It’s that time of the year again and everything is rushing past – if Christmas and discount shopping frenzies haven’t worn you out, soon (in fact very soon) you’ll be on your way to counting down from 10 into the New Year.

So now more than ever you’re going to need a way to relax, focus and breathe – and if you can achieve this calm by getting fit at the same time, you’d want to know, right?

Yoga’s beginnings go back over 5,000 years and it is one of the fastest growing “sports” around the world.

The history of Yoga is often split in to three parts – the pre-classical/Vedic period, the classical and post-classical periods.

Pre-classical Yoga was where is all began with Brahmans, the Vedic Priests, documenting their practices and beliefs in the Upanishads. The Upanishads was a collection of 200 scriptures and it described three main subjects – the ultimate reality, the transcendental self and the relationship between the two. It also took the idea of Vedan ritual sacrifice and internalised it, teaching sacrifice of the ego through self-knowledge, action and wisdom.

Classical Yoga is marked by the creation of the Yoga Sutra, a book aiming to define and standardise the practice of Yoga. In this book the Eight Limbs of Classical Yoga are defined. These limbs are:

Yama – focusing on social restraints or ethics
Nimaya – focusing on personal observance of purity, tolerance and study
Nasas – focusing on physical exercise
Pranayama – focusing on breath control/regulation
Pratyahara – focusing on preparing for meditation by withdrawing the senses
Dharana – focusing on concentration
Dhyana – focusing on meditation
Samadhi – focusing on ecstasy

The transition into post-classical Yoga happens with the proliferation of literature and practice with a stronger focus in the present. Where Yoga previously focused on the transcendence from reality, modern Yoga encourages living in the moment and accepting the now. It also saw the introduction of the philosophy into the West during the early 19th century.

The health benefits of Yoga are as wide spreading as its history.

Yoga exercises can not only improve concentration and focus, but it has also been shown to release tension and stress as well as improve symptoms of depression by increasing serotonin levels and decreasing cortisol levels. While your breathing rate slows, Yoga also lowers the heart rate and blood pressure, increasing the efficiency of your heart and lungs. Not only will these changes improve your immune function, your newly relaxed state of being puts you up for a better night’s rest as well!

Then there are the benefits of increased flexibility, reaction time and flexible muscle growth as well as increased endurance, sense of balance and maintaining a healthy spine. The twists in some Yoga exercises keep your vertebrae supple, which will keep you from shrinking with age. Twisting also wrings out deoxygenated blood from your organs and allows fresh oxygenated blood to flow through.

With such wide spread benefits and such a long history, if you’re not already onboard the Yoga train, it’s time to get on it.

This article first appeared on minx magazine.