Today’s Goal? *Yawn* (Seriously. I Want You To Yawn. )

Maybe you view a yawn as rude, a sign of boredom, disinterest, or dull-witted sleepiness. Me, I’m developing an appreciation for the fine art of the yawn.

It all started yesterday, while reading about relaxation lists and such on (you guessed it) Havi’s site. (yes, I’m a shameless fan girl. shu’p already.)

That’s when I realized I don’t have much that I can seriously trust to relax me anymore.

Oh, I used to have things-for-destressing, but these days, they all seem to have a wacky level of tension or anxiety or shoulds attached to them.

So while stressing out mildly over that realization, I wandered over to that OTHER blog I write (you know, the one for the brain-training company Dakim, the one I don’t talk about nearly enough here) and got to work on the latest post over there, which turned out to be about yawning and its benefits to the brain.

See, as it turns out? Yawning has a pretty darn profound effect on the ol’ grey matter. It increases blood flow, cools the brain, increases alertness, improves focus, regulates sleep cycles, kicks off a whole cocktail of important neuro-chemicals, and… get this… reduces stress and anxiety.

In other words? It’s relaxing.

So, now I have one relaxing thing on my list. Cool, huh? But yawning has some other really interesting effects on the brain - at least according to Andrew Newberg, who wrote this nifty essay about it.

I found Newberg’s “Yawn” essay via TheMindfulist, a minimalist new blog with simple daily mindfulness prompts(you should totally check it out). If it seems odd that yawning would be encouraged as part of a practice of mindfulness… you haven’t read Newberg’s essay yet.

You really should read it, because it’s fascinating, but I’ll go ahead and summarize the mindfulness part anyway.

See, yawning triggers activity in parts of the brain related to social awareness and empathy, which helps explain why yawning is contagious. One of those parts, the precuneus (found in the folds of the parietal lobes, if you happen to be staring at a brain map) seems to be crucial to consciousness, self reflection, self awareness, memory retrieval, and so on. It’s also been linked to mirror-neurons, which fits with the whole social awareness, empathy and contagious yawning stuff.

And guess what else activates this empathy-producing, consciousness raising part of the brain? Yogic breathing, of the sort found in many meditations. Elsewhere, I found references to breathing in through the nose (another standard part of many meditations) having a yawn-like cooling effect on the brain..

It’s all starting to make sense, isn’t it?

This same empathic, self-awareness-raising part of the brain also seems to be one of the hardest hit areas by age-related cognitive declines, diseases, and even ADD… Which (again) makes sense, considering research done on long term meditators, and their reduced risks of cognitive decline, not to mention their very un-ADD-like relentless ability to stay focused.

Newberg is such a big fan of yawning that he recommends we all start developing a discipline of doing it intentionally.

He suggests that we yawn when we want to focus, relax, prepare for a physical or mental challenge, as a part of meditation, prayer, physical workouts, before a test, when we’re waking up or going to sleep.

And it’s easy to do; a fake yawn or two (or five) will trigger the automatic mirroring effect, and you’ll be yawning for real in no time.

So. I’m going to be trying a little experiment over the next week or so… a little ritualized yawning experiment. I may or may not report on it, because, well… you know how I can be.

If anyone is interested in joining me, I’d love to have the company, and a *reason* to report back!

Meanwhile Back At The Comment Trough…

H ow many times did you yawn while reading this post?
Come on…. ‘fess up!