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Tag: Nervous System

Understanding Central Nervous System – Brain and Spinal Cord

Understanding Central Nervous System – Brain and Spinal Cord

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The nervous system is the main controlling system of the body. It helps us experience the external world. The main purpose of Yoga is to cleanse the consciousness. This requires controlling the mind, which is considered a seat of consciousness. The mind involves the higher-level functions of the nervous system – memory, cognition, and intelligence. The nervous system is most influenced by Yoga and hence needs to be understood well. The nervous system is divided in two components – both…

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Why is Sleep important – a Neuroscience Perspective

Why is Sleep important – a Neuroscience Perspective

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Good quality sleep is vital to the health of the body and mind. Adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night while adolescence needs around 9 to 10. We are just beginning to understand through Neuroscience why we need sleep. Sleep deprivation or poor-quality sleep can lead to disorders. It can be as simple as irritability, fatigue, and loss of concentration in the short-term. Long-Term sleep deprivation can lead to immune system related disorders (like inflammation, autoimmune diseases),…

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Why cover eyes using a blanket or eye pillow during restorative yoga poses?

Why cover eyes using a blanket or eye pillow during restorative yoga poses?

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Your Iyengar Yoga teacher may have instructed you to cover your eyes with a blanket or eye pillow during deep relaxing restorative yoga poses – particularly Savasana. Do you want to know the scientific reason for this? Covering your eyes this way would prevent any light from falling on the eyes reducing the external stimulation. The eye pillow (a small one and not very heavy), in particular, would damp out extraneous motions of the eyes. This would prevent any possible…

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Neuroscience PTSD Yoga
Why Yoga helps in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Why Yoga helps in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

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The restorative yoga poses bring back the homeostatic balance caused by trauma. This can be very helpful to a person suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Under a sustained experience of trauma, the stress hormone called ‘Cortisol’ is consistently overproduced. It eventually causes the desensitization of the HPA axis. Because of this the nervous system no longer responds to the normal homeostatic feedback loop that otherwise in a normal course causes it to “calm down”. This means the HPA axis…

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