Gone are those days when people flaunted their level of stress as a proof of hard work. Scientific studies clearly show that stress reduces our capability to do any work. According to yogic science, we have majorly 4 faculties – physical, mental, emotional and energy body. Our complete wellbeing is dependent on how effective and efficient our these four faculties are.

So what stress really is? In simple words, it is release of certain hormones when our nervous system feels threatened, such as adrenaline and cortisol which makes the body to take emergency action. Stress leads to mood disorder, impaired concentration, disrupted sleep, irritability, poor decision making and ultimately to further mental and physical diseases. If you aren’t coping with stress well, the chronic stressful situation may lead to depression. Around the world, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression.

Imagine, you are driving a car and suddenly someone jumps in front of it, what will you do? Press emergency brake, right? And how would you feel? Threatened, isn’t it? Your heart will pound faster, blood pressure will rise and breath will quicken. Now understand, if you will have to push emergency brake again and again, 10 times in a minute, will you prefer to ride your car on such road? Not at all. It’s quite logical. Believe it or not, doing work without stress is possible if we develop our capabilities at all levels of human mechanics through right practices.

Let’s take another example. Suppose someone is a heart surgeon and you are to be operated, what kind of doctor would you prefer? A cardiologist with high stress or someone with complete ease and balance? For sure, a stressful doctor is more likely to have shaky hands. To deal with stress, we need to understand the cause of it and to do it easily, we can figure out which part or parts of faculties is causing this – is the stress due to our physical limitations, mental confusion, emotional imbalance or low energy. Prolonged stress can lead to frustration and further into depression, which has become a widespread disease these days. There’s no intelligence in ignoring our well being when it’s in our hands.

Yoga – an ancient practice and an ocean of wisdom. It’s not just about twisting and turning. It’s about transcending our limitations. Sadly, lot of people think it’s just a bunch of exercises. Western scientists are not fools to spend millions of dollars to research on Yoga if it was not effective. It is a very intelligent system of bringing body, mind, emotions and energy into balance and union. We can only run a marathon when our legs are strong and we have good stamina. Yoga brings the best in us by enhancing our capabilities. There are various types of Yoga. Some of them are Hatha, Vinyasa, Bikram, Ashtanga, Iyengar, etc. Pranayam, sadhanas and asanas are limbs of Yoga that benefits us in many ways. Pranayam is all about various breathing techniques that contributes majorly to our well being including improving lung function.

Benefits of Yoga:

• Reduces impacts of stress
• Helps combating anxiety and depression
• Regulates heart rate
• Optimizes blood pressure
• Eases breathing
• Builds up immune system
• Improves memory, concentration and reasoning skills
• Increases pain tolerance
• Maintains balanced metabolism
• Maintains weight
• Increases mental and muscle strength
• Enhances nervous system
• Helps in proper blood circulation
• Keeps us younger and active
• Balances hormones in the body
• Improves sleep quality
• Improves functions of all the organs
• Keeps us at ease and relaxed
• Effectively cleanses the toxins out
• Enhances digestive system
• Heightens awareness

There’s more to the list. We experience our own existence in a totally different way when we embrace Yoga. According to a study at Harvard, Yoga helps tremendously to liberate ourselves from any kind of addiction. Lots of cigarette smokers are advised to do pranayam regularly. It’s important to keep in mind that we should always do Yoga in the supervision of an expertise/master. Doing the asanas wrongly is dangerous. Let’s be the part of the new era with ancient practices and wisdom. Let’s be responsible for our well being. Stress and depression are not bigger than us. It’s time when we become a part of the solution and not the problem.

We will only become solution by doing it. As we inculcate yoga in our life, we will start witnessing the transformation at various levels. It’s an empowerment in itself as it has ability to influence everyone around us where they begin to understand that human potential lies beyond any kind of stress, just by being in our presence.