The more I learn about yoga the more I realize I don't know. While I was doing research for this blog post I was rather surprised by how many of these facts I didn’t know. Hopefully you’ll learn something new about yoga as well.
Yoga is Older than Christianity
One of the new things I learned was that yoga is older than Christianity. The Yoga Sutras are about 5,000 years old while the bible is about 3,500 years old. Some believe that Christianity may even be based on yoga and Hinduism.
Yoga and Meditation Can Help People with Mental Illnesses
In addition to therapy and medication, yoga and meditation have been known to also help. Any form of movement in general is helpful for depression. Meditation can provide calming effects to participants and can help focus.
Yoga can Reduce the Effects of Aging
Meditating and yoga can help to slow down the process of cellular aging. It may even reduce chances for early stages of Alzheimer's. According to a study by UCLA, yoga and meditation has been shown to assist in reducing the affects of pre-Alzheimer's.
First Modern Yoga mat was Made in 1982
Angela Farmer created the first modern yoga mat from some German green underlay for carpet. This helped to reduce slipping. Farmer’s father was the first retailer of these mats. Before yoga mats animal skins and grass were used, or they just didn’t use anything and just risked slipping.
Passing a Yoga Test can Reduce Jail time in Indian Prison
If the prisoners pass a series of tests they can reduce their jail time by 3 months. This was tested in the Pune jail of western India. They found that there was less violence within the jail after the yoga trial program was implemented.
George Harrison Practiced Yoga
Harrison, famous for being one of the four members of The Beatles, practiced yoga and may have played a major part in the increased popularity of yoga in western countries in the 1970’s. On the topic of yoga Harrison stated, “These vibrations that you get through Yoga, Cosmic chants and things like that. I mean it's such a buzz, it buzzes you out of everywhere. It's nothing to do with pills or anything like that. It's just in your own head, the realization, it's such a buzz, it buzzes you right into the astral plane.”
Learning about the intricacies of yoga is probably one of the most rewarding parts of running this blog. Hopefully, you can go out and learn more about yoga.
Comments