Yoga for health and happiness? YES 🙌!
In life, there are plenty of things that are tough to agree on. The best Netflix binge, the most hilarious GIF on the Internet, the most delicious healthy dessert… you could definitely find yourself debating any of these issues with your friends and loved ones for hours on end. You know what we all can agree on?
Wanting to be happier!Â
It’s sort of a universal goal. And one thing that can help you get there? Doing power yoga at home.
That’s right, Bulldoggers — your at-home power yoga workouts are good for more than just full-body fitness. They can actually make you a happier person, too.
What is power yoga?
According to Verywell Fit, power yoga is a term used to describe a vigorous, fitness-based approach to yoga. It tends to be what can easily be called “workout yoga and/or cardio yoga” – a bit faster and more athletic than other styles of yoga. Â Power yoga gives instructors lots of room to be creative, designing a sequence of poses that will help yogis at all levels work up a sweat and get their heart rate bumpin’.
Power yoga boosts stamina, flexibility, posture, and mental focus. It helps you release toxins and tension through sweat. Plus, it’s a calorie-burner that can support any weight maintenance or weight loss goals that you may have. You can learn even more about this variety of yoga in our recent Q+A video, in which we answer a variety of popular workout questions, including “What is power yoga?”
If you know anything about how we do things around here, you’re probably thinking that all of this sounds pretty familiar! In fact, if we do say so ourselves, you could easily answer the question “What is power yoga?” with two words: Bulldog Yoga.Â
Plus, there are all the other health benefits of yoga, the ones that are less specific to power yoga. Yoga offers a low-impact, full-body workout that you can adapt to your needs. It also increases flexibility and strength and offers a great cross-training option.
Now that we’ve covered some of the basics of power yoga and the overall physical benefits of power yoga workouts, we can really turn our attention to a lesser-known upside of doing power yoga at home… happiness!
Generally, most of us like to think of happiness in terms of ice cream sundaes and quality friend time and road trips. But there’s actually a science to it, which is helpful to understand if you really want to hack happiness.
If you want to better understand “What is Power Yoga?” – Check out this helpful video:
The Happiness Curve
The Happiness Curve is the title of a 2018 self-help book by Jonathan Rauch, but it also refers to the actual happiness curve that inspired the book! According to this article in Medium, the curve illustrates that people tend to be at their happiest in their early teens and then after they turn 60. Throughout our twenties, thirties, and forties, we tend to be less happy than we are during those other periods. People get progressively less happy after their late teens until they are about 45, and the process begins to reverse.
How Yoga Can Make You Happier
There are a lot of you out there who need some extra happiness in their lives. Who wants to wait around until they hit a certain age to feel better? Not us!
We’re not here to dispute the science behind the happiness curve, but we happen to believe in the power of taking control of your own happiness. And with power yoga workouts ready and waiting for you literally anywhere and everywhere via bulldog online, you can take your happiness into your own hands!
Beyond its physical and fitness benefits, yoga has proven its connection to increased well-being time and again.
Per Harvard Health, a regular yoga practice appears to be correlated with greater happiness, compassion, gratitude, and other feel-good vibes.
But let’s get more specific…
Here are five ways that doing power yoga at home can boost your happiness
1) Power yoga workouts will raise your “happy hormone” levels.
All too often, we associate hormones with bad side effects. But there’s an upside!
According to Healthline, certain hormones are known to promote positive feelings, including happiness and pleasure. Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins all fall into this category. Dopamine is linked to pleasurable sensation, serotonin regulates mood, oxytocin is known as the “love hormone” and is connected to physical affection, and endorphins are the body’s natural pain reliever.
One of the most reliable ways to raise those happy hormone levels? Exercise! Regular physical activity — including flowing through some power yoga poses at home — can increase dopamine and serotonin levels. We all need all the happy hormones we can get!
2) Fitness is linked to higher happiness levels.
Check out this statement from an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Michigan, as quoted in an article in The New York Times.
Every one of the observational studies showed a beneficial relationship between being physically active and being happy.
Seems pretty definitive, huh?
According to that same article in The New York Times, a new review of research about moods and physical activity proves that people who work out even once a week or for as little as ten minutes a day tend to be happier than people who never exercise. Any type of exercise can be helpful, but we’d like to nominate power yoga at home as an especially good option. After all, you can take online yoga classes around your own schedule, and you can customize a workout plan to maximize results!
3) Doing power yoga at home will reduce stress.
It’s hard to experience an increase in happiness when your stress levels are constantly on the rise. That’s one more reason to add more time on the mat in power yoga poses to your schedule.
The Mayo Clinic breaks down the connection between exercise and stress relief. Working out pumps up your endorphins (see our notes on “happy hormones” above!), improves your mood, and can act as a sort of mindfulness practice in motion. As a result, pretty much any form of exercise can act as a stress reliever… and make you happier in the process. We all like whatever help we can in improving our mental health 🙌!
4) Getting your power yoga workout in will give you a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
It always feels good to knock something off your to-do list or to accomplish a goal you’ve been working toward for a while. And there’s data to back that up! Per Psychology Today, research on goal pursuit and well-being reveals a cycle between making progress on a goal and feeling satisfied. Progress makes us feel happier. In turn, positive emotions can help motivate us further. This helps progress keep on comin’!
If doing a power yoga workout at home is on your list of things to accomplish, actually doing it will make you feel happier and more satisfied with your life.
The trick is in getting started with your workout. It’s all rainbows and butterflies and happiness from there!
5) Your chances of living longer increase when you exercise.
Let’s refer back to the happiness curve for a hot sec. According to that data, we are the happiest at the very end of our lives. It may sound morbid, but people are actually their happiest in the final years before their death.
Per WebMD, exercise — like power yoga at home! — can help you live a longer, healthier life.  Combating life-threatening disease, lowering blood pressure, aiding with stress management, managing chronic conditions are all known benefits! The longer you live, the more likely you are to reach those happy years laid out in the happiness curve.
If all the physical benefits aren’t enough to convince you to give power yoga at home a try, the potential for increased happiness should do the trick! We want to see you happy, Bulldoggers.Â
Wanna try it?
Check out power yoga workouts