There are a few potential misconceptions that are widely spread in the Yoga world, that might actually not be very helpful. What follows is my effort to explain them to you.
It’s either or.
It’s Yin or Yang. It’s Parasympathetic or Sympathetic. It’s Flight or Flight. Good or bad.
This way of thinking might lead to encourage dualistic thinking when actually there could be a bigger picture.
In ancient Greek and early Eastern logic they teach of 4 possibilities, a tetralemma; either or both neither. As we know from the Yin Yang symbol there is Yang within Yin and Yin within Yang. Our nervous system is always in a mix of both (and sometimes neither), for example we need the phrenic nerve (the diaphragm nerve) which is sympathetic to activate the vagus nerve which is parasympathetic. One needs the other and visa versa. In the view of the Tetralemma we might look at the peripheral nervous system (and indeed how neurons and many many body systems actually work) is...
Either parasympathetic
Or sympathetic
Both parasympathetic and sympathetic
Neither parasympathetic nor sympathetic which contains though is by no means limited to Enteric Nervous System , powered in large part by Nitric Oxide.
In the traditional style of Yoga Nidra practice there is a stage of opposites which only encourages duality; good or bad, this or that. How ever when we look at things through the lens of the Tetralemma it opens up possibilities for new perspectives and complete no-thingness at all.
Speaking of Fight or Flight or Rest and Digest.
These are 100 year old rhymes that have stuck because the brain likes rhymes but are actually inaccurate and cause problems in the court of law.
As Yoga teachers it is common to say “we’re all stuck in fight or flight” and then put an emphasis on long exhales to get into “Rest and Digest”. Firstly, you’re only in sympathetic over drive if your resting heart beat is over 100BPM which is very rare and if it was you need to see a doctor not a yoga teacher! In unexpected fearful situations, we do not either flight or flight, we flight, fight, freeze or do NOTHING at all. That has certainly been my experiences when I have been in frightening situations, because I have had no reference point to go back too I have been in complete disbelief and have even asked the attackers quite calmly “what are you doing?”. Many people report the same. In a court of law rapists have got off because the victim was penalised for not “fight or flighting”, why didn’t they fight back? This phrase needs to be stopped to support others.
In regard to rest and digest, did you know that our digestion is actually started by the sympathetic nervous system? Yes it’s helpful for our digestion to be in a relaxed state to be efficient but this is just an example that both S.N.S and P.N.S are both involved, just like there is yin in the yang and yang in the yin.
At a recent trauma convention they spoke of flight/flight/hard freeze/soft freeze/fold/fawn/fib/please and appease/tend and befriend/rest and digest and several more. Which shows it simply doesn't simplify in the way they thought it did originally, theories are always evolving. Also to be aware that how we respond is cultural, not hard wired, as in Bali when there is trauma they snooze!
As I mentioned above often in Yoga classes long exhales are taught to encourage the P.N.S. with perhaps the assumption that everyone is overly active (in S.N.S) to start with. Whilst long exhales can be very soothing if you can’t sleep or feel anxious (for example), it’s important to know if teaching in groups who is in the room. For example long exhales for people with chronic fatigue, depression and now a days Long Covid, will only help to keep them stuck and perhaps make it worse.
Sometimes people actually need activating and that’s where you might practice “Breath of Joy” for example to lift energy. Again though with the activating breaths we need to make sure we know who is in the room. Kapalabahti for example can cause inflammation so not good for Long Covid or conditions such Asthma.
What will help most things considerably is balance. This is why the coherent, universal breath of 6:6 is so powerful and a safe option for teaching in group classes, especially right now in this pandemic time.
Stress is “bad”
We need stress to get things done, to have energy, to move forward. We need stress to build strength and resilience in the body, whether we work body the body actively or in our imagination. Studies have shown imaginary movement can be just as effective:
We need stresses on the immune system for it to be strong and healthy. Hence why vaccines are given and it’s good to let children play in the dirt.
“Stressful” times in life often produce new lessons, perspectives, growth and change.
Cortisol, the “stress hormone” is perceived as bad but we need it to get up in the morning and with low levels of it we are susceptible to arthritis.
Tension/ Tightness is in the body
As Yoga teacher we all say it. I know I have. In fact, it comes from the cerebellum (the body’s movement centre) in the brain. Muscle “tightness” is an opinion of the brain, it is a way that our brain is trying to keep us safe and within the boundaries it already knows. The perceived tightness stops us from moving further than we have done before, to avoid an injury. I have experienced this personally after having a back injury 20 years ago, whilst the injury is not there any more the brain is very active in helping me not repeat that injury again so it sends me signals via the body to be careful with my back by tightness and twinges. After a year of 6:6 breathing every day and not having any of my usual monthly massages (that I can now see only feed attention to the “perceived problem” ) the symptoms in my back seems to have vanished!
So what are we actually doing when stretching in Yoga? It may be more helpful to soothe and balance the brain/ nervous system, to focus on what we would like rather than draw attention to the perceived problem (by overly stretching an area to “make it better”) which will only make it bigger. What you focus on you amplify. Neuroscientist Bud Craig discovered that all pain, all feeling, happens in the right front insular – your feeling centre. We can soothe this with the 6:6 breath either just as a practice on it’s own or whilst teaching/ practicing Yoga poses.
This is one of the reasons why Yin can be such a healing practice because we are not looking to actively “stretch” but gently “stress” the tissues by not going beyond our edge, just softening just where the nervous system is asking our body to stop and then breathing slowly and practicing mindfulness to calm the brain/ mind. The brain/ body lets go when it is ready to rather then when we are telling it to.
Imagination is powerful, top athletes and sports people do it to improve their skills. We can harness this too by taking time to imagine what we would like to get better at before we actually do it.
It’s all about the Vagus nerve
Polyvagal Theory is very popular in Yoga right now. The thing to remember is that it is a theory and not complete. In the theory Stephen Porges explains that we don’t just fight or flight we also freeze, which is from the parasympathetic nerve – the Vagus. As I have already mentioned above, many also do nothing at all, as neuroscientist Lisa Feldman-Barrett says “ your actions today become your brains predictions for tomorrow, and those predictions automatically drive your future actions”. So if you are in a situation you have never been before, it’s very normal to do nothing or know what to do as there are no predictions from the brain.
What is also important to focus on is the phrenic nerve, the sympathetic nerve that activates the diaphragm (and the vagus nerve) as it has a much faster response on how we feel compared to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve takes 20 minutes to let the brain know that we are full after eating or our thirst is satiated after having a drink. Nothing freaks the brain out more than a lack of oxygen so it is constantly closely monitoring our breathing patterns. A change in breath very quickly alerts the brain and changes how we feel, much faster than the vagus nerve.
To conclude science and research is always evolving. I think it can be helpful to recognise that nothing is absolute and be open to learning different perspectives and new developments. I hope this has been of interest in some way and helps to bring another level of enquiry to your teaching/ practice.
