Busy professionals? How yoga can help you keep a serene & focus mind through healthy hormones
Did you know that whether you're a woman or a man, your different systems primarily function thanks to chemical signals, the famous "hormones"?
I like to imagine them as little conductors who allow your body to react and adapt to events happening either internally or externally, working in harmony with your nervous system.
Of course, the goal is to have these conductors at their best so that everything runs smoothly in your body and mind.
This article is the first in a series to help you better understand the fascinating world of hormones and how yoga can help keep them in top shape.
So let's embark on this great adventure!
Let's start our adventure in the magical world of hormones by getting to know the main characters of our story...
Tip: Feel free to skip this section if you already have a good idea of what the hormonal world is and how it functions, or if you prefer to go with the flow and read on with your intuition.
We are remarkable beings! We grow, walk, talk, react, digest, breathe... And for most of these actions, we don't have to do anything! They happen autonomously, without the need for conscious thought or decision-making.
How? Through signals that send messages to our muscles and organs, all in the right quantity and at the right time to ensure everything is well-coordinated and organized.
These signals are created either by our nervous system or by our hormonal system.
Our first character: The Hormone
Who is this hormone that everyone talks about? To put it simply, a hormone is a small chemical signal, which you can imagine as your enthusiastic yoga teacher, telling your cells, "Hey, stretch a little more, relax here, activate this part of your body."
According to current knowledge, we have 50 hormones that regulate different parts of our body, all with the help of the nervous system, to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Quick question: If I ask you to name one or more hormones, what do you say?
Here's a clue: testosterone, estrogen, adrenaline, insulin...
Our next character: The Endocrine System
When we talk about hormones, it's hard not to mention the endocrine system (or hormonal system), which consists of organs and tissues that produce hormones. The most well-known ones are probably the thyroid, ovaries, and testicles.
Another important character: The Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system controls your internal world through electrical signals. It's called "autonomic" because it does its job without you needing to do anything.
It has three branches:
The sympathetic system boosts your energy and attention when needed (it's the one that puts us in the famous "fight or flight" state).
The parasympathetic system helps conserve energy, relax, and digest what happens to you (it's the "rest and digest" part of our nervous system), activated by the vagus nerve, one of our cranial nerves that extends from the head to the abdomen.
The enteric system (in the intestines), which manages digestion.
A not-so-well-known character: The Neurohormone
Neurohormones are produced by your neurons, so by the nervous system, but they travel through the blood to have a long-distance effect on your body.
The most well-known neurohormones are dopamine and oxytocin, that we often call “hormones” in casual discussions.
Our last character: Yoga
Of course! Yoga is one of our main characters. This holistic practice aims to help you connect your body and mind, stay in motion, breathe better, and become more aware of how you react to the things around you.
The Links Between the Hormonal System and the Autonomic Nervous System
What are the connections between the hormonal system and the autonomic nervous system?
The endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system are two systems that work together to maintain balance in your body and mind.
They simply use different means:
The nervous system uses electrical signals that travel through the nerves, which are super fast but have a relatively short-lasting effect.
The endocrine system uses chemical signals that circulate in the blood, at varying speeds depending on the blood circulation (which is part of the nervous system, by the way), with longer-lasting effects.
Hormones act directly based on what is happening inside your body. However, they are also produced in response to information received through the nervous system, stimulated by the eyes, skin, ears, mouth, and nose.
Here's an example of the connection between the endocrine system and the nervous system in your daily life:
Let's say you have a deadline approaching tomorrow. Your sympathetic nervous system kicks in to boost your energy by releasing adrenaline so that you can meet the deadline.
The next day, you submit your report on time, and your nervous system stops boosting your energy and returns to a more relaxed state.
But the following day and the weeks that follow, you have more and more deadlines. Your nervous system can no longer handle it because it is designed for immediate reactions. That's when your hormonal system takes over to manage such prolonged situations by secreting other hormones, like cortisol.
The importance of our main character, our hormones, for our physical and mental health
When we talk about "hormones," we often think about the reproductive system and hormones like testosterone, progesterone, or estrogen.
However, the endocrine system regulates other vital processes such as metabolism, growth, and emotional well-being.
It's clear that if our hormonal system doesn't function properly, either by producing too many or too few hormones, it has consequences on our physical and/or mental health.
Therefore, it's important to have tools to help maintain hormonal balance.
That’s how yoga comes into action and helps maintain proper hormonal function
As mentioned earlier, the hormonal system reacts to changes occurring in your body as well as external factors.
The great advantage of yoga is that it's a holistic practice that allows you to move, breathe, and be more aware of what's happening around you and how you react to it.
Here are the principles of yoga that support hormonal balance & examples of practices that you can easily implement even in your most busy days:
Physical movement through yoga poses, whether gentle stretches or muscle strengthening, activates blood circulation, helping hormones reach cells more efficiently.
For example, shoulderstand pose (Sarvangasana) and fish pose (Matsyasana) stimulate the thyroid gland, while Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana) can have a calming effect on the adrenal glands.
The movement also activates the lymphatic system, which plays a significant role in eliminating toxins and waste from the body.
Focusing on breathing has a significant impact on activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the one responsible for feelings of serenity often overshadowed by the sympathetic nervous system's overactivity in our daily lives (which requires a lot of energy to respond to our daily responsibilities).
Breathing exercises, such as exhaling longer than inhaling, help activate the vagus nerve, which in turn regulates the endocrine system often imbalanced by stress.
Discovering your way of reacting to different events in your daily life can be a game-changer in your life. In yoga, we seek self-awareness, observing our sensations, and thought patterns, which helps in better emotional management. Since we know that the hormonal system reacts to our emotions, getting to know them and understanding our own patterns allow us to modify certain habits to better handle external events that affect us.
Proven positive effects of regular yoga practice on hormones:
By promoting better breathing and observation, yoga helps manage daily stress more effectively. As a result, our hormonal system produces fewer stress hormones, such as adrenaline or cortisol, and our body and mind become less exhausted.
Through movement and postures, the glands of the endocrine system, blood circulation, and lymphatic system are gently activated. This promotes proper hormone levels, their better circulation, and the elimination of unnecessary hormones.
Yoga also stimulates the release of hormones that contribute to a sense of well-being, safety, and relaxation, which positively influences hormonal balance.
The number 1 exercise I recommend practicing regularly, even daily, to balance hormones, and feel serene & focused all day long:
Our hormonal and nervous systems work together to maintain our body and mind in a state of balance, adapting to internal and external changes without exhausting us.
Like everything else in our body, they are interconnected and support each other while self-regulating.
From the exercises mentioned in this article, the first one I would recommend for an optimal hormonal function is the extended exhale
It’s really simple, takes only some seconds, and can be done everywhere: simply inhale for a count of 4 or 5 and exhale adding 1 or 2 counts.
Why this simple breathing exercise is my number one to keep your body and mind at their best all day long? Because your nervous system is constantly stimulated, and whether you like it or not, it activates your sympathetic system. Consequently, your hormonal system tends to produce stress hormones constantly, which exhausts your body. By exhaling longer, the vagus nerve is activated, which in turn activates the parasympathetic system. As a result, the hormonal system relaxes, and you feel at ease and focus during your busy days.
Upcoming articles on yoga and hormones:
In the upcoming articles, I will address more specific situations of hormonal imbalances, such as stress, sleep, or women's health. We will explore how to use yoga to ensure proper hormonal balance in these situations.