Tip of the Week: Yoga is Perfect for Weight Loss

For many of us, the first step on the journey to weight loss is through the gym doors. The glistening and toned physiques at the weight rack, on the treadmills, and in spin class briefly inspire us that the best way to shed those stubborn pounds is to lift heavier, run faster, and push harder. But, if this is really the key to permanent weight loss, then why do so many walk away from the gym exhausted, frustrated, and defeated in their efforts?

The Yoga Difference: Mental Health Meets Physical Health

We often overlook that weight loss is just as much a mental and soulful experience as it is physical. Aligning your mind, body, and soul is the key to sustainable health, and it can often be found among the serene music and warming breaths of a yoga class. Yoga, unlike other exercises, gives you something uniquely special because helps heal your mind, body and soul. Yoga will support your weight loss transformation as you identify with what will ultimately bring you joy and happiness, and it will inspire you to "live with purpose", which will support your decisions to become as happy and healthy as possible.

In that spirit, and in the spirit of the new year, here are 9 ways yoga will support a new relationship with your body and help you lose weight.

1. Disconnect From Technology

 Instead of looking at other people and what they're doing to lose weight, yoga supports a quiet state of mind, so you can make decisions that are best for your body. You will be inspired, your energy and vibration will shift, and you will begin to feel gratitude for the smallest things without needing to compare yourself to others.

2. Work With Wonderful, Experienced Teachers 

Your friends and family can be great role models, but to transcend your circumstances, you often have to remove yourself from your current space of understanding. Being around inspirational teachers helps you build your own thoughts and beliefs inspired by their teachings. They will often become a mirror of your own weaknesses and insecurities and help you find a way past them. These teachers who have blazed the trail before you (many of whom have had their own weight loss journey) provide a powerful road map for your own growth.

3. Spend Time With An Incredible Community

 Having the ability to become part of an incredible community—people who are working towards similar goals right along with you—is incredibly powerful. Your fellow yogis will praise you when you do well, encourage you when you feel hopeless, and help point you in the right direction when you get off track. The power within you is always guiding you; sometimes you just need a bit of help (and positive friends) to harness it.

4. A Guaranteed Break 

Spend time meditating and allow yourself to stop over-thinking. In a world of constant information (especially about diets), this is often one of the most difficult things to do, yet it is one of the most important things to learn for your well-being. Turning off all the noise, including your own voice, judgments and outside perceptions, for just 45 minutes truly frees you. It allows you to open up to a sacred space of healing which welcomes happiness and empowers you to make improved decisions when it comes to your food and exercise.

5. Heal The Past

 Individuals often experience profound healing and new states of awareness during yoga. Being in an environment where you are not distracted by other things allows you to move closer to forgiveness—one of the most important components of permanent weight loss. We often hold weight because of guilt that we carry inside ourselves. Yoga offers a space of compassion and love that can help propel you forward.

6. Experience A Space Beyond Your Current Circumstance 

Money, time, work, and toxic relationships can drag you down and make you feel trapped in your current reality, causing binging and unhealthy eating behaviors. You have to live beyond what you have now and believe in what you can become. Yoga allows you to experience this unique space. As the Law of Attraction states, living within the mindset of the future version of you helps it actually come to you!

7. Embrace Fear 

Yoga is a safe space to embrace your fear, harness the energy behind that fear, and remove it from your life. We're often fearful of things we truly desire, so there is fear around losing weight. Who will we be when we don't have the weight as a protection against the world? Who will we be when we are healthy and filled with energy? Quieting the mind helps us to understand where the fear of losing weight comes from and offers the ability to move through it to create dramatic shifts in your life.

8. Bust Through Blockages 

Yoga testimonials often state that individuals were able to break through blockages and limiting beliefs. Most of us carry around childhood memories, past traumas, and pain, causing severe stress in our subconscious that manifests in negativity and fear. Yoga helps create a space where our conscious and subconscious thought patterns can unite to break through these feelings, shedding mental (and physical) weight.

9. Finally Make a Commitment To A Healthier Life 

After several yoga classes, your body will begin to cleanse, detoxify, and heal. As your body cleanses and detoxes, you actually retrain your brain from craving junk food to desiring more real, healthy food. Being in an environment that supports that energetic shift in your body will help you stay on track no matter where in the world you may be.

Without a doubt, yoga is one of the best things you can do to create dramatic shifts not only in your mind, but also in your body. Being in an environment where you can focus and make a commitment to your well-being alters your life forever. As you spend several days moving closer to a "new" way of being, you are actually announcing to the Universe that you are ready to permanently live this way.

By Sarah Anne Stewart, Health Coach charlottesbook.com