Learning Focus and Concentration Through Yoga

By Keith Edwin Renninson

For many of us today, focus and concentration aren’t difficult by virtue of necessity, for others however, it is an unbearable task to achieve either.

Ancient, and modern day yogis, taught yoga as a way to gain focus and become one with yourself and the universe. Being grounded is a major goal of many westerners because, to them, it is so illusive.

Occupations, family, avocations, addiction to multi-tasking and caffeine, goal achievement, and cultural pressures are among the reasons that people in the west suffer from the lack of a focused and grounded mentality.

Yoga offers a solution that few programs can.

Whether performed in a class at a studio or quietly in your living room, yoga’s meditative quality causes your level of focus and concentration to heighten and strengthen with each session.

Here's why; our brain functions at four levels of brainwave CPS Cycles Per Second) activity:

1. Beta 13-40 CPS: Fully active, alert, thinking and engaged with your life at that moment.

2. Alpha 7-12 CPS: A much slower rate of cycles per second; that dreamy state just before you fall asleep, the creative and thoughtful level.

3. Theta 4-7 CPS: Elusive meditative floating state before deep sleep.

4. Delta 0-4 CPS: Unconscious deep sleep.

Performing yoga enables you to decrease your brain’s activity from Beta to Alpha, to focus on the poses and your breathing. The Alpha state by it’s very nature is quiet, calm and concentrative. Your body reacts to the poses more efficiently; stretching properly and slowly revealing your inner, grounded self for confidence and strength.

In the end, isn’t that what we are all after? To discover our positive and confident inner self, to become focused, to calm the chaos, gain overall strength, balance and poise.

Concentration and focus are just two of the benefits of yoga which will come quickly to the dedicated novice, and they will become even more enhanced for the seasoned veteran. You gradually notice the advantages of a calm and focused mind in virtually everything you do at work, at home or at play. Enjoy.