|| ONLINE YOGA ANATOMY COURSE BY RITESH || Anatomy Simplified || For Yoga Teachers | 1 Month Intense Course | Pilates Certification - The Nervous System - Part 2 | The Peripheral Nervous System | Sympathetic & Parasympathetic NS

Are you finding it difficult to switch off these days? It's getting hard to switch off not only from your laptop, notebook and smartphone. But also from the worries that keep you awake in the middle of the night. All the stress that doesn't let you sleep well, not digest, and maybe in spite of all the yoga practice, you still find that times you can't breathe too.

Well either your breath is often restricted and shot. And your mind is so busy. As a yoga teacher, I started to see that people who were coming to me for help with back pain, shoulder pain, or neck ache in reality were searching for some kind of peace of mind, leave from the thoughts that they say race through their minds, uncontrolled day and night. When we can't switch off where there is this restlessness in the mind, the likelihood is that our nervous system is locked into fight of light mode as if there was danger all around us.

Instead of this fight of flight response, we must try to get into rest and digest mode. Which is the state when we digest well, sleep soundly, our breathing is slower and our heart rate is more rested. Basically, we feel balanced and centered. And that's when we experience more of our love, compassion, peace of mind and acceptance.

Let us as yoga teacher understand the peripheral nervous system. What exactly is the peripheral nervous system and what role does it play in the body? First it is important to realize that the nervous system is divided into two parts. The central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.

We have already covered the central nervous system in detail. So don't forget to watch it. In the part one series, the central nervous system includes the brain and the spinal cord. While the peripheral nervous system includes all of the nerves that branch out from the brain and spinal cord and extend to other parts of the body including muscles and organs.

Each part of the system plays a vital role in how information is communicated throughout the body. What is the peripheral nervous system? The peripheral nervous system also known as PNS is the division of the nervous system containing all the nerves that lie outside the central nervous system also known as CNS. The primary role of the PNS is to connect the CNS to the organs, limbs and skin.

This nerve extends from the central nervous system to the outermost areas of the body. The peripheral system allows the brain and the spinal cord to receive and send information to other areas of the body which allows us to react to stimuli in our environment. The peripheral nervous system itself is divided into two parts, the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. Each of these components play a critical role in how the peripheral nervous system operates.

The somatic nervous system differs from the autonomic nervous system in the way that it is voluntary versus the autonomic system which is which functions involuntarily and controls the internal organs and glands in the body as opposed to the skeletal muscle. It is this part of the peripheral nervous system responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from the central nervous system. The somatic nervous system derives its name from the Greek word Soma which means body. The somatic system is responsible for transmitting sensory information as well as for voluntary movements.

This system contains two major types of neurons. Motor neurons also called efferent neurons. Motor neurons carry information from the brain and the spinal cord to the muscle fibers throughout the body. As motor neurons allow us to take physical action in response to the stimuli in the environment.

Sensory neuron also called efferent neuron. Sensory neurons carry information from the nerves to the central nervous system. It is these sensory neurons that allow us to take in sensory information and send it to the brain and the spinal cord. The autonomic nervous system is the part of the peripheral nervous system that is responsible for regulating involuntary body functions such as blood flow, heartbeat, digestion and breathing.

In other words, it is the autonomic system that controls aspect of the body that are usually not under voluntary control. This system allows these function to take place without needing to consciously think about them happening. The autonomic system is further divided into two branches. The sympathetic nervous system and the para-sympathetic nervous system.

So let us talk about the sympathetic system. By regulating the fight of flight response, the sympathetic system prepares the body to expend energy to respond to environmental threats when action is needed. The sympathetic system triggers a response by increasing the heart rate, increasing the breathing rate, boosting blood flow to muscles, activating sweat secretions and dilating the pupils. When faced with uncertainty, we often experience that fight of flight or you can say freeze feeling.

This is when we feel scared, angry, the desire to run away or inability to react at all. A beautiful example that I always use is of my better half. So let us say suddenly meet your ex-girlfriend, but now your wife is with you and your ex says hi to you. My God, now what is your reaction?

Your heart beats rapidly, breath is fast and heavy, heat builds up within you. Is that feeling of that adrenaline when faced with danger? Maybe I fight, maybe I freeze or accept the situation and surrender. I just say I don't know you.

This is our sympathetic nervous system activating. The sympathetic nervous system that is SNS is a natural function. We need it to arouse when there is a danger, threatening our well-being as it plays a key role in allowing us to find safety. Now let us say after a chit chat with your ex-girlfriend that you introduced her to your wife.

Now she has gone. You are walking with your wife. The chapter is closed. The sympathetic nervous system deactivates and your parasympathetic nervous system takes over.

Now imagine that she has gone away. That means your ex has gone away. But now you start thinking, oh my God, what happens if my ex-girlfriend talks to my wife and she says all about me. And her, that means you are still under the influence of the sympathetic nervous system.

The problem arises when we cannot let go things. Turn it back down from hyper arousal. Symptoms of hyper arousal are anxiety, panic, agitation, overwhelming and hyper vigilance. Consequences are among other things heightened levels of cortisol and chronic stress.

So if you keep thinking and thinking, then you always are in the fight and flight response. There is more deeper changes happening in your internal organs. The fight or flight activation of our nervous system has a purpose. It is there to protect us from danger.

It gears up our body to be able to survive life threatening situations. In times gone by, that might have been to run from a tiger or fight from an enemy to give the strength and energy. The digestive system shuts down. So the blood can move from the gut to the limbs.

The heart rate goes up and the breathing becomes shallower and more rapid. This makes us faster and stronger. Of course, these life threatening situations are generally shot and we can go back to the rest and digest. Once the danger has passed.

However, in recent times, our worries and challenges are not shot-lived. The challenges and the complexities of modern life leave many of us trapped in the fight or flight over prolonged periods of time. How can we be happy when our physiologic is in fact locked into an alarm state of being? Over time, we become locked in a cycle of alert to the extent that our bodies forget how to go back to a peaceful state of mind.

Ten states in body and mind have become a normal thing. We can end up feeling wired, tired, most of the time. As that is exhausted but still unable to switch off. Perasympathetic system This helps maintain normal body functions and conserve physical resources.

Once a threat has passed, this system will slow the heart rate, slow breathing, reduce blood flow to muscles and constrict the pupils. This allows us to return our bodies to a normal resting state. Opposite to the sympathetic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, that is also known as the PNS. This is your rest and digest or feed and breed system.

Now I will take the same example of my ex-girlfriend. Now imagine she has gone by on a positive note. Now you feel calm, relaxed. It's that amazing feeling of happiness, peace and bliss.

Then when after your favorite yoga class, imagine a seesaw on a playground. The autonomic system is the seesaw as a whole with the sympathetic on one end and the parasympathetic on the other as it pivots up and down. This represents how the PNS and asinus arouse at different times, neither existing without the other. When both sides fluidly seesaw back and forth at a relatively stable equilibrium, they are in balance.

Both systems work together for various functions of the body. One example being birth, the sympathetic system plays a vital role in initiating labor and triggering the baby's own autonomic system to work when they are outside the womb. Yet to birth a baby, a woman also has to stay relatively calm, that is parasympathetic, in order to allow the baby to ease out. Our bodies desire to be in balance.

Biologically, this is called homeostasis. The system is when we can easily bring ourselves back into homeostasis. When our sympathetic nervous system is activated due to stressors like a tiger or challenging situation like we are in right now, a healthy system will be able to return to homeostasis with ease. Yet, sometimes, stressors are so great that our system needs extra support to get there.

See you soon. Take care. Keep smiling. Namaste.

Namaste. Namaste.