Marya Mann : Your Brain On Yoga

Your Brain on Yoga

Wake Up to Wellness – Mindful Moments Boost your Brain

The key to total health, happiness, and longevity is to start your day in a positive way. Take a mindful moment to move your body and mind with Yoga breathing, Qi Gong, deep relaxation, meditation, or prayer. Fill your heart and then your whole body with the light of your Higher Self. Touch into your awareness of how grateful you are to be alive and say “Good Morning, World! Thank you for this day!”

The practices of intention and gratitude ignite a fire in the belly, and we need the heat and light of this inner flame to develop all of our capacities. Mindfulness works by activating and calming different specific parts of the brain that produce inner well-being and peace.

The history of human health, happiness, and spiritual philosophies could fill many books, but the simplest truths are often short and simple. Here are some keys to creating mindful moments that raise your energy in the morning or anytime throughout the day.

Even just 30 seconds of deep breathing or meditation can wake up your brain and train the mind.

Enjoy, breathe, and blossom!

Feel the energy you are made of.
Find the peace within you.
Breathe in through the nose, a smooth, deep inhalation.
Hold the air for a moment.
Open your mouth an inch and release a long, deep exhalation, whispering “ahhhh…” for 15 – 20 seconds.
Let go of tension.
Close mouth and breathe in deeply again, repeating with full awareness of the breathing.
Engage the whole heart.
Extend the spine from crown to tailbone.
Allow what’s inside you to be there, without judging it.
Become aware of your core of goodness.

Resources for Learning More:

Brain Longevity by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M. D. (Warner Books) 1997.
Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen, M. D. (Harmony Books) 2010.
New York Times, “Yoga May Be Good for the Brain,” by Gretchen Reynolds, June 1, 2016.
Psychology Today, “Putting Your Mind to Yoga” by Linda Wasmer Andrews, November, 2013.
Scientific American, “Yoga Brain” by Stephani Sutherland, March, 2014.