To Increase Cognitive Function

(Meditation as Medicine, Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, p. 250)

Posture: Sit in easy pose or in a chair with your spine straight. Each time you touch your fingers you should also move your knees up and down, like a butterfly flapping its wings. If you are sitting in a chair, smoothly bring your knees together and apart with the chanting.

Focus: The eyes are focused at the tip of the nose.

Breath: The breath will come automatically as you chant.

Mantra: Chant the mantra, “Hummee Hum, Brahm Hum.” Chant touching the tip of your tongue to your upper palate. When properly chanted in this manner it will sound strange. One word of the mantra corresponds to one touch of finger and thumb.

Meaning of Mantra: “We are we and we are one.” On a higher spiritual level, it means we are already

everything we need to be.

Mudra: Bring your hands to your neck level in front of you, palms facing yourself. Each time you sing a syllable, you touch your fingers in sequence to your thumb, but you skip the ring finger. First touch your thumband little finger (Mercury finger), then touch your thumb and middle finger (Saturn finger), and then touch your thumb and the index finger (Jupiter finger). Continue the sequence, but do not touch your thumb and ring finger (Sun finger).

Time: 11 minutes.

End: Inhale, hold the breath for 10 seconds, exhale and relax.

Benefits: This meditation will increase the hemispheric balance of the brain and increase attention span. This is a very good exercise for someone suffering from age-associated memory loss, mild cognitive impairment, or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.