Health benefits of yoga

By Anastasia Burton

Yoga has been around for a long time, and when we say a long time, we mean the BC era. Yoga was invented between the 5th and 6th century BCE and has remained one of the most popular forms of meditation and exercise in the world. Yoga originated in Asia and hence is often associated with Buddhism and Hinduism. Many people feel like yoga might not be for them without really ever trying it which is a shame since Yoga has many health benefits which this article will tell you about! Who knows, maybe after reading this you will buy yourself a yoga mat and assume the Lotus position.

Before we get into the physical health benefits, why not take a moment to consider the mental health benefits yoga brings? Benefits against stress! Yoga helps with easing the mind and reducing stress. Stress can reveal itself in many ways, including back or neck pain, sleeping problems, headaches, drug abuse, and an inability to concentrate say medical experts. It is a known fact that stress does gather in tense muscles, for example after a hard day at work you may have back or neck pains as well as a headache. Those pains often come from stress which is caused by sitting in one place and gathering frustration in your joints. Yoga can help you stretch and relax the affected joints giving you a clearer mind and less neck pain. This isn’t magic and it won’t help instantly, but if you follow a quick 7-minute yoga exercise you will notice an onset of pain relief.

Flexibility check! If you find yourself losing flexibility and want to gain it back, you can do so with yoga. Many yoga exercises offer stretches that help your muscles loosen up and allow your body to bend in ways you probably never thought possible! Don’t expect to twist yourself into an O on your first try, if you stick with it daily or every second day you should see the benefit in the first month! Posture fix! Yes, you read that right. Yoga also helps with posture and straightening you out. It is more than likely that most of us have developed poor posture habits, from the way we sit at the dinner table or maybe even the way we sit at our office desks. Our head is pretty heavy, and we don’t realise it. Yoga gives a few simple exercises that help with straightening out your posture and undoing the damage that you might have caused it throughout your lifetime.

Helps drain your lymph’s and boosts immune system! For those of you who might not know, lymph is a fluid rich in immune cells which help the lymphatic system fight off infection and disease, and not to mention destroys cancerous cells. When you twist and bend your body in ways that you usually wouldn’t a couple of times a week during your yoga lesson you are actually doing your body a huge favour!

Drops your high blood pressure! There have been studies by the British Medical journal that have shown that some yoga positions like the corpse pose help reduce high blood pressure. Those who suffer from high blood pressure know how tough it is and how harmful the medication can be to your organs. Yoga is a great way of dealing with these symptoms.

Improves balance! To most balance may not be at the top of their health benefit list. But did you know that good balance is linked with good posture which all help prevent back and knee pain? People who work on their balance are more aware of their surroundings and their own body, which inevitably helps prevent accidents and nasty falls which can lead to serious or minor injuries.so why not try the tree pose and save yourself a few cuts and bruises?

October Beauty Bag

By Anastasia Burton

October is an exciting month with Halloween fast approaching and us being in the midst of autumn it’s a brilliant time for cooler tones and lots of greens and oranges which have been a vibe since the beginning of this year. In this column I will be sharing with you guys my picks from my beauty bag. Before we get into what I’m actually using, let me tell you how I choose what make-up goes into my beauty bag and how I dispose of used/old items.

Firstly, I had gotten myself quite obsessed with project panning. To those who are unaware of what project panning is here’s a little explanation: Project panning is a process of looking through your make-up collection and figuring out which items you like, don’t like, love, need to use, need to get rid of and so forth. If you have items that you know are old or need to be used up, place them in your beauty bag. Pick one or two items for each process of your make-up application and try to use them up as much as you can. This helps clean out your make-up collection without binning items that cost money and handing things away.

Now that you are aware of what project panning is, I will share with you what items I have placed in my beauty bag and why! The items will be listed in order of how I personally apply my make-up.

Maybelline New York:

Baby skin instant pore eraser primer. I have had this primer in my collection for a while, it really does make your skin feel very soft and works the same way as a professional primer. It feels great on the skin but honestly, I just can’t wait to finish it because I have been trying to get rid of it for a couple of months now. I expect to finish it in a month or two since I don’t use a huge amount of primer.

Anastasia Beverly Hills

Subculture palette ally, I am a huge fan of ABH and no it has nothing to do with it literally having my name on the packaging! I have already hit pan on two shades “Dawn” and “Electric” and hoping to hit pan on three more shades in the coming month or two. The reason I wanted to get through this palette is because it is quite old in my collection and one of my first ABH products, so I wanted to finish it up before investing in a new ABH palette. I feel like I won’t be able to finish it anytime soon, but I’ll try!

Illamasqua precision ink eyeliner

This is quite new in my beauty bag and the reason for me adding it in is because I finished up all my previous black liners and wanted to try out this brand. I feel like it takes time to get used to the pen, but I expect to have it used up in three or four months.

Flormar perfect coverage foundation This foundation is very high coverage so beware! A little drop will do you fine. I added it into my beauty bag at the beginning of October in order to use it up since this foundation is quite old and reaching its expiry date. I believe I will have it finished up in two months just three months before it expires.

Essence Camouflage matt concealer One of my favorite concealers of all time. It is full coverage and very smooth. The formula is brilliant, it really is a bargain considering its less than five euro. I expect to have it finished within the next month and then repurchase! SoSu complete contour palette

This is perfect for setting, contouring and it has a highlight shade that’s a bit too dark but nice to use on a fresh face just for a little glow on the eyes or cheeks. I’ve decided to add it into my collection because it is quite old, and I really needed to use it up! I’ve already hit pan on the shade one, which is the concealer and am currently getting closer to hitting pan on the contour and setting powder. I expect to hit pan on those in the next month or two.

Essence lash

princess mascara

Brilliant mascara and super affordable. I’m trying to use it up since it’s getting quite old and it would be a shame to waste the product.

Topshop Chameleon

highlighter mother of pearl One of my favorite unique highlighters. I can’t see myself finishing it anytime soon, but I will set a date for possibly January 2021.