The Truth about Christians and Yoga

Yoga has continuously trend throughout the world with a wide community with varied religions and beliefs or the absence of it. It may have helped people lose weight and be fit but unlike other kinds of workout, yoga also comprises spiritual exercises that take inspiration from various religious traditions of the East. There are those who correlate yoga directly with other types of workouts but are unaware of its relation to non-Christian meditation routines. Although the yoga concept is believed to be originating from Buddhism and Hinduism, Christians and yoga lovers from the East do it to have strengthened and deepened connection with the Lord. To them, Yoga is an awesome exercise that can also help unify with Jesus Christ in their body, mind, spirit, and soul.

For more than half a decade, Yoga has been adopted and loved as a form of exercise. But more than improving the overall physical health, it also helps maintain good spiritual health, enhancing the link between the mind and the body with the Lord. Because of this uniqueness and good cause, the practice of yoga has rapidly risen across the globe during the last two decades. And although it has a variety of types, one of the most popular today especially among Christians is Christian Yoga. It has attracted people from all walks of life and of all ages.

The Link Between Christians and Yoga

For many years now, a lot of Christians have been considering Christian Yoga as yoga of praise and worship when upholding the body which is considered to be Jesus Christ’s temple. At present, Christian yoga has continued to change into a more holistic worship form, exercising and molding the body, mind, spirit, and soul by uttering and absorbing biblical teachings that entail particular body poses. Christian Yoga practitioners believe that the observing of particular postures is taught in the Holy book and they are best done with prayers to improve one’s veneration and worship. Therefore, Christian Yoga is a physical workout of intimately connecting with God the Father and Jesus Christ profoundly. Its practitioners get to focus on their whole being, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually while doing so.

However, there are people who have reservations about the practice of Christian Yoga. Others see the practice as one that can invite supernatural manipulation and evil spirits but such claims are without basis and unproven. The truth is, Christian yoga is a form of workout that facilitates a strengthened and deeper relationship with God spiritually. For Christian yoga practitioners, Christian yoga is a means to strengthen their physical bodies for the Lord.

To date, a lot of Christian yoga training courses are now taught everywhere in the world, benefiting and welcoming both Christians and non-Christians as they immerse themselves with the Holy Scriptures and the gospel. Christian yoga can be likened to a form of sacred dance or performance to please God.

What are the great things about Christian Yoga?

Though there are many courses of Christian Yoga being introduced nowadays and your Christian yoga instructor can derive her own, a combination of meditation and Christian yoga is often considered the most advantageous for Christians who want to meditate and boost their mind, body, and spirit.

Specifically, here are the benefits of practicing Christian Yoga:

1. It improves physical fitness and health.

For the most part, Christian yoga is known for its benefits on physical fitness and health. It enables its practitioners to experience the advantages of doing a variety of workout routines. It entails a variety of positions all designed to enhance endurance, strength, awareness, agility, focus, and deep breathing. These all can help improve the practitioners’ overall well-being. Specifically, Christian yoga works wonders in terms of:

a. Improving body coordination, proper posture, and muscle tone;

b. Improving a person’s ability to breathe calmly through slower breathing;

c. Reducing and regulating the stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol in the body;

d. Improving heart health;

e. Reducing the risks of heart disease and hypertension;

f. Improving the quality of sleep; and,

g. Reducing discomforts that are usually caused by menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause.

However, the link between Christians and yoga has become very popular not only for such therapeutic upsides but also because of the bridge it offers for a deeper and stronger connection with God. It entails relaxed breathing and moving techniques that are designed to help practitioners unleash their stress and negative energies, allowing them to calm down with the help of the scriptures and words of God they ruminate.

Like David, in the Bible, who danced his heart out before the Lord, Christian Yoga promotes better worshipping of God through rhythmic calm and gentle workout routines that boost energy and positivity. Moreover, such routines can also facilitate and boosts positive qualities like the generosity of spirit, tolerance, empathy, humility, etc. It helps calm the minds and discharge negative thoughts to retain a positive state of mind for the longest period of time possible. It also helps prevent unnecessary bad vibes that can negatively affect mental well-being.

Christian yoga followers believe that the more they are calm, the more they are connected to the Lord and the more they are able to decipher the messages of the Holy Trinity.

2. It is a vitamin to great spiritual health.

Every time a Christian yoga session ends, practitioners would feel so refreshed spiritually which is important in establishing the inner health. Other spiritual benefits it offers include:

a. Fostering inner peace and calmness;

b. Allowing the revival of the mind through scripture-driven meditation;

c. Facilitating a strengthened connection and relationship with the Lord through an established deep sense of intimacy;

d. Giving a sense of fulfillment physically and spiritually; and,

e. Nurturing humility and other positive attitudes.

For Christian Yoga practitioners, a deepened spiritual relationship with the Lord while staying fit is the best benefit they have experienced.

3. It promotes mental wellness. 

Christian yoga facilitates soundness and calmness of the mind but aside from these, it also helps mold the emotional stability of practitioners. It does it by:

a. Improving the mind’s clarity;

b. Enhancing a person’s cognitive capacity;

c. Preventing neuropsychiatric disorders by preventing its potential causes; and,

d. Training practitioners to be resilient and more focused on having a healthy state of well-being.