Hatha Yoga is a fantastic way to support health, and it does so through its potent mix of postures, breathing practices, mindfulness, and meditation. We now know from well over 300 randomised control trials that yoga also promotes whole mind-body health through autonomic regulation, improved heart rate variability, a strengthened immune system, and better brain chemistry.
Health and wellness is supported at multiple levels to improve overall human functionality, as we see from the model below created by leading yoga researcher and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Sat Bir Singh Khalsa. (Illustration taken from the book ‘Yoga on Prescription’ by Paul Fox and Heather Mason)
This close link to health and wellbeing doesn’t always sit comfortably alongside yoga’s official position in the UK as being part of
