*Guest Faculty, Department of Psychology, Kanya Gurukul Mahavidyalaya, Dehradun, India
**Prof., Dept. of psychology, Gurukul University, Haridwar, India
***Research Scholar, Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Satikund, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India
Online published on 4 September, 2013.
Holistic Health is a concept that refers to the Psychological, Emotional, physiological and spiritual well being of a person. Being healthy generally means that person is able to use his all capabilities to function well in society and go through everyday life with little or no difficulty but there are some environmental and personal factors that can affect our health i.e. our physical health, family life, social life and life at work. Having negative experience in any of the said areas can activate the sympathetic nervous system of the body and deteriorate the candidate's health. When these negative experiences reach extreme proportions and significantly disable an individual, the person is deemed to be suffering from different illnesses.
In our daily life there occur many incidents and situations which plunge us in to despondency. In such tense situations one loses one's balance and sense of discretion. This leads to irrelevant thought, speech and action which further complicate the issues causing physical and mental sickness, even lead to suicide or murder. To restore the balance, there is no greater remedy than that of Yoga. Yoga offers many practices which individually and collectively activate relaxation and which may help to restore the physical body providing more healthful and productive responses to negative experiences. The effects of yoga which have been documented including parasympathetic nervous system activation which lowers the heart rate and blood pressure as well as improving digestion, elimination and immune function, increasing the vital lungs capacity and tidal volume, and reducing anxiety and depression.
Yoga can be viewed as a scientific system designed to purify the body and the mind from toxins accumulated due to poor life style choices and negative thinking patterns. A system which is rooted in thousands of years of empirical reasoning and evidence of its results, the goal of all yogic practices is not only to be free of mental illness, but to achieve a state of mind that rests in equanimity in the face of the emotions, desires and suffering that are to be found in this world. Yoga exercise help in renewal of mental agility. Those who are practicing yoga experience tremendous changes that result in a deep effect on their mental health, reduction of tension and restoration of flexibility are some of the benefits derived from Yoga. Thus, yoga possesses a great healing power which proves beneficial for physical as well as mental well being of the individual.
