Happiness consistently rates high on the list of everyone’s priorities and wishes for life. We all want to be happy and most people are seeking ways to be happier in their daily lives. Yoga is more than physical exercise and with regular practice, students experience a change in consciousness and discover a new, more positive outlook on life, which increase happiness and satisfaction with life.
One of the reasons happiness eludes so many people is that they associate happiness with wealth and possessions, or have the mistaken notion that certain things must happen for them to be happy. For example, it could be a degree, job, finding love, or achieving success, but many people are constantly waiting for something to make them happy.
What people often find is that when one goal has been achieved, happiness continues to be elusive. This is because the individual is now looking to the future for the next life event to make them happy. There is always something else to want, but happiness can be found where you are right in this moment and yoga teaches you that basic truth.
Through the media, we are exposed to a constant barrage of bad news and this can negatively affect anyone’s outlook on life. The focus on the negative in the media and in society in general, can result in an increasingly negative outlook that invades your own sense of peace and happiness. Through yoga and meditation, we can learn to let go of negative feelings and the tension, stress and anxiety that accompanies them.
In fact, there is recent scientific research that confirms what yogis have known for centuries, yoga can make you happier. A UK study in 1993 found that yoga produced the greatest increase in mental and physical energy of the three relaxation techniques studied. A study in Germany the following year found that people who practice yoga scored higher in terms of life satisfaction and emotional health. Brain research conducted at Boston University School of Medicine showed that yoga results in higher levels of GABA in the brain, which is associated with reduced anxiety and increased happiness.