Many poses of yoga are specially meant to relieve certain pains and make you feel an effect in a certain area of your body. The art of yoga seeks to find that area and designate all your inner energies on it so that you can control yourself and focus yourself on that spot and bring all your energy there. Yoga also seeks to help with your breathing. In fact, much of yoga depends upon the power of your mind having an influence over your body. For example, in Raja yoga, there are eight principles that are applied to every exercise, such as Yama, being the five abstentions from lying, violence, possessiveness and others.

Then, Niyama is the observances of purity, contentment, austerity, study, and surrender to god, and Asana refers to the seated position that is specially reserved for meditation purposes. Then, Pranayama is the suspended breath one that refers to controlling your personal life force. Pratyahara refers to withdrawing your sense organs from external objects, and dharana refers to fixing your attentions on a single object, as dhyana is the contemplation of nature and its elements, and samadhi is when you finally merge your conscious being with the meditation object.

All of this helps you experience the world in a way and helps you discover yourself as you indulge in the exercises. Of course, in a more practical sense, yoga is great for working out parts of your body, as well. Some positions require you to bend in half, placing both hands on the mat, and then breathing deeply. This position often relieves back pain when the breathing is balanced with the rest of the body and everything flows evenly throughout. Other positions have you do a version of curls that really works out your abs and your arm muscles, too, and brings strength to your upper body. And all of the positions do well in helping you find an inner strength and peace as you are able to take deep breaths and do your best to breathe well and easily.

The overall goal of yoga is really to better your life and ensure that you reach a state of mental well being as well as physical excellence. It is to ensure that you stay fit and calm and breathe through the crises of everyday life. In some religious experiences, it is used to attain a higher vision of the world and a harmonious wedding of body and mind and spirit so that you can really sharpen your focus in a way that is enlightening. It also helps as a calming routine to work out your muscles and to give you some time of relaxation every day, as well.

No matter what your personal needs, you will find that yoga has the power to make you feel invigorated and calm in a way quite different from many other kinds of exercises so you can enjoy the benefits and effects and really make use of their positive influence on your life and state of being.