Modern life keeps the sympathetic nervous system — the fight, flight, or freeze response — switched on far longer than evolution prepared us for. Yoga is one of the few practices that reliably switches it off.
The vagus nerve is the main highway between body and brain. Long exhales, gentle backbends, and supported forward folds stimulate it directly. Within minutes, heart rate drops, blood pressure normalises, and digestion resumes.
This is not anecdotal. Research from the Boston University Medical Center, Harvard, and the National Institutes of Health all point to the same conclusion: a regular yoga practice measurably improves heart rate variability, lowers cortisol, and reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression.
You don’t need to believe in chakras for any of this to work. You just need to show up and breathe.
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