You need to study but can’t get your mind to ‘get in the groove’ or slow down. Sound familiar? Instead of procrastinating your homework with endless scrolling on TikTok or cleaning out your closet, you should try yoga.
Yoga is a centuries-old practice that has been extensively researched and proven to provide regular practitioners with increased well-being and quality of life. If you are working from home or studying for your online master’s degree, a consistent yoga practice can assist in your efforts.
Let’s dive a little deeper to learn how yoga can help you study more quickly and effectively:
Yoga Lowers Stress and Anxiety
Yoga holds 3,000 years’ worth of wisdom and is the perfect antidote to a study-resistant mind. According to the Mayo Clinic, the benefits of yoga include reduced cortisol levels.
Cortisol is the body’s fight, flight, freeze, and appease hormone. For example, suppose students find a task too overwhelming to begin. In that case, they should start lowering their cortisol levels by calming the nervous system. Luckily, it’s just as easy for the body to misinterpret danger as feeling at peace.
Yoga works with the brain and the body to enter a calm state. Through movement, breath, and meditation, cortisol levels can decrease, and serotonin levels can increase. Serotonin is the ‘happy hormone’ responsible for igniting the brain’s pleasure centers.
Yoga Provides the Body with Increased Energy
Yoga students receive new, revitalized energy through cardiovascular movement and increased oxygenation. A research study led by the International Journal of Yoga concluded that an aerobic yoga practice leads to increased blood flow, allowing more oxygen to improve cell function.
You can practice aerobic yoga by linking one breath to one posture and moving quickly through a yoga sequence. You can also enhance cell function and oxygenation by practicing inversions like shoulder stand, handstand, or simply lying on your back and raising your legs in the air in candle stick posture.
Yoga Increases Focus
The brain continues to develop or recede incongruence with a person’s lifestyle. This is good news because the cards are in your hands! Research shows that meditation increases grey matter in the brain. Grey matter is associated with memory, decision-making, self-control, and more.
A 2011 journal titled Psychiatry Research conducted a group study on people with little to no experience meditating. The researchers introduced their subjects to an 8-week mindfulness training course. Using brain scans before and after the course, they found an increase in grey matter at the end of mindfulness training. In other words, the research subjects improved their brain function in just eight weeks!
Take Away
Follow these easy steps to become a better student:
- Lower your cortisol levels with mindful movement, deep breathing, or meditation. Decreasing cortisol levels will help you out of the flight, fight, freeze, and appease response.
- Revitalize your energy levels with cardiovascular movements. There are many free online resources to guide you through a heart-pumping yoga sequence!
- Finally, come into a place of stillness through meditation, where you will increase grey matter in the brain. Time in meditation will improve your memory, decision-making, and self-control.
