... AND BREATHE

Meditation and breathing exercises sharpen your mind, according to a new study from Trinity College Dublin. Yogis have long believed that breath-focused practices bring benefits for the brain and now we know why. “Brains typically lose mass as they age, but less so in the brains of long-term meditators. More ‘youthful’ brains have a reduced risk of dementia and mindfulness meditation techniques actually strengthen brain networks,” says Professor Ian Robertson, who was principal investigator on the study. “Our research offers one possible reason for this — using our breath helps to control one of the brain’s natural chemical messengers, noradrenaline, which in the right ‘dose’ helps the brain grow new connections between cells.” In other words, how we breathe directly affects our brains in a way that can improve attention and cognitive health. Furthermore, different types of practice affect the brain slightly differently. If you are finding it hard to focus, then mindfulness, where you zone in on feeling the sensations of breathing but don’t try to control them, could be most beneficial. Where your level of stress or arousal is the cause of lack of focus or attention, during a panic attack, for example, or during an exam or interview, controlled breathing such as the pranayama exercises practised in yoga for centuries may alter the level of arousal in the body. Both techniques have been shown to be effective in the long and short term. For mindfulness classes try mindfulness.ie; dublinbuddhistcentre.org. For yoga classes countrywide see yoga-ireland.com; yogaireland.ie.