At Sanctuary Spa, we believe in holistic wellness practices and take an approach toward spa services that prioritizes your health. Incorporating holistic practices in multiple aspects of life engenders optimal health and wellness. Like many of our spa services, the holistic practice of yoga provides an opportunity to increase your overall wellness – what we value most here at Sanctuary Spa.

Yoga has been a physical, spiritual and mental practice throughout many cultures for thousands of years. The practice of yoga has adapted to various belief systems and techniques in its long evolution. There are many reasons why people practice yoga today. Whether it’s to embrace the physical body, enhance spiritual life, create a clear mental space, or any combination thereof, yoga offers indisputable health benefits.

When practicing yoga, muscles are stretched in directions they normally wouldn’t go. The result – increased flexibility, allowing you to touch places you might not have been able to reach before. Lower back pain, knee aches and more can be attributed to tight muscles. When you practice yoga, the various poses provide you with the ability to unwind those muscles and increase your overall flexibility. You’ll notice the gradual loosening of your muscles, and former aches and pains throughout the body will begin to become less apparent.

Yoga increases blood flow as a result of your muscles moving and being positioned in ways that are far from stationary. With twists and turns of the body, oxygenated blood circulates throughout the muscles. Practicing poses such as headstands or shoulder stands encourages venous blood flow throughout the entire body. Increasing blood flow is vital to your physical health, as it benefits the heart, muscles and arteries.

When practicing yoga, you allow all parts of your body to communicate with one another. Proprioception is one’s sense of the body regarding position, motion and the relative space it occupies. The muscle strength that is built when practicing yoga can improve posture and proprioception, ultimately improving balance. The benefit of improved balance is that it allows your body to be attuned to the space it occupies. Feel more confident when you decide to stand on one foot.

Yoga not only provides physical benefits, but enhances every aspect of your health and well-being. Holistic wellness encompasses mental and emotional balance, as well. Practice synchronizing your breaths, look within, and allow your mind to experience serenity. Smile at the holistic health benefits yoga offers.

Stress naturally accompanies life. Derived as a practice of spiritual wellness, yoga provides a space of pure consciousness that allows you to escape the stresses of today’s world. It gives you the opportunity to clear your mind, practice thankfulness, meditate, or pray. Yoga lets you take a step back and gives you the space to experience spiritual peace as you escape the world’s natural stressors.

Yoga gears the mind toward love, allowing it to positively impact your relationships. Building a community of friends with a focus on love and compassion is a great way to improve health and healing. During your yoga practices, focus your mind on the peace within and allow that to transcend to all relationships in your life.

These yoga benefits take time and come with habitual practice. We hope you find your yoga groove and can experience the wonderful benefits that come with practicing yoga.