Benefits of Practicing Yoga When You’re Always Busy

Jun 22, 2022

With 300 million practitioners around the world, yoga has long ceased to be just a trend. Nowadays, it’s a part of a stress-relieving routine for many career people that helps them maintain body and mind health. The reason for the insane popularity of yoga is that it requires minimal equipment and effort and still grants many benefits.

Since busy career life links to high stress, sedentary lifestyle, sleep disturbance, and chronic fatigue, you need a quick remedy to retreat and take a breath. In such a case, yoga is a perfect solution that won’t take much of your time while making you feel better right away. Although, if you’re still skeptical about the yoga advantages, our article will help you incorporate yoga into your life and let it improve your welfare.

What is the primary yoga purpose?

The primary goal of practicing yoga was to develop mindfulness towards your body’s sensations and reactions along with self-awareness. At first, it was more like a sacred ritual, and practitioners were praying and making particular noses in the process.

Women practicing yoga

Though, over time yoga has almost lost its religious meaning. Now people practice it to increase their physical activity, calm anxious, stressed minds, or improve health.

One of the most important aspects of yoga is to find what works for you and customize your practice to match your personal needs. It is important to remember that yoga should not be taken lightly. It can be an intense practice that requires much thought and effort.

Modern science is beginning to understand how yoga practices can impact your brain, body, and mood in multiple ways which makes it even more enticing than ever before. However, people who are new to yoga may not fully experience these benefits due to different factors like lack of knowledge or motivation.

That’s why you can find so many types of yoga — each of them will help you achieve different goals. Still, we won’t let you get too confused with them. So let’s discover the most popular yoga types and how they may help you become a better version of yourself.

Top-5 yoga types and how they will help you

1. Vinyasa Flow yoga

According to the DOYOU Global Yoga survey, Vinyasa Flow is the most popular due to its simplicity and stress-reducing effect. It involves performing dynamic transitions between static poses. When practicing it, your body movements slowly flow from one to another, creating an indissoluble process.

Moreover, when doing it right, with each subsequent stage, your body will go into deeper, more complex poses. During the Vinyasa Flow, you can try mindfulness meditations, breathing techniques, or chanting to achieve complete relaxation. This yoga type increases your flexibility and stability while making your mind calm and clear.

2. Hatha yoga

Unlike Vinyasa Flow, Hatha yoga comprises static poses and breathing practices. Therefore, it would be best if you put maximum strength into every movement. In addition, due to its slowness, Hatha allows you to restore energy connections between body and mind and take your emotions under control.

3. Power yoga

If you thought that yoga is only about slow movements, then you’ve just never tried Power yoga. It’s a bit similar to Vinyasa Flow but a few times faster. So Power Yoga is more like an intense workout session with no breaks between poses and high speed of movements. This yoga type improves your posture, stamina and makes your body fitter.

Man practicing yoga at home

4. Restorative yoga

If your ultimate goal is to release stress and tension without extra movements, then try Restorative yoga. This type involves freezing in relaxing poses with a focus on soothing your mind and body. When practicing it, you can use soft pillows or blankets to achieve maximum comfort in the process.

Restorative yoga helps to switch between stress state and relaxation quickly. Plus, this yoga type also strengthens your immunity and increases your sleep quality by significantly reducing your stress level.

5. Ashtanga yoga

This yoga type would be perfect for people who love sticking to particular routines in their lives. Ashtanga yoga is similar to the Vinyasa Flow type. The only difference is that it comprises a fixed set of poses. In addition, ashtanga yoga features a few poses, and each new series is more complex than the previous one.

Moreover, you should perform these series at a fast pace, and they are physically demanding. Still, the repetitive nature of Ashtanga yoga delivers you the same effect as meditations, calming your mind and strengthening your body.

Now when you’re aware of the most popular and beneficial yoga types, it’s time to learn how meditation can help you when you’re up to your ears with work.

Benefits of yoga for busy achievers

It’s easy to start ignoring your mind and body state when you’re reaching new career heights. But, in the long term, such ignorance may lead you to chronic fatigue, depression, and burnout (which isn’t beneficial to your career growth). In turn, yoga can become your savior. It helps you increase your physical activity and takes care of your tired and stressed mind.

Woman practicing yoga at home

Yoga supports your heart health

Yoga poses are not only exercises for the mind and body; they also contain healing properties for your heart. Yoga could be an extremely effective activity to recover after heart diseases. Indian researchers have proven that practicing yoga lowers blood cholesterol and improves blood flow.

Moreover, The Johns Hopkins University study claims that yoga exercises can help you maintain normal heart pressure and heart rate while reducing inflammation.

