The benefits of Yoga – Relaxation – this is a biggie in the world of yoga and one of the most renowned benefits.  Whenever I talk to yoga clients and friends relaxation comes up as a major draw to the practice of yoga.  Envisage several post-practice serene yogis in a beautiful, light and airy ambient yoga studio appearing without a care in the world and you get the picture!  It looks so easy and yet to get to this desired state of relaxation takes a little work.  The aspiring yogi needs to commit to a regular practice – at least once a week, ideally several times to truly experience the benefits

As with Yoga and Pilates, Zenga commences with mindful breathing

.  You need to get down on your mat, breathe and ground yourself before beginning to move the body through all the planes of movement that it was designed to move – and, yes, for some of us some of these movements will be more challenging than others.  There will be yoga postures (asana) that we like and that our bodies find relatively easy and others that, frankly, we don’t like and find challenging.  But we can modify these movements, we can find a simpler version of that least-favourite movement and the beauty is that we will be glad we have once we have tried a version that works for us.  Then we can wind down from the physical part of the practice and come to the moment we have been aspiring to  – relaxation!  Yes – there at last! Yoga works by toning the vagus nerve, the largest nerve in the body through breathing practices combined with asana.