If you're reading this blog, you likely value yoga.
You feel “good” after a yoga class, you notice the physical change in your body, you enjoy the mental break you experience while moving and you can’t wait to get back for your next class.
Ever wonder why?
Yoga is an amazing sensory experience for your body. Sensory input is the five outward facing senses we usually think of (sight, taste, touch, sound and smell) AND three inward facing senses (proprioception, vestibular and interoception). Why does this matter?
Your nervous system exists to keep you safe and alive. It needs to know where your body is in space to do this. Imagine you were being chased by a bear in the woods, where your body is in space and the sensory components of the environment would be really important to your safety & survival.
Sometimes we think an email from our boss is the bear in the woods. Sometimes we have been living in this state of survival for so long that we don't know our way back to baseline or neutral. Enter your yoga practice.
Before we go even deeper, let's define those three inward facing sessions.
Proprioception: This is input to your joints and muscles. When you are in downward dog, handstand or Warrior 2 or legs up the wall, you are receiving large doses of proprioceptive input. This input also happens to trigger serotonin production. This is one of the many reasons your yoga practice feels so “good”
Vestibular: This input is all about changes in head position. When you go from a forward fold to standing, when you invert your head for a handstand (of any level) or when you lift your head in a cobra pose, you are stimulating this system. The vestibular system is far reaching in the brain and when it's stimulated it literally brings you back to your midline, your physiological center. The result? You feel more capable, more in control, more organized. This is a use it so you don’t lose it type of system. The more you can stimulate this system, the better your relationship to gravity as you age! (AKA less risk of falling…)
Interoception: This is where yoga’s secret sauce really lies. This system is all about what is happening inside your body and your awareness of this. Am I hungry, am I cold, do I have to pee? So many people lose this system as we blow by our boundaries and push ourselves to do more and more. But in a yoga class you are constantly refining this skill. From shins in thighs out to feeling the four corners of your feet to stepping one foot forward….yoga is an interoceptive practice!
These systems are how yoga and your nervous system are connected. We hear a lot about the nervous system these days, everyone is talking about “nervous system regulation”. Yoga is an amazing way to deposit more coping chemicals into your nervous system so that you literally can handle more of the things that come up in the day to day with grace and ease.
The real magic then becomes how do you take this with you off the mat? Into those high intensity moments of stress and overwhelm. I work from home and have 3 young kids, this is something I am very well versed in. Sometimes I do downward facing dog in the living room just before cooking dinner.
A little micro-dose of proprioceptive and vestibular input to support my nervous system through a loud and often chaotic time of day. While I’m reading to my daughter before bed, we do legs up the wall….a little proprioception for us both to help our systems wind down for bedtime.
Check out the attached e-book that will show you several poses that you can stop, drop and yoga in the midst of daily life in order to give your nervous system some supportive sensory input!
Jessica is a pediatric occupational therapist for 16 years turned nervous system coach. She takes her knowledge of the sensory and nervous system and applies it to adults (mainly after applying it to herself). Find Jessica at: www.jessicaraddeo.com.
