By Melissa Mak
June 6, 2013 7:17 AM EDT
June 6, 2013 7:17 AM EDT
I was trained by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta in India, where my teachers told me that the secret in pranayama was in the exhalation, not the inhalation. To calm down when we’re flustered or angry, most therapists teach us to use our breathing. Everyone thinks that the secret is in the inhalation. The more I can inhale and fill my lung, the more calm I am, right?
Wrong.
Scientists led by Heather Mason of University of Roehampton (UK) have suggested that equal periods of inhalation and exhalation be used by yoga newbies to gain maximum stimulation of the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve, located in our brain, is in charge of our parasympathetic nervous system — it decreases our heart rate and blood pressure by deactivating the human’s “fight or flight” mechanisms, including anxiety.
When you stimulate your vagus nerve through breathing, you gain control over your raging heart rate and rising blood pressure. As they decrease, so does your activation in the anger and anxiety departments. Read the rest of this entry
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