Brain Energy Practice
Breath and movement · 12 minutes
A twelve-minute practice of breath and movement, done seated in a chair. Dr. Dharma leads a few slow breaths and two short exercises for the arms and hands. He closes with a song.
Guided practices with Dr. Dharma
Four guided practices, free to watch.
Breath, movement and meditation, led start to finish by Dr. Dharma. Each one plays right here on the page, and each has a printable guide you can keep.
- Board-certified M.D.
- Author of Brain Longevity
- Free · printable guides
Brain Energy Practice
Choose your practice
Ways to begin
The twelve-minute meditation
From Wake Up to Wellness · starts at 21:31
Sa Ta Na Ma. Dr. Dharma explains it, then leads you through it.
Wake Up to Wellness
Guided practice · 40 minutes
A morning practice you can do from a chair. Dr. Dharma leads the Basic Spinal Energy Series, simple flexes and twists timed to the breath. Then he leads the twelve-minute Sa Ta Na Ma meditation.
Move, Breathe, and Settle In
Guided practice · 28 minutes
A practice that is mostly seated, with a few minutes on your feet. Dr. Dharma leads spinal flexes, shoulder shrugs and arm movements with the breath. The second half is the twelve-minute Sa Ta Na Ma meditation.
From Darkness to Light
Guided practice · 38 minutes
A slow, quiet practice for hard seasons. Dr. Dharma leads three long arm holds with slow breathing, then a chanted meditation. Lower your arms and rest whenever you need to.
These practices are not a substitute for medical advice. Check with your doctor before you start a new movement practice, and never move to the point of pain.
The practice
Twelve minutes, four sounds
At the center of his work sits one small daily practice, old enough to predate the research by centuries and simple enough to learn in an afternoon.
What it is
Kirtan Kriya is a twelve minute meditation from the Kundalini yoga tradition. It is sung on four sounds, paired with simple repeated movements of the fingers. Dr. Dharma did not invent it. He did something rarer. He asked universities to test it.
SaaTaaNaaMaa
What the research found
UCLA
In a randomized trial of adults with mild cognitive impairment, Kundalini yoga with Kirtan Kriya matched the gold standard memory training on verbal memory, and outperformed it on executive function, mood, and resilience.
Lavretsky and colleagues, Department of Psychiatry, UCLA.
University of Pennsylvania
Brain imaging studies with Andrew Newberg, M.D., one of the leading researchers of meditation and the brain, documented increased blood flow in memory related regions during the practice.
Newberg and Khalsa, University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
West Virginia University
Randomized controlled trials in adults with subjective cognitive decline studied the practice against music listening, with both arms practicing twelve minutes a day.
Innes and colleagues, West Virginia University.
Research findings describe the studied practices and do not describe any product sold on this site.
On Arizona Illustrated, PBS
See him in his own words
Dr. Dharma on public television
Long before brain health was a trend, public television sat him down to explain it. Here he is, doing what he does best, making the science feel like hope.
Dr. Dharma on Arizona Illustrated
Free from his library
The Four Foundations of a Sharp Mind
Thirty years of Dr. Dharma’s teaching, written down plainly. It covers diet, stress, movement, and the meditation he brought to the research world. Free to everyone.
One email with the guide, then his occasional letter. Unsubscribe with one click, any time.