Tag Archives: Yoga

Anatomy, brain, research, Yoga

What is Vagus Nerve Stimulation?

The vagus nerve is a very long nerve that carries signals back and forth to your brain, heart, lungs and digestive system. It is the longest cranial nerve in your body. It is said to run from the brain all the way to the large intestines. It also has branches that reach all of our major organs.

I tell clients that the vagus nerve is what people consider to be the “lizard brain” of the body. It is responsible for fight or flight responses and also freeze and hide. It controls involuntary sensory and motor functions like your heart rate, speech, mood and urine output. It is a very complex system of communication with our entire body but it has a very important role in how we respond to stress. The role it plays is regulating the way the body switches from the rational brain (the parasympathetic nervous system – relaxed state) to a fight or flight response (sympathetic nervous system – alert state).

Apparently the vagus nerve can lose its ability to switch back easily to the parasympathetic mode due to factors like stress or age. Also Known as vagal dysfunction, this can put a person at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety.

Professionals say that stimulating the vagus nerve will help our body to switch more quickly to a relaxed state. They recommend a variety of things to do to “stimulate” the vagus nerve. These include: 1) meditation, 2) exercise, 3) music, 4)massage, 5)cold exposure and also through 6) a medical intervention, applying an implanted or transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, VNS/tVNSSo “stimulation”.

These activities create a cascade of events in our body that lead to activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Sensory signals initiate when we participate in one of the above activities. This signal then travels up to the brain stem from the lower part of the body that is participating in the activity/sensation. The brain stem then sends signals to activate certain parts of the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn, decreases cortisol, heart rate, and increases metabolism. This mechanism triggers the release of chemicals like serotonin and anti-inflammatory related chemicals that help our body feel calm and less pain. This series of events isn’t just for experiencing relaxation — it’s a multi-system communication event linking the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. It affects not just an emotional state but the entire body.

The reason that the above activities trigger a response that activates the parasympathetic nervous system is the need for our body to seek balance and recovery. When we shock it with cold our body wants homeostasis, so it activates a series of events to calm us down. This idea of trying to return back to its original state and achieve homeostasis is also at work with activities like massage/yoga/exercise. These activities create specific changes in our body systems that makes the body want to return to it’s original state. Our body registers the sensations and our vagus nerve sends out messages to release chemicals to balance excitement or other changes. These chemicals make us feel calm and “okay”. Breathing/humming/music can also do the same thing. Basically any sensory activity that is not overly stressful or perceived as actual danger, can stimulate the vagus nerve in a healthy manner. The more we do these activities, the more training we do for our system to be stronger and recover quickly from changes and imbalances, ie stress in our environment.

On a side note, a big chemical messenger that is responsible in this process is Acetylcholine (Ach). It’s a little bit more technical for me to explain so for further information on this process, go to this link.

Also for more info on polyvagal theory, click here.

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Breathwork, Stress Management, Yoga

Mindful Warrior Practice

Last week I posted a piece on Mindfulness Practicing for ACT.

Here’s another practice , this time using a warrior II pose. I like Warrior II, Virabhadrasana II (veer-ah-bah-DRAHS-anna), for generating a feeling of power and focus. Try this exercise when you are having difficulty with finding motivation.

Part one: The pose

  1. Face the long side of your mat with your arms stretched straight out from your shoulders and your feet parallel to each other in a wide stance. You want your ankles approximately beneath your wrists.
  2. Turn your right foot and knee to face the front of the mat.
  3. Angle your left toes a little in toward the upper left corner of the mat.
  4. Bend your right knee so that you only see your right big toe.
  5. Check and distribute your weight evenly between both legs. Press down through the outer edge of your back foot and four corners of right foot.
  6. Check posture and keep the crown of your head stacked over your pelvis and your shoulders over your hips.
  7. Reach through both arms toward the front and back of the mat and turn your head to look past your right fingertips.
  8. Engage your abdominal muscles by creating a “lift” in your lower ab area.

Part Two: The practice

Hold the pose and breath in to the belly, reversing the exhale constrict the belly as the air empties. Continue even breathing as you look out over your right finger tips, envisioning that which you to accomplish. Switch sides and think of another project/task you would like to accomplish.

Additional:

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Stress Management, Uncategorized, Wellness topic, Yoga

September Focus – Anxiety Relief

“Pose” of the Week – Cat/Cow Flow

How to Do It:

  • Come to hands and knees with shoulders over wrists and hips over knees.
  • Inhale: arch your back, lifting your chest and tailbone (Cow).
  • Exhale: round your spine, tucking chin and tailbone (Cat).
  • Continue flowing with your breath.

Why It Helps:
This gentle movement synchronizes breath and body, helping to release physical tension while calming the nervous system.

