Better Your Heart and Brain Power Yoga as Meditation
Better Your Heart and Brain Power Yoga as Meditation
Yoga developed as a worldview, as a lifestyle. It integrates the
asanas (bodily poses) and pranayamas (breathing exercises) with the concept of meditation to make
the yogi at peace with the world.
Meditation comes from intense concentration, where the individual
focuses so thoroughly on a single object that he or she thinks of nothing besides his or her
awareness of that object (Some religions may find that their idea of prayer could fall under this
definition).
Yoga takes that further, making meditation the highest element of
the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
These "eight limbs" define Yoga as a lifestyle: your attitude to
the world around you is followed by your attitudes towards yourself, physical posturing, breathing
exercises, withdrawing the senses, concentrating, contemplating, and finally
enlightenment.
Enlightenment, better known as a state of bliss, comes only as a
result of full use and development of the other seven.
Meditation combines withdrawing the senses, concentrating, and
contemplating to be the final state that can be accomplished before bliss.
At any rate, meditation calms the mind and offers a number of
health benefits even before enlightenment. Regular meditation can help reduce anxiety and stress,
lowering blood pressure and decreasing risk of heart attack. It can improve concentration, clarity
of thought, and release your creative side.
Some research suggests that meditation with yoga increases matter
in the brain's cortex, specifically in the areas involved in processing cognitive, emotional, and
sensory data.
Meditation may also slow natural shrinkage of the frontal cortex
due to aging. The 20 participants on average meditated for 40 minutes a day. Most change happened
in their brains' right hemispheres.
That's not to say that meditation is easy. Clearing the mind of
extraneous thought is difficult, and all thought even more so. Learning to meditate will take
work.
To start, sit comfortably somewhere with your back and head
straight. You may find a basic breathing exercise useful to help.
Close your eyes, breathe through your nose, and focus on that
breath. Cool air enters; warm air leaves. Keep your focus on your breathing, redirecting wandering
thoughts that way.
Start with short meditations of a few minutes and work your way up
to longer.
Beginners might find it easier to start with an intermediate
method of counting their breaths, counting to four before restarting.
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