The short answer is that yoga makes you feel better. Practicing the postures, breathing
exercises and meditation makes you healthier in body, mind and spirit. Yoga lets you tune
in, chill out, shape up -- all at the same time.
For many people, that's enough of an answer. But there's more if you're interested.
For starters, yoga is good for what ails you. Specifically, research shows that yoga helps
manage or control anxiety, arthritis, back pain, blood pressure and other conditions and diseases.
Developed in India, yoga is a spiritual practice that has been evolving for the last
5,000 years or so. Yoga means "union" in Sanskrit, the classical language of India.
According to the yogis, true happiness, liberation and enlightenment comes from union with
the divine consciousness or the transcendent Self.
In hatha yoga, for example, postures and breathing exercises help purify the mind, body and
spirit so the yogi can attain union.