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Yoga For Vagus Nerve Activation
Online Yoga Classes To Rest & Replenish
The body’s main anti-stress mechanism, the vagus nerve mediates all rest and digest responses to help your mind and body rest and repair
Practicing yoga is a powerful way to activate your vagus nerve to calm stress and anxiety, soothe your aches and pains and reset all your body’s vital functions.
Through mindful postures, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques, you’ll be able to stimulate your vagus nerve and unlock its full healing potential
Hit Your Reset Button:Â
Safety, Yoga And The Vagus Nerve
Primed to sense danger your brain is ever ready to freeze, fight or fly. But life is sweet when you feel safe
While essential for survival, stress raises your blood pressure, drives up inflammation and dampens immunity leading to consequences from heart disease to anxiety
Safety is your reset button. Feeling safe stimulates the vagus nerve to calm all your bodily functions, support healing and repair and allow you to enjoy greater physical and mental wellbeing
Sundays 10:30-11:30 GMT
Assessment: FreeÂ
Single drop-in: £15 GBP
x4 classes: £40 GBP
Rest And Recharge
The Vagus Nerve And Yoga
The vagus is the main nerve responsible for rest-and-digest responses in your body
Vagal activity calms your heart and breathing, enhances digestion and resets all your vital functions, allowing your mind and body to rest and recharge. But rest isn’t doing nothing
Rest is a positive mental state of relaxed alertness associated with a felt sense of safety
How Will I Benefit?
Through movement, breath, guided imagery, and other yoga practices you’ll activate vagus nerve pathways to free your mind and body from tension and enjoy tranquility and greater healthÂ
With a top level of individual attention and support in small groups of 6 you can develop a personal practice to help you
- ease stiffness and pain
- regulate your blood pressure
- soothe irritable bowel & other digestive issues
- calm stress and tension
- improve your sleep
- boost your memory and brain power
- increase your energy, and much more …
Small Group Classes
Yoga For Vagus Nerve Health
These small classes of 6 max. participants will help you harness the restorative power of the vagus nerve using yoga to let go of tension and guide your system from stress to rest
We take a functional approach to yoga, paying due attention to how the activities feel to you rather than just their outward appearance
Connecting with this inner alignment you can work within your own safe limits, while also reaching intelligently beyond your perceived limitations
We make special special use of
- movement and gravity to help you relax chronic tension and awaken muscular patterns supportive of good movement
- explore the role of breath in emotional regulation
- use guided visualizations and mindfulness to connect with your innermost resources
Are The Classes Suitable For Me?
The classes are in principle suitable for everyone, from absolute beginners to seasoned yogis. The emphasis is on listening to your mind and body so you practice and grow in ways that are natural and beneficial for you
Sundays 10:30-11:30 GMT*
* Greenwhich Mean Time
Class Fees
assessment: FREE
single drop-in: £15
x4 classes: £40
(valid for 6 weeks)
To check adapt the classes to your needs contact me for an obligation-free initial chat or live online assessment. The initial assessment is free of charge
Bookings
To book your class either
1- contact me to arrange an initial assessment and book available dates: use the contact form or phone/message me on
Tel +44 7532671343 / WhatsApp +44 7735448588
2- BOOK YOUR PLACE ONLINE
Check the availability and make your reservation below – you can book up to 2 places for yourself and a friend on any date, subject to availability
Where possible, please pay by direct banking transfer (BACS). I’ll share my A/C details with you at the time of book your appointment
Alternatively you can pay for your class with a debit or credit card, or PayPal account if you have one, using the facility below
Zoom is free to use. Just sign up, download the Zoom Client, and you’re good to go
You’ll receive a meeting link for your booked session by email or messaging app of your choice. Click the link – and you’re in!
Classes are recorded for your continued personal practice.Please don’t share the recordings without the explicit consent from everyone in the group
Yoga & Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Yoga postures that stretch or compress parts of the neck and abdomen are said to physically stimulate the vagus nerveÂ
Though the jury is out on the significance – and duration – of such effects there is abundant evidence that yoga decreases arousal and stimulates rest-and-digest responses mediated through the VagusÂ
Browse the sections below to see how yoga breathing, movement, posture and mindfulness will help you harness the healing power of the Vagus Nerve
How does stress impact my health?
