Pippin Jardine took a fascinating journey of doing 5 minutes of yoga each day for 365 days. No breaks. No excuses.
You can watch her 11 minute video below:
NOTE: Pippin is a young girl. Unmarried. Yet her story is caught my attention because of her video journal where she documented her experienced.
A few things that changed for her include:
1. Improved her mental health. 2. Gave her a sense of accomplishment and strengthened her commitment quotient. 3. Enhanced her self image. 4. Made her a happier person. 5. Increased her physical strength. 6. Enhanced her creativity. 7. Helped her focus her life on positive things.
I found these last two interesting. I’m sure it’s connected to increased circulation and improved mental health.
I mention her story because yoga can impacts your life on a number of levels.
Pippins story made me think about the benefits of yoga for enhancing our relationships.
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Five Five Benefits of Yoga for Couples
Let’s explore how yoga can improve your marriage.
NOTE: I talk about yoga as an exercise regimen, not a spiritual religion or practice. Although sometimes it’s hard to disconnect the two. For my purposes, I focus on the benefits of yoga as exercise, strength training and breathing routine.
Most marriages don’t wreck over big issues like infidelity, abuse or narcissism. It’s usually the little things that erode the relationship.
Stress plays a big role in how those little things build to a breaking point.
I have a friend in another state whose husband went on a violent tirade by throwing things, cursing and storming out of the house over an insignificant issue – she bought the wrong item from the grocery store.
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Most likely that event wasn’t because of that grocery item. Chances are that simply served as a trigger that released mounting frustration, anger and unresolved emotional stress.
When those issues reach a boiling point, explosions are common.
We talked about dealing with those unresolved issues in this series. LINK
Yoga is a great way to release stress (in a healthy way) and get centered emoionally.
Recall that Pippin Jardine discovered her mental health improved during her one-year commitment to practice yoga. Partly because it trains the mind to focus on positive things.
Those who practice yoga on a consistent basis believe it helps relieve stress becasue it encourages a good mood and increases mindfulness.
How Does This Effect Your Marriage?
Since stress is a big relationship interference, removing stress (or at least minimizing it) can help you rediscover connection with your partner.
We hear the buzz word ‘mind-body connection’ frequently.
Getting our body and mind in sync is important for overall health. It’s especially important in mental and emotional health.
The three big yoga benefits for the mind are:
Emotional Stability
Our healing process gets shattered when we are stressed. We fail to react to situations with a calm mind and break down most of the times. Those who practice yoga postures will realize how it helps to build strength and utilize energy at the right channel during crisis or period of extreme stress. (Source)
Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress patterns; relaxes the mind; centers attention; and sharpens concentration.
Surveys have found that those who practiced yoga were more aware of their bodies than people who didn’t practice yoga. They were also more satisfied with and less critical of their bodies.
How Does this Effect Your Marriage?
All of these produce a better self image. A better self image translates into better relationships.
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It’s no secret most marriage problems are the result of our own internal issues, not those of our spouse.
We transfer our own shame, guilt and baggage onto our partner. This stands in the way of truly connecting with our spouse.
When we are emotionally stable (healthy), mentally clear and have a better body image, we feel more free to explore our relationship.
“The regular practice of Hatha yoga significantly improved the subjects’ flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, and balance. After eight weeks, the average flexibility of the yoga group improved by 13% to 35% … Similarly, the yoga group’s muscular strength and endurance was also boosted by regular Hatha yoga.”
Many studies have been done that document the overall benefit of yoga on physical health.
Yoga has been shown to help in these areas:
Relief of back pain
Reduces arthritis pain
Flexibility
Reduces sleep interruptions
Better kidney function
Improves circulation and heart health
Reduces cholesterol
Increased energy
Improves balance
These are just a few of the benefits associated with yoga.
How Does This Effect Your Marriage?
A better life translates to better, healthier relationships.
If you’ve ever had physical health problems you are well aware of how feeling bad can interfere with your ability to engage fully with those you love.
Getting in shape physically, helps us maintain a healthy marriage.
Harvard Health discovered those who practice yoga on a regular basis were more mindful in what they ate because they were more intune wth their bodies.
Their research found people who do yoga for a minimum of 30 minutes at least once a week had less weight gain when they hit middle age.
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Dana Edison (Director of Radius Yoga) believes yoga puts you in touch with your body in a way nothing else can. Because of that, it can help you lose weight.
It’s true, there are other exercises that burn more calories. But yoga works in a more subtle way. Because it helps develop an inner awareness of mind-body experience, you become more aware of how you live – what you eat, stress triggers, and destructive patterns in your life.
Edison says:
Yoga makes you more susceptible to influence for change – so if you are thinking you want to change your lifestyle, you want to change the way you think about food, you want to get over destructive eating patterns, yoga will help give you the spiritual connection to your body that can help you make those changes.
Yoga is not meant to a replacement for cardio-workouts and heart healthy living; but it can be a great addition that has many side benefits.
How Does this Effect Your Marriage?
Weight issues have a huge impact on our self-esteem. And poor self-image can cause us to withdraw from those we love because of our own insecurities.
When we feel good about ourselves, we are more open and engaging with others.
In a recent study, 40 females ranging from age 22-55 were evaluated before and after a 12-week yoga program.
They were evaluated based on the standard ‘Female Sexual Function Index.’
After the 12 week program, two important findings were noticed:
First, sexual function scores were ‘significantly improved’ in all age groups. but the group impacted the most were those over age 45.
Second, they were measured based on six different criteria:
Desire
Arousal
Lubrication
Orgasm
Satisfaction
Pain
Improvement was recorded in each area.
Although this study was only conducted with this group (further research needs to be done), it show that yoga practice has an impact on a woman’s sex life.
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Many believe the reasons include:
1. Learning to listen to your body 2. Discovering how to control your thoughts (mind) 3. Greater physical strength and flexibility 4. Enhanced mindfulness. Learning how to be present.
While many women (and men) complain of sexual problems as they age, this is not a life sentence. There are ways to improve your sex life in every area (see list above).
Yoga offers an excellent way to get your mind-body into sync and gain physical strength and improve your overall health.
As weird as it sounds, yoga can improve your relationship.
There is an obvious (at least to me) connection between mind-body-spirit.
I believe there is also a connection between mind-body-spirit AND our spouse.
How we feel IN life…and ABOUT life…impacts how we relate to each other. When we feel bad – physically or emotionally – we usually respond in a way that indicates (or expresses) those feelings.
To find balance and relationship equilibrium, we need to create that same balance within. Yoga is one path toward that goal.
Summary
We’ve seen five ways it can help you build a strong marriage. Yoga can enhance your connection with your spouse and help you create a better relationship.
In this article we explored how yoga can help us do this.
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The Healthy Marriage Quiz If you want specific help for your marriage, or you want to know your healthy marriage score, take the marriage quiz. You’ll get immediate access with suggestions on how to improve your relationship.
If you are having serious marriage struggles, we recommend starting with ‘Save the Marriage System‘ by Lee Baucom.
Take the Marriage Quiz and discover your marriage score and get suggestions on how to improve your relationship. You will also be sent the results of your quiz along with suggestions on how to create the marriage of your dreams. >> Take The Quiz Now <<
Claire McKenna is a contributing writer for The Healthy Marriage. She writes on many topics but specializes in fitness, mental health and psychology as it relates to relationships.
