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How to activate the parasympathetic nervous system using yoga, the breath, and meditation
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The Autonomic Nervous System and Yoga Practice
Lisa SchmidtPacific Yoga Teacher Training 500 Hour Program
Final Anatomy ProjectMay 1, 2010
ABSTRACT Different methods of breathing and yoga practice can
affect the autonomic nervous system and have an impact of the functions we ordinarily consider to be under unconscious control. Abnormal breathing and movement patterns can stimulate autonomic reactions associated with anxiety, panic, and other nervous system stimulation. By contrast, quiet breathing and introspective yoga postures influence the autonomic circuits that slow the heartbeat and reduce blood pressure, producing calm and a sense of stability. Our ability to control respiration consciously gives us access to autonomic function that no other system of the body can boast.
The Nervous System Divisions
What is the Autonomic Nervous System?
Function of ANS
Two Divisions
Sympathetic NS
The Stress Response
What Causes the Stress Response?
Initial Fight or Flight Response Mobilizes body for immediate
action
Slower Resistance Reaction
Stage of Exhaustion
What Happens Next?
Fight or Flight Response Chronic Stress & Cortisol
Parasympathetic NS
Conditioning and Practice
Activates the Rest and Digest System
Benefits include resting, digesting, healing
Powerfully affected by respiration rate, levels of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
Let it go!!
Parasympathetic Stimulation• slowing down of the heartbeat
• lowering of blood pressure
• constriction of the pupils
• increased blood flow to the skin and viscera
• peristalsis of the GI tract
• returns the body functions to normal after they have been altered by sympathetic stimulation
• The vagus nerves also help keep inflammation under control.
Role of the Vagus Nerve
How Yoga worksPhysiological changes to the nervous system
Stimulation of the Vagus nerve through breathing practicesActivation of the Parasympathetic NSInduction of the relaxation response
Yoga practices repetition which rewires deeply embedded physical, psychological, or emotional patterns
Meditation observation of behavior patternsChange, and cognitive learning, becomes realized
Yoga SutrasIII.9: “When after a moment of stability, the mind ceases its fluctuation and
remains naturally quiet, it begins its transformation to stability”
Simple Pranayama/Pratyahar
a Practice① Use the breath in order to
concentrate on marman points
② Big toes, ankles, midcalves, knees, midthighs, perineum, navel, heart center, throat well, middle of the eyebrows, forehead, and crown-follow like a ladder up and down
③ Anchor each center with awareness, using breath
④ Invoke a favorite deity, teacher, mantra
Meditation
Turning mind to positive qualities
Positive qualities become dominant
Negative qualities become dormant, weakened
Negative reactions (fear, anger, anxiety, resentment) that trigger the sympathetic NS less likely to occur
awareness – self-observation - repetition
Study: Iyengar Yoga and Cardiac Rehabilitation
Scientific Study on Yoga’s biological effects
Improves Vagal Tone
Significantly improved cardiac autonomic nervous tone
The effect produced on the heart when only the parasympathetic nerve fibers (which are carried in the vagus nerve) are controlling the heart rate. The parasympathetic nerve fibres slow the heart rate from approximately 70 beats per minute to 60 beats per minute
Yoga Poses for Cardiac RehabilitationSavasana with support
Supta badda konasana with support
Purvottanasana on bench and support
Trikonasana with a trestle
Parshvakonasana with a trestle
Ardha Chandrasana with a trestle
Yoga Poses for Cardiac RehabilitationPrasarita Pardottasasana,
concave back
Bharadvajasana, sitting on chair, hands on trestle
Adho Mukha Shvanasana with support
Shirshasana
Viparita Dandasana with bench
Yoga Poses for Cardiac RehabilitationDhaanurasana with or without
support
Sarvangasana with chair
Halasana with support
Bhismacharyasana with support
Setuandha Sarvangasana with support
Yoga Poses for Cardiac RehabilitationViparita Karani ona Setubandha
Bench
Shavasana with support
From Iyengar Yoga Increases Cardiac Parasympathetic Nervous Modulation
Among Healthy Yoga Practitioners
Kerstin Khattab,1 Ahmed A. Khattab,1 Jasmin Ortak,2 Gert Richardt,1 and Hendrik
Bonnemeier2
Evidence Based Complement Alternative Med. 2007 December; 4(4): 511–517.Published online
2007 October 27.
Common thread through these poses
How Should I Practice?Sit each day for five minutes
Deeply rest (restorative pose) each day for twenty minutes
Practice each day three poses
Birdwings by Rumi
Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings