I love the energy and buzz of London life. But sometimes after a day at work and a tube journey,  you can feel a little  sapped of energy and goodness.

So I wasn’t surprised to read about recent research from Harvard Medical School that shows spending a few minutes on a busy city street can affect the brain’s ability to focus and to manage self-control. That makes sense, because all of the stimulus takes up a lot of the brain’s processing power.

According to an article by Scott Edwards that appeared in On The Brain:

Directed attention fatigue is a neurological symptom that occurs when our voluntary attention system, the part of the brain that allows us to concentrate in spite of distractions, becomes worn down. People suffering from directed attention fatigue can experience short-term feelings of heightened distraction, impatience, or forgetfulness. When the condition is severe enough, people can exhibit poor judgment and feel increased levels of stress.

What to do about it?

Next time I’m going to head for the streets, I think I’ll head for the hills instead. Research shows that only 20 minutes in nature is a remedy for getting the brain to recover from directed attention fatigue. So, step away from the desk and get yourself to the nearest park.

Yoga Wellbeing would love to know – When the big smoke gets too much, what do you do?

Harvard University study has shown that most people spend 46.9% of their wakinghours in a state of distraction. The study found that people were thinking of anything other than what was happening around them for nearly half their time awake.

The study utilised the technology of an iPhone web app to collect data from volunteers as they spent their days. The 250,000 points of data covered feelings, thoughts and actions of the participants. The app randomly contacted the 2,250 participants to ask what they were currently doing and how happy they were. They were also asked if they were actually thinking about the activity they were engaged in.

This fascinating study was created by Daniel T. Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth both of whom are psychologists at Harvard University. In their paper which was published in the Science journal, they wrote that “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” adding that “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

They also found that people’s brains seem to have a default pattern of mind wandering spending time thinking about past events, possible future events and total imaginations, all of which is unique to humans; animals only think about what is happening around them. Killingsworth explained that “Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities,” and that “This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present.”

An interesting statistic emerged revealing that only 4.6% of someone’s happiness was due to their current activity, whereas 10.8% of their happiness was due to mind wandering.

To sum up, Killingsworth said, “Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people’s happiness,” adding that “In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged.”

Meditation is a practice of mind. During the meditation process practitioners learn to transcend the mind with the help
of mind. As you progress in meditation process, the more calmer and happier you become. Meditation has numerous
benefits, both at the level of mind and the physical body.

Though the actual objective of the meditation practice was different, however, it can be effectively practiced as an
anti-aging remedy in today’s fast changing stressful world.There are different techniques of meditation and all start with withdrawing the attention from the outside world and work on concentration before finally entering the meditative state.

In addition to anti-aging, some additional benefits of meditation are:

* Meditation is good for the brain

* Meditation can help you deal with stress

* Meditation can help maintain calmness.

* Meditation develops intuition.

* Regular practice of meditation will certainly make the will power of the practitioner stronger. When the mind is stronger you can be more peaceful and happier.

So set aside 5 minutes in your day and start your meditation today.

Western scientists are proving that meditation helps combat stress and benefits immunity, as well as the soul. MRI scans show that meditation can physically change the brain’s neuron system and stimulate the areas associated with compassion and empathy, showing that certain human qualities can be cultivated through mental training.

A meditation teacher could be essential to our overall wellbeing

Meditation is a way to train our brains. We spend years learning to read and write or professional skills beacuse we feel they will benefit us in the long run. Working with the mind follows the same logic.

It can improve your quality of life

We spend alot of time trying to improve the external conditions of our lives, but in the end it’s the mind that creates our experience of the world and translates it into wellbeing or suffering. If we transform our way of perceiving things(via meditation) we can transform the quality of our lives.

Twenty minutes a day can change your life

Meditating first thing in the morning has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, anger, and risk depression. It can also improve your ability to focus, lower blood pressure and strengthen the immune system.

You can get it on the NHS

If you’ve had depression, the eight week course can reduce the likelihood of you developing the condition again by 30 per cent.

The mind is like a unruly monkey

It ties itself into knots the more it jumps around. People think that to control the mind is to put it in shackles, but it’s the ultimate freedom.

Just about everyone I come into contact with in London, it seems, share a similar sense of time deprivation. Of course, most of us, most of the time, have goals; having a job, going to school, raising children, all require us to get things to be done. There’s nothing wrong with drive but we live in a culture that prizes productivity and speed. Before we know it, we’re embroiled in a perpetual battle with time, missing out on our connections.

