Keep up to date with the yoga community with our monthly round-up of what’s new in the world of yoga, from superbrain yoga to yoga for men
SuperBrain Yoga Can Improve Your Mind
SuperBrain Yoga is an exercise that can help to improve your brain’s sharpness and clarity. It’s a simple technique, which proposes to increase intellectual capacity and sharpen both memory and concentration. SuperBrain Yoga is a form of acupressure and breathing technique that helps to bring energy up to the brain and balance both hemispheres of the brain. Additionally, SuperBrain Yoga reduces stress, improves psychological stability, and promotes proper brain function.
The method is scientifically validated by Queensland Academics.
SuperBrain Yoga is really easy to learn and only takes three to five minutes per day. Queensland Academics says the practice synchronizes the brain’s Alpha waves, resulting in increased energy in the mind.
How to Practice SuperBrain Yoga: Step-by-Step Instructions
Ideally, practice this exercise in the morning. This will help to improve concentration and relieve stress throughout the day.
Follow these seven steps:
- Remove all jewelry and stand up straight.
- Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your teeth (as if you were about to say “La”). Leave it there throughout the exercise.
- Take your left hand and cross your upper body to hold of your right earlobe with thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the thumb is in front.
- Now take your right hand across your upper body to hold of your left earlobe. Again, make sure that the thumb is in front. At this point, you’re pressing both earlobes simultaneously. Make sure your left arm is close to your chest and inside your right arm.
- Inhale through your nose and slowly squat down to the ground.
- Hold your breath and do not exhale until you start making your way back up to a standing position.
- Repeat this squatting action between 15 and 21 times. Remember to keep holding your earlobes and to keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth throughout the entire exercise. You may not notice a change immediately, but after a few weeks, an improvement in concentration should become apparent.
Yoga is Gaining Popularity Among Men
Up to 70% of yoga practitioners are female. However, the practice is now gaining popularity among men. The Yoga Alliance reports that the number of men participating has increased from 4 million in 2010 to 10 million by 2016.
This growth has been fuelled by an increase in yoga websites and resources targetted towards men such as Broga Yoga, Dirty Yoga, and Man Flow Yoga. These sites offer workouts specifically designed for the male body.
The popularity of yoga among men has, no doubt, also been helped by celebrity yogi’s, such as music producer Russell Simmons. Simmons is an aficionado of the practice and recently opened his own yoga center, Tantris, in LA. Undoubtedly, an increase in male stars talking about their experiences of yoga has helped move yoga beyond its image as a female orientated practice.
A further factor that may be leading to more men becoming involved in yoga is the increase in popularity of couples’ yoga. In this form, couples practice together using partner poses.
Yoga and Meditation Added to US School Programs
Schools in the US are increasingly using yoga and meditation as part of the school curriculum.
School children at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School Baltimore, Maryland are learning yoga exercises and meditation skills. The aim is to provide them with better tools to deal with the daily struggles they face.
Principal Carlillian Thompson brought the program to Coleman in 2010. Thompson regularly sends some of her most troublesome students to the Mindful Moment Room instead of requiring them to stay after school in detention.
In San Francisco, the School District partnered with a local organization called the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education. The center brought a meditation program called Quiet Time to Visitacion Valley Middle School and three other schools.
Each day, during Quiet Time, the whole school has two 15-minute periods of Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM is a process for slowing down unwanted thoughts and reaching a state of calm awareness.
The results are promising. Suspensions at Visitacion Valley have fallen by 79 percent over a four-year period with attendance rising to 98 percent.
