis, strained ligaments, scoliosis, and herniated
disks, to name a few will vary widely.
But as many practitioners can attest, yoga therapy can offer effective healing that's
relatively free of side effects. The key is to proceed with caution and be willing to
treat your healing as a process. It will likely take time and perseverance to find a
treatment program that is helpful. Here's how I suggest you get started.
While potentially life-threatening causes of
back pain, such as cancer, infections, and rupturing aortic aneurysms, are a lot
less common than muscle spasms and sciatica, you should check with your health
care practitioner to make sure it's safe for you to practice yoga as part of your
healing program that are especially if you are over 50 or if you have worrisome
symptoms like fever or unexplained weight loss.