Here is question 16 of 25 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions.Question:Are yoga and meditation good for my brain?Key Points: Yoga, meditation, and visualization are all excellent ways to learn to manage your stress levels.Reducing stress, and the stress hormones, in your system is critical to your brain and overall fitness.Answer:Yes.... the zebra releases the stress hormones through life-preserving action, while we usually just keep muddling along, getting more anxious by the moment.Prolonged exposure to the adrenal steroid hormones like cortisol, released during the stress response, can damage the brain and block the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus, which is the key player in encoding new memories in your brain.