How To Improve Your Memory By Yoga and Meditation?

How To Improve Your Memory By Yoga and Meditation?

For thousands of years, meditation has been practiced by people for their physical as well as mental well being. As per the researchers, meditation helps people in decreasing their anxiety and depression levels. With that, their pain tolerance also increases. Meditation helps in focusing on yourself by eliminating many thoughts apart from yourself. This process helps in memory improvement and self-awareness.

With growing age and increased stress in life, your brain gets hampered by that. By meditation, you can reboot your brain to its original state.

 Importance of concentration

Lack of attention leads to forgetfulness or partial remembrance of memories or information. There are a lot of barriers in your concentration levels, such as low willpower, low self-discipline, impatience, too much interest in other thoughts, tiredness, bad health, etc.

 How yoga improves your memory?

During meditation, you focus mainly on your breathing and the happenings on your body at that point in time.

By doing so, your brain waves produce alpha waves, which helps in relaxing your mind. With regular practice, your brains can also produce gamma waves that help in developing deeper concentration.

Apart from this, the different parts of your brain also improve their functioning. The premotor and the insular cortex, which is responsible for attention, control, awareness, thoughts, and emotions of your body, fire up. The more you meditate, the stronger these regions become. All these processes help in improving memory naturally.

 Yoga poses for memory

Along with meditation, doing yoga poses starts the process of natural healing of your body and improved bodily functions. Let’s go through some poses which are beneficial for your memory.

Easy pose (sukhasana)

For the easy pose, sit in the ground with both legs stretched out in front. Pull your legs in and sit in a crossed position with the ankles. Clasp your hands together, such that the fingers of the right hand are dominant over the left. Sit straight and perform deep and controlled breathing.

This yoga pose is perfect for relaxation, concentration, and meditation. Perform six counts of controlled and deep breathing while sitting in this pose.

Note: Knee pain and back pain patients must avoid this pose.

 Seating forward bend (Paschimottanasana)

For seating forward pose, sit in the ground with the leg stretched forward. Take a breath in and raise your arms upward. Clasp your both hands and turn them up. Slowly bend forward with force on your lower back until you can catch your toe with the index finger and thumb. Stretch up and lean forward until your face rests on knees. Hold this posture for 10 to 30 seconds with gentle breathing. After that, stretch your head up and go back to the initial raised and clasped arms position.

Then move down your hands and lie down. Relax for a few minutes with deep breathing. This pose helps in making your brain calm, relieves stress, and mild depression.

Note: Patients of back pain and hypertension must avoid this pose

 Plough pose (Hala asana)

Lie down and relax in the ground. Breathe in and lift your legs towards the sky. After that, place the legs beyond your head until your toes touch the ground. Make sure you don’t bend your knees while doing this. Stretch the arms behind the back. Breathe in slowly and concentrate on the pressure on the throat. After 10 to 15 seconds, go back to the initial leg lift position. Take a breath and then breathe out while lowering your legs to the ground.

Roll your neck from left to right for a few seconds to release the accumulation of excess pressure in your neck. This pose helps in calming down your mind and helps in reducing stress.

 Note: Neck problem patients must avoid this pose.

 Hand to foot pose (padahastasana)

Stand in a relaxing position with legs touching each other. Breathe in and raise your hands. While Breathing out lower your both hands and keep your palms on the side of your legs. In this position, breathe in while taking your face towards your knees and, while breathing out, stretch your neck outwards.

Then after doing this for a few minutes while breathing in, go to the initial hand raised position. After that, put your hands down and relax.

This pose helps in the healthy flow of blood towards your brain that helps in improved brain functioning.

 Thunderbolt pose(Vajrasana)

For thunderbolt pose, sit in the ground with legs stretched in front. Slowly bend your knees and come into the kneeling position. Now gently sit down on your heels such that the entire weight of your body is resting on ankles and heels. Try to keep the heels and ankles as closely as possible. Put your both arms on your thighs and take controlled and deep breathing in this posture. Now slowly come back to your kneeling position and then sit on the ground with both the legs stretched forward.

As per the studies, this asana helps in improving the concentration levels of the peoples. They showed improved performance is concentration based works. This posture is also suitable after meals as it helps in healthy digestion.

You must choose a quiet and distraction-free place while practicing yoga and meditation. Also, the air on your surroundings must be pure. It is better if you practice them early in the morning when the wind is in its purest form.

Having a controlled and focussed mind helps you in leading a healthy, successful, and long life.

Author Bio:

Henna is a wellness lifestyle writer. She loves sharing her thoughts and personal experiences related to natural remedies, yoga and fitness through her writing. She currently writes for How To Cure. She can connect with others experiencing health concerns and help them through their recovery journeys through natural remedies.