While yoga is awesome for just about everyone, here are 5 reasons why moms in particular need yoga!

Whether or not you’re a mom, yoga can be a wonderful addition to your life. It helps you to tune out the busy, stressful world for a while, improves flexibility, balance, and posture, strengthens your entire body from head to toe, aids with weight loss efforts, improves cardiovascular strength, relieves stress, and brings a sense of calm and centeredness to your life – and that’s just for starters!

But for moms in particular, yoga can be a lifesaver. Most moms are so busy giving, giving, giving to others, they rarely take time out to care for themselves. While rewarding, motherhood can also leave you feeling frazzled, stressed out, and overwhelmed. If this sounds like you, you need a regular dose of yoga!

Here are 5 important reasons from Yogi.com why every mom needs yoga in her life:

1. It’s the most efficient use of your ME time.

It’s true that there are a ton of helpful ways besides yoga to spend your “me time”—meditating, going for a walk in nature, other types of exercise, taking a bath, taking a nap, reading a book, coloring in an adult coloring book, sometimes organizing, and even catching up on your favorite show. However, I would argue that yoga is almost always a better choice because you get the benefits of exercise, focused attention (I would go so far as to call it a moving meditation), rest time for both body and mind. Throw in some soft music and an essential oil you love diffusing next to your mat and you’ve got everything you need to really make yourself feel energized, loved, rested (whatever you need to feel) all in one. For me, it only takes about 30 minutes to notice a BIG shift in my day. And, frankly, that’s usually all the “me time” I get on most days.

2. Savasana is the next best thing to a full night’s sleep.

Most moms don’t get enough sleep. Maybe that’s because you’re up all night nursing a baby, have pregnancy-induced insomnia, or just because you stay up late at night because it’s the only time you have all day to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures you don’t get to enjoy during the day while you’re working and chasing a little one. Sure, it would be ideal to enforce an earlier bedtime for yourself (just like you do with your little one), but if that’s not happening the next best thing is to make sure you give your body time to fully relax during the day. Savasana (Corpse Pose) is a kind of magic for helping us get some rest so our bodies and minds can recover from the busy-ness of our days.

3. Melt stress and tension.

Duh. Parenting can be incredibly stressful. Yoga can help you target the areas in your body where you hold your stress and tension (for many of us, that’s our shoulders and neck or hips). And since we know that our mind, body, and nervous system are connected when you get rid of tension in one place, it helps everywhere else.

4. Practice loving your mom bod.

One of the best parts about a regular yoga practice is how it helps you appreciate all the amazing things about your body—and it really takes the emphasis off of how it looks in a bikini. Yes, my body has changed after carrying and birthing a person. I might have spider veins and cellulite, but I can look past that and love my body anyway—it does some pretty amazing things for me. These legs are freaking strong. These arms are capable of supporting me (even at my heaviest) in some pretty amazing arm balances. This belly grew a person who I love more than anything in the world! Whenever I feel a little shame about how my body looks, I remember how well it has served me on my yoga mat and in my life and I love it that much more. That’s a lesson I wouldn’t have learned without practicing yoga.

5. It reminds us how good we can feel.

I don’t know about you, but after a few busy days without enough sleep and my third day without a shower, I need a reminder of how good it feels to be in my body, eat healthy prana-filled foods, and well, function like a normal human (the way I functioned before I became a mom). After a well-rounded yoga practice, I am more inclined to eat healthy foods and take better care of myself for the rest of the day. It’s like I need to practice having control over my body and mind for a few minutes to remember that the way I feel is my choice—that I’m not just a victim of circumstances beyond my control and I have the power to change the things that aren’t working in my life…

Visit SpoiledYogi.com for 5 more reasons why moms need yoga…