Why does yoga make you feel so good?
There are a dizzying number of styles and approaches to yoga these days. Some involve resting in simple
supported postures in quiet, candlelit rooms. Others push students to the edge of their physical capacity or are
done to the beat of loud, rhythmic music. Some fo cus on physical alignment, while others offer a heart-centered ap proach. There is so much variety that describing them all is impossible.
Different in tone and substance as the various styles might be, they share
one quality that inspires people to practice them: They work. Put simply, you feel better when you walk out of class than when you walked in. The question is, why? Better yet, how does yoga work?
As you’ve probably heard, one reason asana leaves you feeling so good is
that it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, thanks to
two elements that almost all asana practices have in common––
the lengthening and strengthening of musculature and calm, even
breathing. The parasympathetic is the part of your nervous system
that slows you down—it’s responsible for telling your muscles to
relax, improving your digestion and assimilation, boosting immunity,
and helping you sleep better. It also normalizes your blood
pressure and lowers your heart rate. The parasympathetic nervous
system counteracts many stress-related symptoms and the negative
by-products of our modern, fast-paced, high-output lives.
But the truth is that much of the yoga being practiced these days
doesn’t do as much for the parasympathetic nervous system as you
might think. To build your parasympathetic nervous system, you
need to do poses that encourage deep relaxation, such as forward
bends and hip openers; do fewer standing poses; and do more sitting,
supine, and prone postures as well as inversions. You also need to hold poses longer, as you would in restorative yoga, and dedicate longer periods of time to developing slow and complete breathing. Vigorous vinyasa, backbends, handstands, and arm balances are powerful and beneficial, but
they don’t stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system as much as the practices listed previously.
So if the positive changes you gain from yoga can’t be entirely credited to its impact on
your nervous system, what is helping you feel and live better? The answer is life force. Almost all styles of hatha yoga increase the flow of prana, or life force, in your body.
Yoga, like the science of acupuncture, or tai chi and qi gong, is based on prana (referred to as chi in the Chinese arts and sciences). These disciplines see prana as the essential force that sustains everything. Yogis went a step further, prescribing the intelligent use of prana as the key to facilitating spiritual awakening. “Having known the origin... and the physical existence of prana, one achieves immortality,” says the Prasna
Upanishad. In other words, the aim of life (and practice) is realized through the skillful use of prana.
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