Interestingly enough, many men find yoga to be an intimidating sport. Not to mention, seeing women on social media twisting and curving may be attractive to most, but to try it themselves seem to be merely impossible; so they say.
Yoga is effective for physical flexibility, and it is definitely not set just for women. Yoga also brings fourth relaxation, and a sense of attention to self with both physical and mental attributes. This means, yoga is for women, children, and men too.
For men, the ones who are conscious about their overall health, have high beneficial standards to look for. Most think, for example, gym training is good enough to sustain strength in the body. Yet, the concept of body, mind and soul when it comes to overall health, must be thoughtfully acquired.
Most importantly, the awareness of the breath is what puts yoga into 1st gear. Whether working out in the gym, or joining your “gal pal” in a yoga session, movement with the breath not only keeps the physical movement balanced with the body work, your air flow and muscles are working in synchronicity. This leads to the awareness that your muscles are being massaged by your rhythmic breathing and movement all at the same time. Another noted observation when paying attention to the breath, has to do with mental relaxation. When your mind is focused on your breathing, you can push yourself each time to stretch a little further, meanwhile, for beginners, the slight pains are more bearable if you keep your attention to the breath. Yoga also helps the body to open up and awaken muscles that even sport activities such as crossfit can’t do.
While most men who are living the healthy lifestyle choose to see fitness as constant movement, a time of relaxation is essential to an equally balanced life. With yoga, sitting still, paying attention to where your thoughts run is also a way to center your life whether spiritually, professionally or socially. This is called meditation. Think of it as a mental fitness. Usually when attending a yoga class, the instructor will guide you to mental intention settings usually based on love, success and positive goals to set your life journey. Just like the saying “what you think, you become” falls directly in this category. There have been proven studies that guided meditations have set the tone for a more productive, happy and healthy life.
You can do plenty of research to see what yoga positions work best for men, but very seldom do you find the conversation on how daily meditation can change a man’s life. The movement with these thoughts as you go into The Warrior Pose for example, physically keeps you balanced and holding firm, while mentally, you feel wholeheartedly that you are strong enough to conquer the battle field on earth.
Not only does this spiritual practice keep you grounded, it equally keeps you highly intuitive to life’s obstacles. The most honorable man in the world, King of Kings, Emperor Haile Selassie I, was notably known to devoting himself to long periods of daily meditation. During his visible reign, he manged to create a new age economy in Ethiopia and establish the African Union, building a global alliance in the efforts of creating world peace among the human community. Having accomplished so much within his time is worth looking more into on your own for true inspiration. You will find that ultimately, his rooted resilience came to his moments of stillness to meditate and reflect.
