Yawning is one of the best things you can do for your brain

  • 2013

With the mouth closed, the tip of the tongue on the palate, Inspire deeply ...

Then open your mouth and let the yawn arise.

Yawning

Yawning is one of the best things you can do for your brain

By Andrew Newburg | www.andrewnewberg.com

At least it is something easy and enjoyable to practice ... Go ahead: Laugh if you want (although it will benefit your brain more if you smile), but in my professional opinion, yawning is one of the best kept secrets of neuroscience. Even my colleagues who are investigating meditation, relaxation, and stress reduction in other universities have overlooked this powerful tool for neuronal improvement. However, yawning has been used for many decades in the treatment of voice as an effective means to reduce scenic panic and throat hypertension.

Several recent studies of brain scans have shown that yawning causes a single neuronal activity in areas of the brain that are directly involved in the generation of social awareness and the creation of feelings of empathy. One of those areas is the precutaneous, a small structure hidden in the folds of the parietal lobe. According to researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London, the precutaneous seems to play a central role in awareness, self-reflection and memory recovery. The precutaneous is also stimulated by yogic breathing, which helps explain why different forms of meditation contribute to a greater sense of self-awareness. It is also one of the areas most affected by age-related diseases and attention deficit problems, so it is possible that deliberate yawning can really reinforce this important part of the brain.

For these reasons I believe that yawning should be integrated into exercise and stress reduction programs, training for cognitive and memory improvement, psychotherapy and contemplative spiritual practice. And, since precuneo has recently been associated with the mirror neuron system in the brain (which allows us to feel the feelings and behaviors of others resonate in our mind), yawning, can even help us increase social awareness, compassion and effective communication with others.

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Why do I insist so much? Because if I asked you to leave this magazine right now and you yawn 10 times to experience this fabulous technique, you probably wouldn't. Even in seminars, after presenting overwhelmingly positive evidence, when I tell people who yawn, half of the audience will doubt. I have to persuade them to feel the immediate effects of relaxation. There is an inexplicable rejection in our society that implies that it is rude to yawn, and most of us were taught when we were young.

As a young medical student, I was once "fish" yawning and the professor scolded me. He said it was not appropriate to appear tired in front of the patients, although at that time he was standing in a corridor outside the patient's room. In fact, yawning increases when you're tired, and it can be the way the brain uses to tell you softly that you need some restful sleep. On the other hand, exposure to light will also make you yawn, suggesting that this is part of the process of awakening.

But yawning doesn't just relax you - it quickly takes you to a high state of cognitive awareness. The students yawn in class, not because the teacher or the teacher bore them (although that will also make you yawn, when trying to keep the attention in the monotonous speech), but because it frees the brain from sleepiness, which helps Pay attention to important concepts and ideas. It regulates consciousness and our sense of self, and helps people to be more introspective and self-aware. Of course, if a person is in a room with a teacher or teacher bland, bored, monotonous, yawning will help him stay awake.

Yawning will relax you and bring you to a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique I know, and because it is neurologically contagious, it is particularly easy to teach in a group setting. One of my former students used the yawn to bring order back, in less than 60 seconds, on their board of directors that I was constantly discussing. Why? Because it helps people synchronize their behavior with that of other people.

Yawning, as an alert mechanism, begins in the first 20 weeks after conception. It helps regulate the circadian rhythms of newborn creatures, and this adds to the evidence that yawning is involved in the regulation of wakefulness and sleep. Since circadian rhythms do not synchronize when a person's normal sleep cycle is disturbed, yawning should help the person who likes nightlife to restore the brain's internal clock. Yawning can also avoid the effects of travel time lags and alleviate the discomfort caused by high altitude.

So what is the underlying mechanism that makes yawning such an essential instrument? In addition to activating the precuneo, regulates the temperature and metabolism of the brain. A large amount of neuronal energy is needed to remain consciously alert, and as you progress on the evolutionary scale, the brain becomes less energy efficient. Yawning probably evolved as a way to cool the overly active brain of mammals, especially in the frontal lobe areas. It has even been argued that it is a primitive form of empathy. Most vertebrates yawn, but it is only contagious among humans, great apes, macaques and chimpanzees. In fact, it is so contagious to humans that even reading about it makes the person yawn.

Dogs yawn before attacking, Olympic athletes yawn before participating and fish yawn before they change activity. There is even evidence that yawning helps people on a military mission carry out their tasks more accurately and easily. In fact, yawning may be one of the most important mechanisms for the regulation of behaviors related to mammalian survival. So if you want to maintain a healthy brain optimally, it is essential that you yawn. It is true that excessive yawning may be a sign that there is an underlying neurological disorder (such as migraine, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or drug reaction). However, I and other researchers suspect that yawning may be an attempt by the brain to eliminate symptoms of neuronal functioning readjustment.

Numerous neurochemicals are involved in the experience of yawning, including dopamine, which activates the production of oxytocin in the hypothalamus and hippocampus, areas essential for memory recovery., voluntary control, and temperature regulation. These neurotransmitters regulate pleasure, sensuality, and emotional relationships between people, so if you want to improve your intimacy and be together, yawn together. Other neurochemicals and molecules involved with yawning include acetylcholine, nitric oxide, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, ACTH, MSH, sex hormones, and opium derived peptides. In fact, it is difficult to find another activity that positively influences so many brain functions.

My advice is simple. Yawn as many times a day as you can: when you wake up, when you face a difficult problem at work, when you prepare to go to sleep, and whenever you feel anger, anxiety or stress. Yawning before giving an important talk, yawning before having an exam, and yawning while you meditate or pray, because it will intensify your spiritual experience.

Conscious yawning requires a bit of practice and discipline to overcome social unconscious inhibitions, but people often come with three other excuses for not yawning: I don't feel like it, I'm not tired, and my favorite I can't. Of course you can.

All you have to do to provoke a deep yawn is to fake it six or seven times. Try it now, and you will see that by the fifth false yawn a real one begins to emerge. But don't stop there, because by the tenth or twelfth yawn you will feel the power of this little seductive trick.

You may feel that tears begin to surface in your eyes and your nose may begin to drip, but at the same time you will feel completely present, incredibly relaxed, and very alert. Not bad for something that costs less than a minute. And if you see that you cannot stop yawning I have seen people yawning for thirty minutes you will know that you have been depriving yourself of an important neurological treatment.

Precise: a small wedge-shaped gyrus on the medial surface of the parietal lobe of the brain, circumscribed later by the occipital parietal groove and formerly by the paracentral lobe

Source: http://www.destellosdeluz.com.ar/1238.htm

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