Time: 1–2 minutes

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Practice updates, Yoga

Fall Update 2025

There’s lots of new things happening for Grounded for Peace this fall. We have a new intern that has started with us. I will have her introduce herself in the next week or so. She will be providing individual sessions and facilitating a group or 2 during her time. She also will be providing some fresh eyes for our practice and our online presence. Another wonderful benefit to our practice is that she’ll be able to take on clients at a sliding fee scale so if you have someone that struggles to afford therapy we may have some room to take on a few more clients. Please click on our contact page to send us a message if you would like more information.

We also are increasing our yoga therapy services with another group starting in October. Once the details are firmed up, we will be providing more information. If you are interested in individual or group Yoga Therapy, feel free to also reach out via our contact page.

Anatomy, Exercise, Yoga

Anatomy – Muscular System

Review of book by Leslie kaminoff and amy matthews

woman doing push ups
Photo by Karl Solano on Pexels.com

On to chapter three of Yoga Anatomy. The muscles around my right hip are always tight. As I mentioned before my right leg is shorter than my left leg by a hair. I usually do not notice this unless I under use or overuse my body. Lately I have been trying to do more cardio and the increase in repetitive movement has aggravated all the muscles around my hip and knee.

This chapter on the muscular system begins by stating the purpose of muscles is to move the bones in the correct place so they can do their job. I’m thinking of how much more my right leg and hip muscles must have to work to keep my bones on that side in the right place to balance my movement. I don’t walk with a limp and usually do not notice much difference but just the bit more they have to do is noticeable when I change my activity.

in reviewing muscle anatomy the book describes the 3 types of muscles, skeletal, cardiac and smooth. It also discusses how muscles actually consist of 4 different types of tissue: muscle tissue, connective tissue, nerves and blood vessels. When you consider how much goes into making a muscle work you can’t ignore how integrated each body system is. Also the concept that they are different types of muscles leads to that different parts of the body govern the different muscles. The skeletal system is govern by our somatic nervous system and for the most part conscious thought. It’s the one we have awareness of controlling. Cardiac muscles and smooth muscles are governed by the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system (through hormones). We don’t have conscious awareness of control of these areas but if you can learn how to influence you autonomic nervous system then you can influence these muscles.

The book goes on in detail to describe how muscles work in pairs through contraction only. This I decided to not review as much because of the technicality and because for me this part is not as relevant at this time as the other information they focused on. This other information is related to the idea of muscle relationships through pairing, layering, and chains.

One of the suggested exercises is lying in relaxation pose and the instruction is to wiggle your fingers and follow the movement up your arm to your spine and then moving the spine to see what other body parts move as a chain reaction. This to me was actually relaxing and somewhat meditative. I felt like I was observing ripples and waves in my body. I like that analogy. It made me think of how fluid my body can be versus how choppy and “crunchy” it feels sometimes walking when I’m feeling pain.

In talking about muscle chains and following movement the book again referenced “Body Mind Centering” and “the Bartenieff Fundamentals”. In looking up “BMC” I found this definition:

“Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®) is an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness. Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, it is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind. Its uniqueness lies in the specificity with which each of the body systems can be personally embodied and integrated, the fundamental groundwork of developmental re-patterning, and the utilization of a body-based language to describe movement and body-mind relationships.” –https://www.bodymindcentering.com/about/

In regards to the Bartenieff Fundamentals I found this description from Wikipedia:

“Bartenieff Fundamentals are a set of principles for “corrective body movement”[1] developed by Irmgard Bartenieff, who studied with Rudolf Laban and colleagues in Germany (1925). After coming to the United States in the 1940s and becoming a physical therapist, Bartenieff developed the method in the form of a set of exercises, based on concepts and principles of kinesiological functioning, that can be extended into all types of movement possibilities. Bartenieff in developing this work fused her studies in both Laban movement analysis with Physiotherapeutic principles and the influence of both is a strong component of the Fundamentals.”

I am interested in learning more about each of these and plan to do a bit more research on these. This chapter on the Muscular System ends by saying that if we think all muscles in a body are supposed to work like the corresponding muscles in someone else’s body we are missing the awareness and possibilities of new patterns and new movement that may be possible for the individual. We are all so different and just because a series of exercises work for one person, it doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for another. I do like that when we practice yoga postures as they are described in the sutures we teach ourselves to explore the posture with ease and discovery versus being just performative or for an end result. This approach allows us to grow and learn while we are becoming stronger or more flexible.

Regarding my muscles in my right leg. I have decided to do more exploring in my morning yoga practice which has caused me to rethink what might be good for my body. I realized that as I get older I do feel more brittle and “crunchy” and that if I can create more fluid movement like with good posture when I walk or trying more flow with my yoga postures when I practice I feel better. I also am noticing how proper alignment with my posture makes everything better. It takes practice though which is what I’m trying to be more consistent with.