Jo Walker Yoga

If you’ve been following our Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga series, then you’ve read about all of the ways yoga improves your muscle tone, endurance, and overall physical well-being. But yoga is so much more than exercise for your body. It is exercise for your vagus nerve, a hot topic in medical research right now.

In Latin, “vagus” means wandering, and that is exactly what the vagus nerve does: It wanders throughout your torso and connects to all of your major organs. The vagus nerve helps control your parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate, keeps your intestines and glands active, and relaxes your sphincter muscles. All things that keep you feeling healthy and well.

The vagus nerve is how your brain communicates with your organs. Research is showing that we can improve this communication a few different ways. One way is through electrical pulses. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon, discovered a way to intervene and steer the conversation, and he has been successful in reducing inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Another way is through building up our vagal tone. People with high vagal tone are said to be in constant communication with their bodies.

This is where yoga comes in. Controlled breathing sends your nervous system a signal to slow down and calm. When we engage in Ujjayi Pranayama, sometimes called victorious breath, we cue our vagus nerve to step in and relax our body. Chanting is another practice that provokes a relaxation response.

Over time, these repeated cues strengthen our vagal tone, and our bodies become well-versed in producing a relaxation response. Without vagal tone, our bodies experience a variety of conditions, such as chronic pain and depression. Yet another reason to keep returning to the mat!

Our physical bodies become active on the mat, our mind focuses, and our overall being calms. When Jo tells us, “All you need to do to be a success in this class is breathe,” she means it. Breathing does us plenty of good.