When you hear ?exercise for weight loss,? it?s likely you have images of a kind of fitness boot camp, with your fitness instructor (drill sergeant) dictating excessive amounts of running sprints, push-ups, squats, and sit-ups until you can barely move. But it doesn?t have to be that way. Weight loss can actually come from moving your body peacefully and lovingly through activities that involve physical activity combined with working on mental fitness, self-awareness, and self-love, and yoga is just that kind of exercise. Yoga not only provides a great source of exercise?it also stimulates and fulfills yoga practitioners mentally, physically, and spiritually, and when people are fulfilled at all of these levels, they have a greater sense of self-worth which encourages them to discontinue negative cycles like overeating, making poor food choices, and other lifestyle choices that have been contributing to their weight problem.
As Lucille Ball said, ?Love yourself and the rest will follow,? and yoga tends to people?s physical and spiritual needs, helping them to see their body as a temple worthy of good care. With this more holistic view of wellness they?re more apt to stop treating their weight problem that needs to be ?fixed.? Instead, when a regular yoga practice has encouraged them to embrace and accept themselves where they are for who they are, the weight starts to come off, often without any conscious effort. Your thought patterns are in every cell of your being, not just your mind, so it shouldn?t be surprising that ending the cycle of negative self talk has a wide extension of benefits.
The next time you attend yoga class, think about as a sort of rebirthing. There?s a old saying in yoga that, after a period of dedication to your yoga practice, ?Your bad habits will lose you.? Yoga teaches you to love yourself, and as you surrender to this transformation, the rest of you will follow, and it will be out with the old (habits) and in with the new.