Mental exercises/meditation help

Factual Questions
1

I have been having a bit difficulty with my memory lately and having problems with mental focus. I have heard that some meditations help focus and may improve memory, and I have also heard that there are mental exercises that can be done to improve cognitive ability. Do these things work, and If so can they be learned from a book or website? Any suggestions on methods of meditation that may be employed for the use of improving my mental abilities?

2

Thought I would shamelessly bump this, surely somebody knows something of these kinds of things.

3

Meditation trains you to focus and concentrate your mind. When you have increased ability to concentrate your attention, you can accomplish mental tasks more efficiently.

In yoga, there are four stages of this. There are eight stages of yoga altogether:

  1. yama—bad habits to avoid: no stealing, no killing, no lying, etc.

  2. niyama—good habits to cultivate: cleanliness, contentment, study, etc.

  3. âsana—posture that will facilitate meditation. This is where all the haTha yoga postures come in. Most of what people see as “yoga” is an elaboration of this stage. It brings benefits in itself, but its main point is increased ability to meditate.

  4. prâNayâma—breathing techniques. Very important to accomplishing anything in yoga. Breath and consciousness are inextricably linked, so in order to still your mind you have to make your breathing calm.

  5. pratyahâra—withdrawing the attention from external distractions.

  6. dharaNa—stilling the mental activity and bringing the attention to focus on a single point.

  7. dhyâna—deep meditation when the mind merges with the object of meditation and the subject/object opposition is eliminated.

  8. samâdhi—ultimate transcendental consciousness, unbounded by conditioned existence.

For non-yogis seeking only to sharpen their mental skills, the dharaNa stage is probably as far as they’ll get.

In any event, practice breathing slowly, deeply, and smoothly. Breathing out precedes breathing in. That alone will calm your mind and help you to focus. A very excellent technique for beginners is simply to follow your breath with your mind. Out and in, out and in. If you just pay attention to that, it helps you be present in the moment.
(code fixed - Jill)

[Edited by JillGat on 06-25-2001 at 05:31 PM]