Is there a way to live that frees us from the cycle of longing for more time, misusing the time we do have, and then blaming a lack of time for our discontent? The answer is yes. I’ve worked with people on improving their relationship with time. Happily, doing so doesn’t require withdrawing from the world. Nor do you need to focus on timesaving tips for scheduling yourself with ever-greater efficiency. Instead, you bring greater awareness to the way you experience time by building small steps into your daily routine that help you savor your life.

To experience time differently, you need to cultivate and practice a new relationship with it, just as you’d nurture a yoga or meditation practice. At first, you may feel as though you’re swimming against the current of cultural cues that push you to do more and move faster. It may not be easy to change, but the rewards are great. This approach can bring you into a deeper harmony with time, allowing you to engage more fully with every moment.

Your first step is  self-study, one of the ethical principles of yoga. This asks you to look inward and get to know yourself better. It teaches you to feel the difference between your own natural rhythms and the world around you. It can teach you what’s practical and healthy to focus on, and what you may need to delegate or drop.

In much the same way that those who struggle with food issues may be unaware of what and how they’re eating, you may not have examined the behaviors and assumptions that shape your relationship with time. Taking a time inventory gives you a window into the values that underlie your time-spending habits. Begin your self-study by asking yourself questions like these: Besides eating and sleeping, how do I allocate my time in 24-hours? Do the activities on which I spend most of my time nourish me, or do they feel obligatory? When I long for more time, what do I imagine doing with it?

Do you feel time starved? Has your yoga or meditation practice helped you deal with any time issues?

Most of the traditional hatha yoga books from the 14th to 19th centuries mention  the seal (mudra) that produces happiness. This then refers to the a state,which produces happiness. A mudra is thought to be like a sealing device with a raised surface, like a signet ring. So the seal, is an imprint on the consciousness of the meditator. Through some type of physical or mental technique, a mudra also seals, or closes off; a normally open energy channel, thereby sealing in and recirculating the body’s energy to intensify the meditative effort.

You might be familiar with hand seals, like chin mudra, which are simple configurations of the hands and fingers that are typically performed during pranayama or meditation. But there are two other categories of mudras: consciousness seals and body seals Consciousness seals are detailed visualizations said to seal consciousness in certain areas of the body. Body seals are exercises that involve shaping or joining different body parts or organs, such as the lips, tongue, or belly; for example, the Crow Seal (Kaki Mudra) involves pursing th lips like a crow’s beak and sipping in air. It’s claimed that mudras keep the whole body healthy and bring about a general sense of wellbeing. About two dozen mudras (including their close relatives, the bandhas, or locks) play a central role in traditional hatha yoga.

Here are collection of the top ten Mudras and there suggested benefits

1.     Gyan Mudra (Mudra of Knowledge): Touch the tip of the thumb to the tip of the index finger, with the other three fingers stretched out. Increases memory power and enhances  concentration and prevents insomnia.
2.     Prithvi Mudra (Mudra of Earth): Tip of the ring finger touches the tip of the thumb, with the other three fingers stretched out. It helps to increase the weight for weak people. It improves the complexion of skin and makes the skin to glow.
3.     Varuna Mudra (Mudra of Water):Tip of little finger touches the tip of thumb, with the other three fingers stretched out. It retains clarity in blood by balancing water content in the body.
4.     Vayu Mudra (Mudra of Air):Keep the index finger on the base of the thumb and press with thumb keeping the other three fingers straight. It prevents all the diseases that occur due to the imbalance of the air.  It corrects the disorder of gas in the stomach (that’s one way to put it!)
5.     Shunya Mudra (Mudra of Emptiness):Keep the middle finger at the mount of Venus and press it with thumb as shown in the figure.It reduces lethargy in the body.
6.     Surya Mudra (Mudra of Sun): Bend the ring finger and press it with thumb. It sharpens the center in thyroid gland.It reduces cholesterol in body and helps in reducing weight .
7.     Prana Mudra (Mudra of Life): Bend ring finger and little finger and touch the tip of thumb with their tips keeping the remaining two fingers stretched. It reduces fatigue.
8.     Apana Mudra (Mudra of Digestion): The tips of middle finger and ring finger touch the tip of thumb while the other two fingers are stretched out. It plays an important role in our overall health.
9.     Apana Vayu Mudra (Mudra of Heart):The tips of the middle finger and ring finger touch the tip of thumb, while the index finger touches the base of thumb and little finger stretched out. It strengthens the heart and regularizes palpitation.
10.     Linga Mudra (Mudra of Heat): Interlock the fingers of both the hands and keep the thumb of the left hand vertically straight and encircle it with the thumb and the index finger of the right hand. It helps strengthen the immune system.

