PHYSICAL
A regular yoga practice can improve your respiration, lubricate your joints and tone your muscles. It can help relieve aches, pains, injuries and tension.
Yoga massages the organs of your body and improves posture. Yoga will increase both strength and flexibility. It helps to balance your energy levels and encourages a reconnection of your body, breath and mind.
MENTAL
Yoga practice can help reduce stress, anxiety and depression. You will learn how to relax and let go, allowing for a calmer state of mind. Yoga will improve concentration leading to enhanced body awareness, confidence and self acceptance.
Yoga brings you in touch with the present moment and creates a sense of balance, equanimity, joy and light heartedness. This helps overall well being which can improve personal relationships.
Yoga practice can bring you clarity and peace of mind. This lays the foundation for meditation practice and accessing higher states of consciousness.
YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI
1.1 atha yoganusasanam
Here begins the authoritative instruction on Yoga.
1.2 yogascittavrttinirodhah
Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without distraction.
1.3 tada drastuh svarupe ‘vasthanam
Then the ability to understand the object fully and correctly is apparent.
1.4 vrttisarupyamitaratra
(In the absence of the state of mind called yoga...)
The ability to understand the object is simply replaced by the mind’s conception of the object or by a total lack of comprehension.