For anyone who has experienced the power of the mind-body connection in yoga, the idea that yoga can have a positive influence over body image isn’ t really a surprise. Truth be told in fact, for many, yoga is by its nature an effective facilitator for taking the focus off the body, and directing it towards the breath and inward.
OK. So I may find myself, should I happen into an occasional class, perhaps a little self-conscious and wondering if the woman behind me is noticing my ever-creeping wedgie… but it takes but a brief re-direction, focusing the eyes forward and relaxed, gaze slightly downward, coordinating once again my movement with my breath… the breath… ahhhhhhh… the breath. Later, wedgie.
Anyhow, it’s been found in studies among college aged young women, that those whose physical activity involved yoga maintained a healthier sense of body image as well eating attitude. They were less prone to eating related disorders, plainly. Conversely, however, those women who participated in more aerobically focused fitness activities, were more inclined to calorie restrictive, dieting behaviours and greater disordered eating attitudes.
Yoga is also an activity that encourages good health. 
It requires the body to engage differently than weight training or running. The postures provide beneficial impact to not only the nervous system and musculature of the body, but the internal organs and systems as well. It’s difficult to enjoy the full benefits, physical, spiritual and mental, of such activity on a diet of meat and cheese… and believe me, I’ve tried! Seriously, though, yoga requires a great deal of the whole body, and the whole mind, and it just doesn’t feel the same when you’ve a tummy full of food, particularly junk.
The bottom line, though, is that yoga connects us to our bodies in different ways. With running or weight training, as beneficial as they may be, they are activities in which we are perpetually pushing. Pushing to run faster, longer; lift more- more weight, more reps; whatever… but yoga is about standing in satisfaction and peace right where you are, without judgement.
Yoga offers a connectedness just not available in other fitness activities. A connectedness to our breath, which of course is our essence; a connectedness to our bodies- our toes, our knees, the open-ness of our hips, the feeling of a muscle lengthening; the sheer capability and power of our bodies. It is infused with an attitude of acceptance and with consistent practice it’s an attitude that has been found to transcend healthfully into the other areas of our lives.
