Last week I teased that we’d talk more about yoga and the nervous system, and today I wanted to (start to) make good on that. The why is simple: we’re constantly stressed. (If you want some stats, check out the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America 2020: A National Mental Health Crisis We’re asked to process more information than at any other point in human history, and our bodies and minds haven’t caught up to the best way to deal with this influx of stimuli yet.
Yoga's impact on the nervous system is a major boon for practitioners. Today we’ll look at how that works and what practice can do to help us.
The vast web
Your nervous system has lots of parts. In yoga, the entire nervous system matters, but we’re super interested in the autonomic nervous system, which is a sub-subdivision of the peripheral nervous system.
Your autonomic nervous system is responsible for functions your body does in the background all the time. Breathing, for example, is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. You don’t have to consciously tell yourself to breathe 24/7. Think: autonomic =automatic.
What about the stress response?
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (SNS and PNS, respectively) exist within the realm of your autonomic nervous system.
Remember that sympathetic = stress. Your SNS is what raises your heartrate and gives you the adrenaline rush you need to ward off or escape a threat. An activated SNS is commonly referred to as your “fight or flight” response. If you’ve ever experienced mortal danger, you’ll know exactly what an activated SNS feels like. A racing heart, jitteriness, an upset stomach, and rapid, shallow respiration are all hallmarks of the SNS at work.
Even though it doesn’t feel great, it’s your system trying to keep you safe. An activated SNS can get you out of a jam. We’ve all heard the stories of people lifting cars off other people in feats of incredible strength. A person’s stress response makes it possible.
The problem is that our SNSs aren’t just being activated when we’re in immediate danger. We also feel this stress response when we get an email from our boss, deal with a difficult relationship, open another bill, or get bad news piped in through our phones and TVs. This chronic stress causes everything from upset stomachs to infertility to mental health conditions.
Balance in all things
The stress response gets a lot of press, but we also have a parasympathetic nervous system, which performs an opposite function. Your PNS handles “rest and digest” functions in your body. When you aren’t in a state of perceived danger, your body can attend to essential functions like digestion and healing.
When the PNS is doing its thing, we feel a lot better. One of the best things a student ever said to me after class was, “When I came to class, I didn’t feel good. My stomach hurt. Now I feel a lot better.” I was overjoyed. I’m pretty sure that that person's experience had very little to do with my teaching and very much to do with a down-cycling of the SNS and activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.
How does yoga impact my nervous system?
This sub-heading could be a whole book. Remember how I told you that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are part of the autonomic nervous system? Okay. Remember how your breath is automatic? … You might be thinking, “Well, it is, but it isn’t.” You’re correct.
Our yoga practice often includes instructions about our breath. We don’t have to remember to respire 24/7, but we can consciously change the quality of our breathing. Pranayama is a whole limb of yoga that concerns how we manipulate prana (life force), namely through how we breathe.
When you manipulate your breath, you can take yourself from a state of distress to a state of rest and digest. You can signal to your nervous system that It’s all good over here. It’s not so much that we practice pranayama, and then we’re healed. We’re giving our nervous systems pockets of rest, though, and we’re building the skills we need to elicit a calming response when we’re out doing our lives.
That point of focus
When you’re doing a balancing posture, teachers often tell you to find a single point of focus. If you’re wobbly, that Drishti can make a huge difference in your ability to balance.
Oddly enough, having a single point of focus can also dramatically reduce your stress response. In yoga, we use this single point of focus all the time. How many times has your teacher instructed you to watch your breath in meditation? How often have you been asked to set an intention that you can come back to throughout class? Have you ever taken up a mantra during asana or meditation and carried it through your practice? When you do these things, you can elicit a response from your PNS.
Your physical presence
Watch your body language the next time you’re upset or stressed. I’m not sure what your body does, but I experience a sort of shrinking inward. My shoulders hunch and I do my best to disappear into whatever structure happens to be nearest to me. We can start to wear these patterns all the time, and they communicate to our nervous system how we’re supposed to feel. It’s a negative cycle.
Early in my yoga life, I learned Dancer’s Pose (Natarajasana). The first time I took on this asana, I felt a rush of happiness. Dancer’s Pose is a balancing posture, yes, but it’s also a heart-opener. It’s the opposite of the posture I took throughout most of my days, and frankly, I didn’t realize how lousy I felt until I tried on that opposite stance with a single-minded focus.
When you practice, you can embody an expansiveness they may be missing from the other parts of your day. You can create a new pattern.
The more you know
Yoga can make us feel better for many reasons, and some of those reasons are because we can have a direct impact on the nervous system. When you come out of a yoga class feeling better, there’s actual science behind it. I know this topic is a bit nerdy, but it’s a good reminder of how yoga works and why it’s a thing worth keeping in our busy days.
How do you feel after you practice?