When you try and meditate does it often feel like there is never enough space in London? We often think of going inside closing our eyes and focusing our attention on some internal process occuring spontaneously, like our breathing. The logical assumption is that the object of our meditation is to find inner peace. The outside world, the hustle and bustle of the city is an obstacle to overcome when meditating. According to some schools of yoga , if we exclude the outside world from our meditation we are only going to gain half of the experience of meditation.

Meditation can help your brain work more efficiently. You might feel anxious to get
back to your busy day or may even feel like dropping off if your tired. But consider this, a regular meditation practice can make your brain work better. Over the past few years, scientists have discovered that meditation helps the brain to process information more efficiently. Just as repeated practice of Sun Salutations builds strength and stamina, so regular meditation enhances the brain’s capacity for perception and awareness. It has been claimed that longtime meditators have a thicker insula, the part of the brain that links the emotional center with the thinking center. Some researchers say that the amygdala, the part of the brain tied to the fight-or-flight impulse, is more active than in people that don’t meditate. But meditators also seem to be better able to calm that response than others. Why not try our simple meditation intro. session. Find yourself a quiet space and give it a go.

Simple Meditation

Sit comfortably in an upright but relaxed position. Close your eyes and bring your attention to your nostrils. As you breathe notice the subtle sensation of cool air passing into, and warm air passing out of, your nose. without manipulating the breath, simply notice the sensation.

Maintain your attention to every breath. Staying relaxed and mentally alert become curious about each passing one as if it were your first.

If your attention wanders, simply notice the distraction and patiently return to the sensation of the breath. Your ability to stay present
deepens by consistently returning to the current moment.

Do this exercise 10 minutes once or twice a day, gradually extending your sessions to 20 or 30 minutes each.

Meditation can help teach us how to calm our minds and can lead to powerful reductions in stress, anxiety and depression. Practitioners also claim meditation increases mental efficiency and alertness and raises self-awareness, all of which contribute to relaxation.

It is practiced in many forms, including:   
Transcendental meditation: Repeating a word or phrase, called a mantra, either silently or aloud.

Mindfulness meditation: A person observes sensations, perceptions, and thoughts without judgment as they arise.

Meditation in motion: Tai chi, qigong, and the Japanese martial art aikido use poses, stretches and controlled breathing.

The goal of meditation is to different for everyone. It can also be self-guided by choosing a quiet place, sitting or resting with eyes closed, noticing the breath and letting go of all worries and stresses. It has proven benefits of promoting relaxation and reducing chronic pain and sleeplessness. So why not give it a try, here’s a simple breathing mediation.

A Simple Breathing Meditation

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practising a simple breathing meditation. We choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. If we wish, we can sit in a chair. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy. The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid.

We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. We should try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

At first, our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that the meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath.

For years, yoga devotees have been telling us that bending and twisting our limbs into gravity-defying contortions is a great way to develop the perfect body. Now things have gone one step further, with a new wave of teachers claiming that yoga also offers a fast track to a beautiful mind.

Everyone from fraught mothers to stressed-out hedge-funders is catching on to the benefits of yoga therapy, a fusion of deep breathing, invigorating postures and self-help. This version of the ancient Indian practice is gaining credence within the medical community for helping with a range of issues, such as recession depression and anxiety, through to bipolar disorder and other mental-health problems.

In London, yoga therapy is now being offered at a number of NHS hospitals, while in New York, patients seeking help for depression and anxiety are as likely to find their hard-nosed psychiatrist treating them on a yoga mat as on a couch. It’s not surprising. We might all be sick of hearing about the economic climate, but it is undeniably taking its toll. We are currently in the biggest anxiety matrix the country has seen for more than 50 years. In recent months, mental-health charities have reported a surge in people seeking help for stress and depression. And after all the scare stories about the side effects of antidepressants, patients are increasingly wary of using medication to solve the problem.