Thus, if you want to lower your risks of getting heart diseases like stroke or heart failure, incorporate a few yoga classes or home practices into your schedule. But, then, positive results will not be long in coming.

Yoga boosts your immunity

Do you want to defend yourself from diseases and improve your overall well-being? Practicing yoga may help! A Maastricht University research found that people who perform yoga have stronger cell-mediated immunity, responsible for removing infected cells from your body. You can try it to support every cell of your body.

Many people are aware of the health benefits of yoga, but few know that it can also help boost their immunity. Its practices have been shown to strengthen all your body’s natural defenses, which in turn helps strengthen your immune system's defense against germs and viruses, or even cancerous cells.

Plus, yoga will help you stay more energized and productive by reducing pro-inflammatory markers during the day. So if you don’t want to lose weeks on sick days and struggle with viruses, yoga is a great decision to make most of your work time.

Yoga improves your posture and helps you grow muscle mass

When you’re climbing your career path, your posture and muscles wouldn’t be your top priority since improving them may take too much time. Still, what if we tell you there’s a way to take care of your spine and musculature without going to the gym or massage salon? Polish scientists have uncovered that performing Hatha yoga makes your spine more flexible and thus, improves posture.

Woman practicing yoga

At the same time, the Chinese University of Hong Kong survey claims that 12-weeks of regular yoga exercises can enhance your heart muscle endurance, flexibility and help you develop significant muscular strength.

Yoga makes you happier

At some point, constant stress and numerous life troubles push us to that limit where we can’t enjoy our lives anymore. Such a state leads to burnouts, self-distrust, and disappointment standing in your way to a happy and successful life. In turn, yoga can drastically change your perception of the world.

Boston University study says that yoga can alter your brain’s chemistry, boosting the work of neurotransmitters. It means that you’ll be more resistant to stress and depression. Plus, yoga helps you develop mindfulness to appreciate every moment of your life and be present in it. So performing yoga after work or during the weekend may literally make you a happier person.

Yoga enhances your energy levels

Are you familiar with that feeling when everything slips from your hands, and you can’t cope even with the simplest tasks? If so, don’t blame yourself for laziness or low professionalism. Instead, you may simply lack energy on a biological level that doesn’t relate to sleep.

By practicing yoga, you increase the blood flow to your brain cells, allowing them to work more efficiently and maintain stable productivity. In addition, research has found that Hatha yoga may boost your vigor-activity and lighten your mood. It, in turn, will help you achieve more in your chosen field without struggling on every step.

Woman practicing yoga outside

Yoga relieves stress and lowers your risks of getting depression

With more than 260 million people suffering from depression around the globe, it becomes a common mood disorder that everyone can face. Still, yoga is always there to help you get back on track. As for the survey, people who perform yoga regularly have lower cortisol levels, and therefore, are not so prone to stress. So are you ready to stay calm in every circumstance?

Furthermore, if your mind is full of anxious thoughts, disturbing your daily productivity, then you should definitely try yoga. It has the property to reduce anxiety and deliver serenity. Additionally, yoga will help you boost self-esteem and evaluate your achievements objectively.

As you can see, yoga is like a “superfood” to your body and brain. Its benefits will help you reach your goals while staying a calm and confident person with a positive outlook on life. Still, how can you perform yoga when you barely find time for all urgent routines? Our tips will help you with that!

Tips on how to start practicing yoga when you’re super busy:

Start with only 10 minutes. “Better done than perfect” is an optimal approach to begin your yoga practices. Even short yoga time will deliver all health and mind benefits to you, so you don’t need to sacrifice any daily activities. Then you can gradually raise the amount of time you spend on it.
Adjust your yoga poses to your capabilities. Don’t push yourself to practice complex types of yoga at the beginning. Start with static Hatha yoga poses, then try to add some dynamics to your movements. If fast pace yoga types are too exhaustive for you — it’s okay. Stick to those you like because yoga is utterly about enjoying the process and the moment.
Find your “yoga buddy.” Developing new habits can be tricky, but it stimulates you not to abandon your attempt if you start doing it together with somebody. Invite your friend to practice yoga — you can do it in one place or just make video calls in the process. Otherwise, you may go to the yoga classes and join a whole new community. It will help you turn yoga into a habit.
Practice yoga poses after workouts. If you like to run a few times a week or visit the gym, finish your workout with a short yoga session. It works similarly to stretching but also benefits your mental health by releasing stress.
Turn on calming music when performing yoga. If you’re practicing yoga at home, at some point, it may seem boring. So to make this process more appealing, you can turn a calming melody or sounds of nature. It won’t only help you enjoy yoga more but also will make you more calm and relaxed.