Using Yoga Techniques to Self-Soothe This New Year
“She thinks she’s so perfect,” we think sarcastically, while most of us are desperately seeking to be flawless, accepted, and…perfect.
Our inner voice often steps into the role of criticizing and judging everything we do – the promise if we act just right, or do just right, we can feel emotional satisfaction and relief. In reality, our lives can never be perfect because there will be constant ups and downs, but we can “feel” perfect.
But how do we brush off our worries and anxieties about how we’re not perfect or doing it right? How can we regain control when want to flip out because things are not going as planned, or we’re worried about what could go wrong?
These questions are especially important to answer during a time when anxiety and depression are on the rise. A February 2019 Pew Research Center report found a whopping 70 percent of teens see anxiety and depression as major problems among their peers.
For us to deal with the present better when life goes differently, we have to build resilience or the ability to bounce back from adversity. One of the ways we can do that is with productive coping techniques to calm ourselves down by slowing down our breathing and lowering our heart beat – both functions of our vagus nerve.
Huh, vagus nerve?
Emotion, stress, inflammation, heart rate, blood pressure, and more are all controlled by the vagus nerve. Latin for the word wandering, like vagabond, the vagus nerve it is the longest and most complex of our twelve cranial nerves.
Most of our cranial nerves stimulate one or two particular functions; for example, the first cranial nerve controls our sense of smell. The vagus, however, extends from the brain stem down into the trachea, larynx, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas, and intestines. Among its many functions, the vagus stimulates the voluntary muscles that impact speech and expression; it’s also associated with digestion and relaxation of the GI tract, slows the heart rate, and reduces inflammation.[1]
It is part of our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and carries within it imprints of hundreds of thousands of years of the evolutionary imperative that we all have within us to feel safe, connected, and loved, including how it:
Communicates between the gut to the brain. The vagus nerve sends information from the gut to the brain, which is linked to dealing with stress, anxiety and fear – i.e. why we say we have a "gut feeling." Following these internal signals helps a person recover from stressful and scary situations.
Connects with the diaphragm which makes deep breathing very relaxing to both the body and mind.
Sends anti-inflammatory signals to other parts of the body.
Lowering the heart rate and blood pressure
A marker of resilience.
People with well-functioning vagus nerves are considered to have “high vagal tone.” This really means that their bodies and brains are more resilient under stress and can recover more quickly from a stressful event. A woman with high vagal tone, for example, would recover faster from a fight with her partner. And probably not surprisingly, these individuals tend to be healthier, more resilient and get sick less often.
People with low vagal tone, on the other hand, are more sensitive to stress and disease. They tend to have challenges such as weak digestion, increased heart rate, and difficulty managing emotions. Interestingly, symptoms from low vagal tone are correlated with health conditions such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and epilepsy. And the very same conditions show significant improvement with yoga practice.
How you can improve your vagal tone?
Since, the vagal tone is correlated with capacity to regulate stress responses and can be influenced by breathing, its increase through meditation and yoga likely contribute to resilience and the mitigation of mood and anxiety symptoms.
A 2012 study found yoga alleviates stress by increasing activity of the PNS and GABA system, which is located in the thalamus and touches the vagus nerve. Stimulating these systems increases our range of resiliency by increasing the vagal tone leading to an improvement of autonomic regulation, cognitive functions, and mood and stress coping.[2]
A range of resiliency is used to describe an individual’s overall capacity to cope, including self-regulating and self-soothing, during difficult times. High levels of arousal, freeze, and dissociation held in the body diminish an individual’s range of resiliency.
Here are some ways to self-regulate and self soothe:
Take a balanced breath, an equal inhale to equal exhale. Known in yoga as sama vritti, or a balancing breath. For example, inhale for a slow 4 seconds and exhale for a slow 4 seconds.
Tracking resource sensations is the way you can help your nervous system come back into balance. Leverage positive experiences and can include people, places, spiritual aspects, activities, hobbies, animals. This includes experiences, values, beliefs, qualities you like about yourself such as kindness, compassion, and humor.
Practice a Loving-Kindness Meditation. Metta bhavana, or loving-kindness meditation, is a method of developing compassion. It comes from the Buddhist tradition, but it can be adapted and practiced by anyone, regardless of religious affiliation; loving-kindness meditation is essentially about cultivating love.
Here is how to do it:
Sit comfortably with your eyes closed and imagine what you wish for your life. Formulate your desires into three or four phrases. Traditionally they would be something like this: May I be healthy and strong. May I be peaceful. May I be content. Loving-kindness meditation is a simple repetition of these phrases, but directing them at different people in a visualization
Start with by directing the phrases at yourself: May I be happy (or whatever you chose.)
Next direct the metta towards someone you feel thankful for or someone who has helped you.
Now visualize someone you feel neutral about—people you neither like nor dislike. This one can be harder than you’d think :)
Ironically, the next one can be easier: visualizing the people you don't like or who you are having a hard time with.
Finally, direct the metta towards everyone universally: "May all beings everywhere be peaceful."
[1] Medical News Today
[2] Front Psychiatry, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5859128/