Jane Kersel runs courses in Central London,  “The beginners courses are so much fuller right now because people are finding new ways to deal with anxiety and depression. Yoga encourages sufferers to reconnect the mind with the body,” she explains.

Yoga therapy to the rescue? Well, yes, actually. A new study from the Bronx Psychiatric Center in America suggests that yoga therapy can help improve negative symptoms and quality of life in patients with chronic schizophrenia. And while a bit of iyengar or ashtanga is certainly going to help ease your aching limbs, yoga therapy is specifically designed to capitalise on the positive effect it can have on the brain. Robin Monro, director of the Yoga Biomedical Trust, which promotes the development of yoga therapy in the UK, has seen a huge growth in the popularity of yoga therapy. “We get a lot of self-referrals, people who work in the City who have very stressful jobs and need tools to cope,” he says. “And, increasingly, psychiatrists and GPs are referring patients to our therapists, too.”

So how does yoga therapy differ from your usual weekly class? “You don’t need to know anything about yoga,” says Heather Mason, who runs courses designed to combat depression and anxiety. “But anyone who has some yoga knowledge might notice that the sequence of poses is very deliberately designed to move quickly between those that speed up the heartbeat and those that demand controlled breathing.

“This re-creates the same sort of physiological conditions that occur at times of emotional stress and teaches students that they can actually exert some control over what might seem an involuntary response. The idea is that having learnt this sort of control in class, students can apply it when they are feeling anxious or stressed.”

What about those who feel too vulnerable to be in a room full of yogis? Kersel recommends a one-to-one for a more personal, specialist session. “If someone is highly depressed, they’re better off having a one-to-one where you can offload and talk to the teacher in private. It’s helpful to have a sounding board, someone there to listen.” The yoga instructor Janine Thomas agrees. “Health issues can be addressed individually in a private class. For example, a student suffering from anxiety needs to learn how to lengthen the breath to slow the heart rate and calm the nervous system. They will also benefit from relaxed, restorative postures, especially forward bends, which naturally encourage a long exhale, and meditation techniques. Once they have mastered these skills on the mat, they can then apply them to stressful situations in daily life.”

Mason also believes that yoga therapy is one of the few treatments that genuinely offers a holistic cure. “If you work only on the body, you’re not addressing the thought patterns that cause stress. And if you deal only with the mental side of things, you’re ignoring the biochemical and physiological changes that emotional trauma can bring. Yoga therapy addresses both aspects of the problem.”

It’s an approach that has worked very successfully for Amanda Lyddon, a 47-year-old aromatherapist who has suffered from mental-health problems for most of her life. “My yoga is not just about what I do on my mat, it’s given me skills that I can use every day,” she says. “If I feel anxious, I know what to do to calm myself down. That’s life-changing, empowering.”

In 2000, Lyddon was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After lithium left her feeling suicidal, she decided to look into alternative ways of managing her condition. She started practising yoga and noticed that she felt calmer as a result. “I had long periods of depression, when I couldn’t get up, couldn’t work, couldn’t look after my children, and other episodes when I would just party all the time and burn myself out,” she says. “Now things are on more of an even keel.”

Morag Jameson, 34, another yoga therapy devotee, agrees. “After years of panic attacks, becoming aware that I could control my breath was very empowering. Gradually I began to feel in control of my body, instead of feeling as if my body was controlling me. Working through a series of postures, combined with breath work, makes me feel grounded, centred and free.”

One of the key principles of yoga therapy is working with the breath, known as pranayama, which is an integral part of all types of yoga. It seems there is some logic behind your mum’s advice to stop and take a few deep breaths when you’re starting to panic. “In stressful situations, we tend to take shallow breaths from the chest rather than full breaths from the abdomen,” says Mason. “This sends a message to the brain that we are in danger and kicks off stress responses. Conversely, when you breathe from the abdomen, you’re sending a message to the brain that everything’s okay.”

Learning how to breathe properly can change the biochemistry of the brain. “More challenging yoga poses put the body under physical stress,” admits Mason. “But by making my students aware of this and encouraging them to breathe properly, I’m training the nervous system to keep both the breathing, and consequently the body’s physiological response, relaxed at times of stress.”

Lyddon believes that this approach has helped turn her life around. “Before, day-to-day life was a struggle, but now I’m beginning to feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m going back to university in October, and I honestly feel that I now have the tools I need to stave off relapses.”

Claire Coleman