TRANSFORMATION
Why Yoga Is Good for Your Body and Brain, According to Science By Jaylissa Zheng and Dacher Keltner
(This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.)
Jaylissa Zheng is a student at UC Berkeley, a yoga teacher (JlissYoga.com), and (as of the Fall 2020) a Ph.D. student, where she hopes to integrate yoga into her clinical practice.
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of ”The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence” and “Born to Be Good”, and a co-editor of “The Compassionate Instinct”.
New research suggests that yoga directly influences our nervous systems, making us happier and healthier.
When I (Dacher Keltner) was 18, I wandered into a yoga class in my first year of college, hosted on a basketball court in the school’s gym. At the time, some 40 years ago, yoga had mystical, somewhat cult-like connotations. While a handful of students waited on mats, the teacher arrived dressed in white clothes, looking like Jesus. After playing a song on a wooden flute, and reading a few Haiku poems, he led the class through a series of yoga postures. Yoga, just getting off the ground in the West, would prove to be a salve for my anxious tendencies.
Yoga may very well be one of our oldest happiness practices. Archeologists have discovered figurines in India that date from 5,000 years ago that represent what appear to be people in yoga postures. More certain is that yoga emerged some 2,500 years ago in Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India as part of Hinduism. Many in the West are familiar with one vein of yoga practices: the asanas, a Sanskrit that translates to “postures.” The full tradition is much broader, and
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encompasses pranayama (mindful breathing), meditations, chanting, sutras (yoga philosophy by the sage Patanjali), kriya (internal cleansing movements), and ethical principles related to kindness, selflessness, non-materialism, and nonviolence. Over its history, yoga has evolved into many forms, from Tai Chi and Qi Gong to hot yoga and core power yoga. Today in the US, more than 36 million people practice yoga on a regular basis. They likely practice one of a couple kinds of yoga that derive from Vedic yoga and involve 12 basic postures, with names like plow, fish, cobra, locust, and bow pose. In addition to these metaphorical descriptions that add significance to the body’s movements, this kind of yoga also involves the teaching of deep breathing patterns and a focus on being present and mindful. Does this practice work? Indeed, in the past decade, an emerging science of yoga has been uncovering the significant health and happiness benefits of this ancient practice. And it suggests that we should all think about hitting the mat more often.
The health benefits of yoga Yoga is a practice of the mind and body, and it brings about health and happiness benefits through its direct influence on our nervous system. Central to yoga is bringing awareness to our breath, also known as the “ujjayi pranayama,” the breath of fire. Deep breathing, like the kind cultivated in yoga, activates the vagus nerve, the large branch of nerves that begins at the top of the spinal cord and stimulates activation in the vocal apparatus, muscles that move
