The nervous system is the network of nerves that control all the organs and illicit responses from the body. It is the nerves that allow the senses to work and the brain to coordinate the mechanisms of the entire body.
Since they have so many functions, it can be very easy for the nerves to get damaged, which in turn could cease the functioning of vital organs. Today, with so many of us under a lot of stress and leading lifestyles that are constantly on the go, our nerves have to take on a lot of stress and pressure just to keep the body functional.
The good news is that practicing yoga has a direct beneficial effect on the nervous system. Not only does yoga help with relieving stress, it also helps with keeping the mind clear and sharp, delaying the onset of some nervous system disorders/diseases.
This week’s featured classes will be sure to balance and calm the nervous system.
- Rewire Your Nervous System with Tiffany Cruikshank: This is the sequel to the first Get Your Head in the Game class with less information and more steeping yourself in the process. This practice will ebb & flow like the first one to rewire the nervous system and help you get to the core of the practice with brief meditations along the way.
- Strengthen Your Nervous System with Elena Brower: A sequence of standing poses, twists, hip openers, gentle backbends, restoratives and a bit of Reiki self-treatment that will cleanse, open, strengthen, tone and restore our bodies by addressing both foundation and breathing. This class invites a specific yet simple understanding of how we can tone and calm our nervous system and ease all of our interactions – through our practice. The stage is the Self Shiva Sutras 3.10
- Resting & Soothing the Brain with Harshada Wagner: A simple meditation to help balance the energies of the brain and allow the nervous system to rest, restore and rejuventate. A great meditation for depression, exhaustion, and overwhelm.
- Calm Your Nervous System with Darren Rhodes: Turn inward via forward folds and twists to calm your nervous system. This practice pinnacles in yogi dandasana (foot to armpit). In this class you may need a strap, block, and/or blankets.
- Stressful Day? with Jason Crandell: This soothing practice is designed to calm your nervous system and decrease stimulation. It is full of quieting forward bends, gentle twists, and breath awareness. This is the perfect antidote to a long, stressful day. This sequence can also be used to support your body when you are facing stress, fatigue, illness, and travel.
- Create Internal Equilibrium with Jo Tastula: This class for melting stress and restoring your energy, although it’s not a restorative class per se. There will be flow, however the focus is on flipping the switch and activating the parasympathetic nervous system: the one that is directed at creating internal equilibrium in the body. This is often called the ‘rest & digest’ system as opposed to the other that we are familiar with called the ‘fight or flight’ and is stress inducing. Try some variations in some new postures and feel if perhaps they can relieve some common tension. Warrior 2 (virabhadrasana 2) with the head supported, crescent moon (anjaneyasana) with cactus arms, tree (vrksasana) with finger tips lightly touching above the head. Root lock pose (mulabandhasana) with knowledge seal (jnana mudra) to help bring the mind into a calm and tranquil state. Inversion time at the end and savasana!
- Calm Your Nervous System for Sound Sleep with Felicia Tomasko: Get ready for a sound sleep with this Ayurvedically-themed practice that focuses on calming the nervous system and reducing the vata dosha that may be in excess or out of balance. We use circular motions of the joints, including the shoulders, chest and hips to release pent-up tension in the joints before a supported forward fold, bridge moving the breath and ending with legs up the wall to calm the nervous system.
