From bathing in goats’ milk to herbal soups, humans have always been on the hunt for longevity. But if you don’t fancy chewing on garlic or eating spoonfuls of turmeric, perhaps the answer is simpler than you think.
No, it’s not the philosopher’s stone: yoga and meditation could very well help you live longer.
You already knew that a class leaves you buzzing and feeling like you’ll live forever – while it might not be forever (who really wants that, anyway?), regular yoga and meditation practice will certainly add a good few years to your threescore and ten. And better quality years, too.
Before you roll your eyes, take a look at the reasons down below.
It’s exercise, isn’t it?
Starting with the most obvious reason first, because why not? I know it sounds ridiculous to even have to say this, but sometimes it’s best to start basic.
Yoga is exercise. Exercise keeps you healthy. Healthy people live longer.
Ignore all the haters saying yoga is ‘just stretching’ and telling you about their HIIT sessions – yoga is a workout for your whole body. It helps you sweat out your toxins, it gets your heart pumping, and it ensures you keep the weight off: you might have heard, all these things are good for you.
They recommend we do a minimum of thirty minutes of exercise a day; that exercise might as well be yoga as walking, swimming or rock-climbing (plus, nicer outfits).
This isn’t all, of course.
Oiling yourself up
Not as car-related or saucy as it sounds, I’m afraid. Yoga just gets everything moving – your muscles, your joints, your blood flow – and works to kind of ‘oil’ your body and stop you rusting up.
As you know, if you’ve ever done a full Ashtanga class, yoga gives your joints their full range of motion. This prevents them wearing out, in turn checking arthritis.
Improved blood flow is another handy side-effect of yoga practice, even though it feels less than convenient when you’re bright red after 5 minutes in plough. The movement of sun salutations and flows gets more oxygen to blood cells (they like this), your twists bring fresh blood to the organs, inversions send blood flowing to the brain and heart.
Sorry to be talking about blood so much, squeamish readers, but all of this flowing really does get your cells working better and you living longer.
Prevent Chronic diseases
Aside from leaving you generally healthier, fitter and of course more attractive (win), yoga has also been proven to prevent chronic diseases and pain.
Do you suffer from asthma? The slowed breathing encouraged in yoga practice and meditation not only zens you out, it improves your lung function, and breathing through your nose actually filters the air.
Diabetes? See what we said above about weight loss; add in the fact that yoga lowers blood sugar and you have benefits you can’t argue with.
Heart disease? Yoga reduces cholesterol.
I could go on and on, as eyes glaze over and friends mentally delete my phone number.
This is without even mentioning how yoga helps alleviate chronic pain, through strengthening your core and soothing those affected muscles. Sure, pain might not kill you, but the resulting stress certainly doesn’t result in a longer life.
Speaking of stress…
Stress relief
Stress quite literally kills.
We all know what it’s like to be wound so tight you think you might burst. Does that feel sustainable? No way. As tempting as it might be to deal with stress with a glass of red or a cigarette, there are no long-term benefits to this (although we wouldn’t begrudge you the glass of wine every now and again!).
The three elements of yoga – poses, breathing and meditation – combine to help you regulate your heart-rate, to increase your GABA levels (the amino acid that decides how relaxed you are) and to flood you with that oxytocin-spiked well-being.
So next time you’re tempted to skip your class, think about the stress-busting hormones and chemicals working their magic to ensure you live a long (and happy) life. Or just do a 15 minute moving meditation, if nothing else.
Then have a glass of wine.
Protect The building blocks of life
Cells are often referred to as ‘the building blocks of life’. Increasingly it seems that meditation (either alone or integrated with yoga) can slow cellular aging.
The ends of chromosomes are protected by telomeres, which shorten each time the chromosome replicates. Shorter telomeres are not what you want as they’re associated with age-related diseases; stress can also cause shorter telomeres (it’s all connected!).
And now, studies have shown that meditation can increase the length of telomeres or at least protect them from the damage of time.
So now you know your regular practice will help you live longer, it’s time to plan for your next yoga sessions NOW.
Namaste.
The yoganum family
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