People turn to yoga primarily because it helps them feel fitter, more energetic, happier and peaceful. It improves or restores health, reduces stress, builds up the body and prevents it from ageing. It also begins to unveil the potential of the mind, nine tenths of which is lying dormant. Some of the benefits of yoga are:

Increases flexibility
Yoga postures act upon the various joints of the body exercising and increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons and even a rigid body starts experiencing a remarkable flexibility. The reason lies in the seemingly non strenuous yoga positions, which allow parts of our body to work in harmony, thus, increasing our flexibility.

Complete detoxification
As the muscles and joints in our body are stretched and massaged gently during yoga, the blood supply to the various parts of our body reaches an optimum level, flushing out toxins and providing nourishment to every part of our body. This leads to delayed ageing, higher energy and a remarkable zest for life.

Massages all the organs of the body
Yoga is perhaps the only form of activity which gives a thorough massage to all the internal glands and organs of our body. This stimulates our internal organs and helps in keeping away and in providing a forewarning of a likely onset of disease.

Tones the muscles
Flaccid and weak muscles are stimulated repeatedly during yoga practice to shed excess flab.

These and additional benefits such as higher awareness of our body's posture, patterns of movements, realisation of interconnections, result in a relaxed mind even in the middle of a stressful environment.

One of the most important benefits of yoga is physical and mental therapy. It has succeeded as an alternative therapy in diseases ranging from diabetes and asthma to blood pressure and digestive disorders. According to medical scientists, yoga therapy is successful because of the balance created in the nervous and endocrine systems, which directly influences all other systems and organs of the body. Yoga tackles diseases in the following manner:

1. massages and improves the efficiency of the internal organs through asanas
2. tones up the nerve connections by asanas
3. improves the blood circulation through asanas
4. improves respiration and general vitality of the body through pranayama
5. cleans the body of impurities through asanas, pranayamas and shatkarmas
6. relaxes the mind and body through scientific relaxation techniques such as shavasana and yoga nidra
7. removes mental suppressions, phobias, neuroses and all other negative aspects of the mind.

Beyond all its therapeutic values, yoga provides a means for people to find a way to connect with their true selves. It embraces both the inner and outer realities and helps in establishing a new way of life.