Erin Brodwin wrote the article below. I really like it so I reposted it. One word of warning, many yoga classes do not have a formal meditation aspect to their class unless you want to count Savasana as meditation. I do not count Savasana as “formal meditation”.

This year I started adding a 5 minute+ of seated meditation to all my yoga classes. It is completely optional and usually after the allotted class time is completely expired. I love just sitting in our classroom even it is a noisy gym.

Remember the asanas are practiced to help keep the body quiet during meditation, not just for the physical benefits. A goal of mine is to incorporate more meditation into my day/life. After reading the article below, I better jump on it. I’m not getting any younger.

Scientists Have Finally Proven What Yoga Lovers Have Known for Centuries
by Erin Brodwin

“The news: When regularly practiced, periods of intense mindfulness can combat aging and reshape certain sections of the brain — no Lululemon required.

It was a simple, but enlightening discovery: When scientists looked at the brains of expert meditators, they found some startling physical changes. Extra wrinkles (which in the case of the brain happens to be a good thing) lined the cortex, the outer portion of the brain responsible for complex thinking like abstraction and introspection. The hippocampus, the seahorse-shaped brain structures that help us process memories, was generally bigger and more dense.

Here’s how it works: Meditation, in which you focus intently on the present for set periods of time — closing your eyes and listening to the sound of traffic outside the window; feeling your chest rise and fall with each inhaled and exhaled breath — beefs up the brain’s message delivery routes. As a result, studies of Buddhist monks suggest the brain gets better at processing information and making decisions.” Click Here to Read the Rest of this Article

Meditate Focused, Steve Mackel – Yogi in Training