Yoga As A Holistic Health Care System

A holistic health care system emphasizes on the whole body and not just the disease. Holistic therapy treats the whole person. Holistic therapy is based on the belief that all the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social aspects of the body contribute to a person's well being.

More and more practitioners are today recommending a holistic health care system to their patients. Counselling, aromatherapy, nutritional supplements, herbal healing, yoga, and massage therapy are some of the alternative holistic treatments recommended by health practitioners.

Three Elements

A careful analysis of holistic therapies shows that all these therapies focus on three main elements. Diet is the first element in these therapies. According to all holistic health care systems, your body needs a balanced diet in order for it to function properly. A balanced diet consists of proteins, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, and fats.

The second element in these holistic therapies focuses on strengthening and toning your body. In other words, they emphasize regular exercise.

The third element focuses on the mind. Holistic approach believes that by controlling your mind one can avoid many stress related problems like, anxiety, sleep disorders and depression.

Benefits

A holistic approach to your health care has many benefits. First, holistic treatments are not harmful to your body. Many of the conventional medicines that we use today do us more harm than good. For instance, antibiotics are known to have serious side effects. Taking antibiotics will cure you of the infection, but they also cause stomach problems, ulcers, and kidney problems. Moreover, abuse of antibiotics often lead to the body not responding to the treatment.

Holistic medicines and treatments, on the other hand, are non-invasive and do not have the serious side effects that are associated with conventional medicines.

Yoga - Holistic Approach

So if you are thinking about adopting a holistic health care system for your well being, yoga would be the right choice. Yoga exercises consist of postures, breathing techniques and meditation to promote your overall well being. Yoga helps to promote and maintain a healthy body and mind. It provides physical, psychological and spiritual benefits.

Balanced Diet

A balanced diet is always recommended in yoga. In order to derive all the benefits of this holistic approach, one needs to focus equally on yoga & food. One cannot hope to derive all the benefits from yoga along with eating unhealthy food.

Yoga recommends a vegetarian diet. According to yogic principles, a vegetarian diet is a healthy diet. It does not have the toxic effects of a non-vegetarian diet. If you eat a variety of vegetarian food, you can get all the required amounts of minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and fats from them.

A vegetarian diet is also a secret to a long and healthy life, according to yoga principles. A vegetarian diet does not put stress on your body like the non-vegetarian diet. When the cells in your body are not over exerting themselves, they tend to be healthier.

Yoga also promotes a stable and peaceful mind. Various breathing exercises and asanas in yoga help to relax your body and improve the concentration and memory of your mind.

To sum up, yoga provides an exercise program that strengthens your body and relaxes your mind. In other words, it is truly a complete holistic health care system.