Introduction:
As I presented in The Seven Principles of a Highly Effective Yoga Practice, there are four wave length patterns generated by the human brain that are measured by EEG, (electroencephalogram): They are: Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta.
When we are physically or mentally active, the brain typically evokes an electrical patterning of 13 cycles per second and up. When your EEG registers more than 13 cycles per second, your brain is considered to be in beta or task orientation.
On the other hand, when you are in a relaxed and quiet state; when your eyes are closed and you are sitting or laying down but not asleep, your brain wave activity also slows down and moves into the 8 to 12 cycles per second range. Your brain is then considered to be in alpha.
However, when you focus on a single object, be it music, a candle flame, or your own breath, brain wave activity begins to peak its electrical patterning in the 8-12 cycles per second range. This EEG pattern of peaking within the alpha range is directly associated with normal meditation (as compared to profound and deeper states of meditation generated by aesthetics).
As a yoga student, it's interesting to note that EEG research consistently shows that when a relaxed person closes the eyes, meditation always becomes enhanced (or deepens). Further research confirms that when the subject then slows and controls breathing, alpha waves become more congruent and begin to spike within the 8 to 12 cycles per second spectrum ... a phenomenon that is associated with deeper meditation.
Said another way; when your eyes are closed and you are in a relaxed meditative state, your brain produces alpha waves. The more relaxed you are (and the slower and more controlled your breathing becomes), the deeper your meditation.
But when you go from a closed eyes, relaxed physical and mental state, to an eyes open, outwardly focused action, your brain waves speed up. As alpha deceases and beta increases, as brain wave activity increases to beyond 12 cycles per second, your brain is said to be in "task orientation."
Mental activities, such as carrying on a conversation or problem solving; or engaging in physical exercise, such as sports and other goal-oriented activities, are said to be "focused cognitive activities" and place your brain clearly into beta orientation.
You would think therefore that yoga's physical exercises, especially demanding yoga asana (exercises) that require profound balance and concentration, or asana routines that require rapidly moving the body into and out of asana, would be considered forms of focused cognitive activity. As such, they would be expected to always produce brain waves largely in the beta range. But that's not necessarily so.
Under laboratory conditions, even newly trained yoga practitioners are able to evoke an alpha state when doing slow and methodical exercises with eyes closed. This might not be too impressive given the nature of yoga. However, a most interesting phenomenon takes place when experienced yoga practitioners execute physically complicated and demanding yoga exercises with eyes open.
Alpha is generated quicker and with more congruency. In other words; the more experienced you are as a yoga practitioner, the quieter your brain becomes which allows for a deeper meditation. As further documented by EEG, when an experienced yoga practitioner adds deeply controlled yoga breathing to the very same exercises, the congruence of generated alpha (the meditation aspect) becomes even more observable.
An appropriate yoga practice,
therefore, can truly be considered as
Meditation in Action.
The research project that I participated in at Wright Patterson Air Force Base with Dr. Andrew Junker, observed brain function during rest, exercise, task orientation (physical and mental coordination exercises), and yoga. Our results were congruent with the literature, which is that alpha is generated during meditation or generally when the mind and body is in a quiet and relaxed state; either sitting or lying down with the eyes closed and that beta is produced during task orientation with eyes either open or closed. Our investigation also found something else not previously well documented.
Because normal exercise evokes brain waves within the broad beta spectrum, we wanted to determine if an alpha state could be generated in the brain during all ranges of yoga based exercise, from simple to complex; both with eyes shut (which is expected to generate alpha), but also with eyes open.
Because master yoga teacher BKS Iyengar always said that yoga is meditation in action, we postulated that an experienced yoga practitioner should be able to perform virtually any yoga posture, regardless of how difficult or advanced, and still be able to generate alpha; especially if the body were kept in relative balance employing the ExTension Releases Tension model of avoiding forcing, straining or trying. (Click here to see correspondance from BKS Iyengar regarding this project).
The ExTension Releases Tension model is to maintain an equal feeling of extension throughout the entire body during asana. This is accomplished by equally activating through both hands and both arms, both feet and both legs, and through the spine and neck. If, for example, one were to extend the hands, arms, and legs, but allow one or both feet to remain soft, there would be an imbalance within the body that either keeps the brain in beta orientation, or imbalance limits congruency if the brain is able to attain alpha.
Conclusion:
By first breathing deeply and easily, and then by creating a balanced state of "extension" throughout the body, our research confirmed that even a newer yoga practitioner can create a deeply congruent alpha state with eyes open. Thus, yoga exercise can truly be called meditation in action ... even with open eyes. (For more on meditation, see Principle # 7 in The Seven Principles of a Highly Effective Yoga Practice ).
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