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How Yoga Can Help You Save Money

Anuradha Sarkar
Author:
March 07, 2017
Anuradha Sarkar
Written by
Photo by Stocksy
March 07, 2017

Walk in to any yoga class, and you'll be greeted with a melodious, entrancing hum of "Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ." This enrapturing sound has the power to transport you to a different world altogether, erasing all your worries and stress of the day away, swaying you into its soothing and enveloping cocoon as it gently lulls you into a sense of wholeness of well-being.

It is this power of yoga that has propelled it on the path of popularity. Once a humble, primeval exercise known and practiced by only a select few, yoga has now gained worldwide fame. If facts and figures are anything to go by, according to SeattleYogaNews.com, 36.7 million people practice yoga in the United States alone, a destination quite far from its country of origin. In fact, the prediction is that 80 million Americans (34 percent of the total population) will in all likelihood take up yoga in the coming 12 months. The statistics for the rest of the world are not far behind.

So, why yoga? In addition to improved well-being and reduced stress, yoga can help you save money.

Yes, you read that right. Yoga is not only good for the mind, body, and soul—but also for the wallet. Here are eight ways yoga can help you save money:

1. Yoga dramatically cuts down on medical bills.

This one is a no-brainer. After all, you're getting into yoga for this very purpose—to improve your health and be fitter than you were yesterday. Yoga steadies your heartbeat, helps in reducing stress and related disorders, aids in the elimination of toxins from your body, and gives you a better posture and balance. But that's not all. According to research published in the journal Plos One, people who do yoga are 43 percent less likely to use their health care than those who don't. The study found that these people could save $2,360 every year in emergency room visits. Need we say more?

2. Yoga can make your vacation more affordable.

According to valuepenguin.com, the average American spends a total of $581 and $3,251 per person on domestic and international holiday trips respectively. These costs include expenditure on alcohol, entertainment, food, and the like. But you can save on your trip if you opt for a wellness retreat. Some spots even have free food and lodging. The advantage of opting for such a holiday is that you not only get to de-stress in the lap of nature (since most of these spots are in scenic places), but you also save the money spent on greasy food and alcohol. Now that's a win-win.

Photo by Stocksy

3. Yoga can prevent you from getting a speeding ticket.

You are most likely to cross the speed limit while driving when you're stressed out, resulting in hefty fines. In America alone, 41 million speeding tickets are given out each year, with over 100,000 people being fined every day. As we said, stress is the culprit behind this common felony. But when you practice yoga on a daily basis, your stress levels reduce drastically, resulting in fewer speeding incidents and consequently less spending on fines and other similar expenses.

4. Yoga can save you money on clothes.

According to research, women spend $125,000 in their entire lifetime on shopping alone, and this number is expected to touch the $200,000 mark. Fascination with or a general love for clothes is not the only cause behind this—changing sizes play a bit part too, and all of us renovate a huge chunk of our wardrobe when the inches pile up on our waist. Yoga, though, can help you keep fit, bring about weight loss, and even keep your size constant so your need to shop lessens.

5. Yoga prevents you from binge eating.

Binge eating is linked to stress, anxiety, and depression. The rationale behind this is that there is a constant need to feel fulfilled and happy when you're down, and material things, whether food or something else, seems to satisfy that desire and fill that emptiness you feel.

Getting deeper into yoga can quell these desires, and it prevents you from giving in to such unhealthy habits. This means that the average amount you spend on chocolates can be reduced by a lot. Plus, binge eating is not exactly healthy—which means frequent visits to the doctor, which you can cut down on just by practicing yoga. Yoga is also a great way to eliminate vices such as excessive smoking and drinking from your life, and the expenses that are associated with it.

6. Yoga reduces your expenditure on chemical cosmetics.

The central focus of yoga lies in connecting your energy with nature's. It promotes a natural way of living and takes you as far away from chemicals as possible, whether its medicines, cosmetics, or even ordinary toiletries. Once you get the hang of it, you'll soon find yourself looking for natural alternatives to your cosmetics and perfumes. After all, you don't want to put any more chemicals in your body, especially when you've worked so hard to get rid of them.

Can you imagine the money you'll save up as a result? Turning to natural options such as castor oil or coconut oil and the like for your beauty need is more economical in the long run.

7. Yoga means zero money spent on the gym.

Remember that time you excitedly signed up for a gym in an effort to get fit, and then you never went? Even if your gym is inexpensive, that's money down the drain with no fruitful results whatsoever. So you just gave up on staying fit. But yoga can present itself as a cheaper alternative. While you can argue that yoga classes are expensive (they average $12 per session, according to fitness.costhelper.com), it's completely DIY and something you can learn at home with the help of a friend or online video tutorials, which practically makes it free of cost.

8. Yoga leads to conservation of resources.

One of the principle values of yoga is "ahimsa," which is Sanskrit for nonviolence and nonharm to anything on this planet, whether ' fuel and other resources such as paper (which comes from cutting trees) or the slaughtering of an animal. Not spending money on meat will decrease your monthly grocery bill, and since you're less likely to use other resources such as fuel or paper, there will be more cuts in the amount you spend on daily objects, too.

When the benefits of something are so great, it's wise to make it a part of your life and enjoy the perks that it offers. Yoga can change your life for the better in more ways than one, and the best part is that for a small investment, the payoffs are amazing. So it's time to get on the yoga mat and let your inner yogi out.

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