Yoga was a practice that started in India thousands of years ago and was a part of their religious texts. Today, Yoga is taught in different countries around the world, not just as a religious practice, but as a practice for spiritual and emotional well-being. Meditation can be a part of yoga, but both can also exist independent of each other. You can find a bunch of yoga studios and programs in your city that you can check out, and if you are looking into it more seriously, you can check out the Marianne Wells Yoga School Now, there are some skeptics when it comes to the benefits of yoga, and thankfully, due to science, we have been able to gather a lot of evidence in support of the benefits of yoga, and for this article, we will be focusing solely on the vagal or vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve consists of a nerve that originates from the brain stem, which then branches out and is distributed throughout different parts of the body. The vagus nerve is responsible for a lot of things, but the most important function is that it helps the body switch into its sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic response. So, it plays a role in assessing whether you are in a threatening situation or whether you need to calm down. People with anxiety, people who suffered from abuse, trauma, and adverse life experiences have poor vagal tone, so they are unable to differentiate whether or not they are safe or unsafe.

Yoga has been proven to be a practice the improves and strengthens vagal tone. This is because yoga helps to bring the body to a state of relaxation, and the use of good breathwork allows for the vagal tone to slowly improve with time. So, if you are in a state of consistent emotional activation, a therapist, and joining yoga classes might improve things for you.