How does yoga retrain your brain, you ask? By a phenomenon called neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s amazing capacity to change and adapt. I am in the midst of reading The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge, fascinating read BTW.
A quote by the author gives a sense of the brain’s capabilities:
“The brain is actually a supple, malleable organ, as ready to unlearn as it is to learn, capable of transforming vicious circles into virtuous circles, of resetting and repairing its internal communications. Far more than once dreamed possible, the brain can—if not always cure—heal itself.” https://www.macleans.ca/society/health/how-your-brain-heals-itself/
The mind and body are intertwined, not to be separated. You can’t influence one without the other. Our nervous system – which controls all movement – is always taking in information from your environment and sending information back out. This a good thing…a really good thing.
Our habits and patterns – both those that serve us and not – become stronger, more engrained as we do it more often.
A consistent yoga practice will engrain a sense of power, strength, ease and resiliency into your every day life! Here's how. Say you are holding half moon (hint hint for this coming week! :) for a few breaths longer than normal, you are shaking, your muscles begin to fatigue but all awhile you are breathing through the pose. This breath informs the nervous system, “everything is A-OK”.
You are essentially retraining your body to find the easefulness in a hard, challenging, stressful situation. Once you are off the mat, the brain remembers, which allows you to find this similar sensation of calm in other situations off the mat.
Let’s have some retraining-your-brain fun, and become more resilient and capable together. Remember, the more consistent we are, the more automatic it will become to breath through the perfectly imperfect waves of life.
