We’re supposed to become forgetful as we age, right?  As I get older, I find myself thinking of fewer things but spending more time contemplating the things I do think about. So maybe we’re not forgetting things so much as we are deeply focused on other things that matter more to us.  Our minds, bodies, and breath do change with time. But change does not need to mean collapse. Recent research in neuroscience is finally catching up with what sages and yogis have long known; that aging can be a path of growth and not diminishment.

In The Aging Brain: Functional Adaptation Across Adulthood, scientists describe how the brain does not simply wear down with time but rather adapts. Yes, we lose some gray and white matter, especially in regions like the frontal cortex and hippocampus. But older adults often respond by recruiting new neural pathways, drawing on experience and motivation to scaffold what’s slipping away. In this way, the brain mirrors what yoga teaches us; when one pathway fades, another can be awakened through attention, practice, and deep inner listening.

The neuroscience community now speaks of cognitive reserve, a kind of neural resilience built through a life rich in learning, purpose, and connection. And while scientists study this in classrooms and labs, yogis know this reserve as something subtler, ojas, the vital essence stored through right living, devotional effort, and communion with the divine.

We already know yoga as more than just a series of poses, and now science confirms that it’s also a form of neuro-adaptive training. Research confirms that older yoga practitioners show greater gray matter volume in the regions involved in memory, attention, and emotional regulation. Not despite our age, but because of it.

Neuroplasticity isn’t just a feature of the brain, it’s a living process of embodied change. Each time we meet discomfort with the breath, linger in a sensation without rushing to fix it, or yield into stillness in a yin pose, we’re doing more than just rewiring neural pathways. We’re cultivating the inner capacity for surrender, resilience, and transformation.

As we age, our inner world often becomes more spacious. Various studies note that older adults prioritize emotional meaning and connection over novelty or competition. Many find themselves drawn to what is eternal and what endures beyond personal striving. Once again, yoga is not only compatible with this shift, it helps to cultivate it. The practices of pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the senses), dhyāna (meditation), and bhakti (devotion) support this move from external achievement to inner awareness and connection.

Yoga also helps regulate our stress response, which is vital for healthy aging. Chronic cortisol from years of overwork, worry, or trauma can shrink the hippocampus part of our brain and impair memory. Pranayama (breathwork) and deep rest soothe the nervous system, making it fertile again for neuroplastic renewal.

Clinical psychologist and yoga teacher Bo Forbes expands on this understanding of yoga as a neuroplastic tool by highlighting the importance of interoception, the capacity to feel and interpret internal bodily sensations. Forbes emphasizes that gentle, restorative yoga and breath-based practices can enhance interoceptive awareness, which in turn regulates the nervous system and fosters emotional resilience. In her work, she notes that interoceptive training rewires brain circuits involved in mood regulation and trauma recovery, making yoga especially beneficial in later life when emotional flexibility and inner coherence become more essential than performance or productivity.

As we refine the capacity to feel ourselves from within, we build not only neural reserve but also a compassionate presence that sustains us through the changes of aging.

Group classes or sangha practice add another vital layer; community. Myriad studies have found that social engagement and a sense of belonging protect our cognition. When we chant together, move together, grieve and laugh together, we’re preserving mental function and feeling ourselves as part of a sacred community that includes the entire universe.

None of this is to deny loss. Aging does bring changes; our memory softens, our balance may waver, and grief visits more often. But yoga doesn’t teach us to resist these shifts. It teaches us to meet them with compassion and awareness. To move slower but see more clearly.

Aging is not a decline but a threshold. Yoga gives us the tools to cross it without fear and with awareness and grace. On the mat, we practice how to stay present on this edge of sensation, memory, and even our identity. What we lose we no longer need and what we gain is a deeper connection with ourselves and the whole world.

Neuroscientists may call it scaffolding, but in the yoga tradition, we may call it grace, the inner architecture that emerges when we no longer build our worth on what we produce or remember, but on how deeply we can connect, serve others, and surrender to the divine.

So the next time you forget a word or take a little longer to learn something new, remember; your brain is not breaking down. Its reshaping itself and your practice is part of that sacred transformation.

Go forward with grace. You’re already doing the sacred work of becoming.

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