What Creates Yoga Bliss?

 

To many, yoga bliss comes from spiritual awakening, as described in yoga teachings.

I believe neuroscience offers a more specific explanation. It’s about biochemistry.

Three Power Senses & Yoga Bliss

In yoga, you move through a series of poses (asanas) that involve considerable proprioceptive input (sense of body awareness from input into the joints and muscles), vestibular input (sense of balance from moving in a different plane) and tactile input from deep pressure applied to your body against floor or wall.

These three “primary” senses are our power senses. Strong input into these three, bolstered by deep breathing throughout the practice is the secret behind yoga bliss.

“Primary senses?” You might be shaking your head. Don’t we have only five senses: touch, vision, hearing, smell, taste? No. These five senses are only what most people are aware of. In truth we have at least eight senses, including the vestibular, proprioceptive and interoceptive.

During yoga practice, strong sensory input, largely from the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, as well as deep pressure input, releases at once a calming, visceral, and energizing chemical cocktail.

Happiness Hormones & Yoga Bliss

For a huge dose of happiness, you get a release of the four happiness hormones: Dopamine, our reward neurotransmitter; Oxytocin, our “love” hormone; Serotonin, our feel good neurotransmitter; Endorphins, the brain’s opium. These hormones relax you by lowering cortisol, by increasing oxygen consumption, and by reducing muscle stiffness and tension.

For a huge dose of energy and mild stimulation, you get a release of invigorating adrenaline and norepinephrine-type stimulating compounds. This release happens especially after a strong vestibular hit from difficult inversions, like a headstand, where energy pulses through your limbs, and you feel so alive.

Daily Prescription for Yoga Bliss

Think of the practice as a powerful pharmacy within your system. For happiness and youthful vitality, your prescription pad should read: one hour or more of yoga daily for a strong dose of vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile input.

Excerpted from Yoga Bliss, How Sensory Input in Yoga Calms and Organizes the Nervous System. 

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