Stress is one of the top predictors for injury
Perceiving something as stressful stimulates a flight-flight cascade to up-regulate your blood pressure, inflammation, pain sensitivity and many other vital functions
A healthy response is for your body to return to a baseline of rest and repair
Persistent arousal maintains inflammation with consequences ranging from blood vessel damage to tissue injury, anxiety and fatigue
Yoga helps you better cope with stressful events, activating the vagus nerve to reduce arousal, calm anxiety to let your body rest, reset and repair
Click the link for more in-depth information on the vagus nerve, stress and inflammation
How does the Vagus Nerve improve my wellbeing?
An important part of the rest-and-digest parasympathetic nervous system, the vagus is the longest and most extensive of the 12 cranial nerves
The vagus connects your brain to every major organ system, controlling autonomic activities such as heart rate, breathing and digestion
The vagus nerve is 80% sensory, keeping your brain informed of the moment to moment conditions in your vital organs. The vagus is the main pathway of the so-call gut brain axis, a system for regulating not just digestion, but also your mood, immune responses, and other functions vital for life
As danger activates the fight-flight stress response, the Vagus is activated by a felt sense of safety
Yoga and mindfulness have been found to activate the vagus nerve, helping you access its calming and healing powers and restoring balance to your whole mind and body.
How Does Yoga Stimulate The Vagus Nerve
There is plentiful and sound evidence that yoga and mindful-movement therapies activate the vagus
Though exercises that stimulate parts of the abdomen and neck may directly influence the vagus, the jury is out on how significant – and lasting – these effects are
On the other hand, physical – and mental – stillness can activate the vagus
Research shows that holding a comfortable pose for four to five minutes produces effects linked to increased vagal activity
Yoga brings you into intimate contact with your physical self, allowing your body to be nourished without any expectation of achievement
It is through the holistic practice of posture, movement, regulated breath and mindful attention that you can unlock the door to health and happiness
Mindful yoga breathing for the Vagus Nerve
Yoga has traditionally used the breath to calm the mind and achieve stillness
Pranayama, or “control of vital air” is a key component of yoga practice: a number of different breathing techniques are used for developing physical and mental stillness
Slow mindful breathing, especially techniques which use the diaphragm, have been shown to reset your nervous system and activate the vagus nerve
Practicing mindful diaphragmatic breathing will help you activate the parasympathetic, rest and digest response, with a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure and heart-rate-variability, all factors used to measure vagal activity
Mindfulness meditation for Vagal activation
The role of the mind is to think. The mind will not be emptied. But it can be filled. This is mindfulness, which means filling the mind with one thought – or basically paying attention
Yoga practice invites you to pay attention in in the same way you do when driving, reading, or enjoying a beautiful view. There is minimal effort and much enjoyment
All effort in yoga, mental and physical, is gentle. This is key to avoiding tension
Paying attention shows you how you think and how you use your body, providing a platform for new thought and movement habits that’ll keep healthy, pain free and resilient
Finding safety through guided visualization & relaxation
Where mindfulness keeps your attention in the here and now, guided meditation uses visualization and stories to help you connect with the subcoscious world of implicit attitudes, and also creativity
Yoga nidra (the sleep of the yogi) is one such method of reaching the deepest state of relaxation while still remaining “conscious”
Yoga nidra is a powerful vagal activator, providing your mind and body with nurturing rest, peace and healing
Contact Manuel
LONDON CLAPHAM
The Light Centre
151-153 Clapham Hight Street
London SW4 7SS
Mob +44 7532671343
WhatsApp +44 7735448588
LONDON WALTHAMSTOW
East Of Eden
Studio 1, 14 Hatherley Mews
London E17 4QP
Mob +44 7532671343
WhatsApp +44 7735448588
SPANISH YOGA RETREAT
C/ De Mingo Ramos 22
10200 Trujillo (Ca)
Spain
https://spanishyogaretreat.com