How to activate the parasympathetic nervous system using yoga, the breath, and meditation

1. The Autonomic Nervous System and Yoga Practice Lisa Schmidt Pacific Yoga Teacher Training 500 Hour Program Final Anatomy Project May 1, 2010

2. 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.

3. The Nervous System Divisions

4. What is the Autonomic Nervous System?

5. Function of ANS

6. Two Divisions

7. Sympathetic NS

8. The Stress Response

9. What Causes the Stress Response? Initial Fight or Flight Response Mobilizes body for immediate action Slower Resistance Reaction Stage of Exhaustion

10. What Happens Next? Fight or Flight Response Chronic Stress & Cortisol

11. 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!!

13. lowering of blood pressure

14. constriction of the pupils

15. increased blood flow to the skin and viscera

16. peristalsis of the GI tract

17. returns the body functions to normal after they have been altered by sympathetic stimulation

20. Stimulation of the Vagus nerve through breathing practices

21. Activation of the Parasympathetic NS

22. Induction of the relaxation response

23. Yoga practices repetition which rewires deeply embedded physical, psychological, or emotional patterns

24. Meditation observation of behavior patterns

25. Change, and cognitive learning, becomes realized

26. Yoga SutrasIII.9: “When after a moment of stability, the mind ceases its fluctuation and remains naturally quiet, it begins its transformation to stability”

27. Simple Pranayama/Pratyahara Practice Use the breath in order to concentrate on marman points 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 Anchor each center with awareness, using breath Invoke a favorite deity, teacher, mantra

29. Positive qualities become dominant

30. Negative qualities become dormant, weakened

31. Negative reactions (fear, anger, anxiety, resentment) that trigger the sympathetic NS less likely to occurawareness – self-observation - repetition

32. 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

34. Suptabaddakonasana with support

35. Purvottanasana on bench and support

36. Trikonasana with a trestle

37. Parshvakonasana with a trestle

39. Bharadvajasana, sitting on chair, hands on trestle

40. AdhoMukhaShvanasana with support

41. Shirshasana

43. Sarvangasana with chair

44. Halasana with support

45. Bhismacharyasana with support

47. Shavasana with supportFrom Iyengar Yoga Increases Cardiac Parasympathetic Nervous Modulation Among Healthy Yoga Practitioners Kerstin Khattab,1 Ahmed A. Khattab,1Jasmin Ortak,2Gert Richardt,1 and Hendrik Bonnemeier2 Evidence Based Complement Alternative Med. 2007 December; 4(4): 511–517.Published online 2007 October 27.

48. Common thread through these poses

49. How Should I Practice? Sit each day for five minutes Deeply rest (restorative pose) each day for twenty minutes Practice each day three poses

50. 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