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Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience

Marlysa B. Sullivan, Matt Erb, Laura Schmalzl, Steffany Moonaz, Jessica Noggle Taylor, and Stephen W. Porges

EDITORS NOTE

This is a summary made with PrivateGPT using Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2.

If you appreciate this work, feel free to buy the original

or read online here: Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory: The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Mind-body therapies and self-regulation

  • Mind-body therapies, such as yoga therapy, benefit health and well-being through top-down and bottom-up processes
  • Top-down processes: regulation of attention, intention, decreasing psychological stress, HPA axis and SNS activity, modulating immune function and inflammation
  • Bottom-up processes: breathing techniques, movement practices, influencing musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, nervous system function, affecting HPA and SNS activity, emotional well-being
  • Self-regulation: conscious ability to manage responses to threat or adversity, reducing symptoms of various conditions, mitigating allostatic load, shifting autonomic state
  • Gard et al. proposed model of top-down and bottom-up self-regulatory mechanisms of yoga for psychological health

Resilience as a benefit of mind-body therapies

  • Ability to bounce back from adversity and stressful circumstances in a timely way
  • High resilience: quicker cardiovascular recovery, less perceived stress, better management of illness or trauma, better dementia care, chronic pain management
  • Compromised resilience: dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), measured by vagal regulation
  • Yoga is correlated with improvement in psychological resilience and vagal regulation

Integration of top-down and bottom-up processes through Polyvagal Theory and yoga therapy

  • Polyvagal Theory: understanding of interoception, biobehavioral theory of the preparatory set
  • Neural platforms (Polyvagal Theory) and gunas (yoga) link emergence and connectivity between physiological, psychological, and behavioral attributes
  • Affecting neural platform or guna predominance, as well as one's relationship to it, promotes self-regulation and resilience
  • Yoga aims to facilitate the emergence of qualities such as eudaemonia by strengthening experience of sattva and ventral vagal complex (VVC) while developing facility in moving between gunas and neural platforms

POLYVAGAL THEORY

Polyvagal Theory:

  • Offers increased insight into mind-body therapies by elucidating connections between body systems and brain processes
  • Delineates three neural platforms in response to perceived risk: ventral vagal complex (VVC), sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and dorsal vagal complex (DVC)
  • Operate in a phylogenetically determined hierarchy based on environmental safety, danger, or life threat

Neuroception:

  • Subconscious detection of safety or danger in the environment
  • Involves vagal afferents, sensory input, and endocrine mechanisms
  • Reflects reflexive top-down mechanisms evaluating environmental risk prior to conscious elaboration

Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC):

  • Mediates social engagement system
  • Provides neural platform for prosocial behavior and social connection
  • Links neural regulation of visceral states, supporting homeostasis and restoration
  • Facilitates facial expressivity and communication
  • Regulates muscles of face, head, bronchi, and heart
  • Supports flexible and adaptive responses to environmental challenges

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS):

  • Frequently associated with fight-flight behaviors
  • Initial defense strategy when VVC is inadequate to mitigate threat
  • Activation results in increased metabolic output, muscle tone, and heart rate
  • Inhibits gastrointestinal function and bowel/bladder functions
  • Sets the stage for responding to real or assumed danger
  • Associated with fear or anger behaviors

Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC):

  • Primary vagal motor fibers to organs below diaphragm
  • Adaptive response to immense danger or terror
  • Characterized by decreased muscle tone, reduced cardiac output, and altered bowel/bladder function
  • Attempts to reduce metabolic demands for survival
  • Behaviorally referred to as immobilization or shutdown responses
  • May result in disembodied dissociative state or loss of consciousness

Polyvagal Theory:

  • Connects particular physiological states, psychological attributes, and social processes
  • Establishes a physiological state based on threat or safety (determined via neuroception)
  • Allows for or limits the range of emotional and behavioral characteristics accessible to the individual
  • VVC connects visceral homeostasis with emotional characteristics and prosocial behaviors
  • SNS supports mobilization behaviors when VVC is inadequate
  • DVC immobilization response is the most primitive defense mechanism against immense danger or terror

VAGAL ACTIVITY, INTEROCEPTION, REGULATION, AND RESILIENCE

  • Vagal activity:
    • High cardiac vagal tone: correlates with more adaptive processes (attention regulation, affective processing, physiological system flexibility)
    • Low vagal regulation: associated with maladaptive processing, poor self-regulation, less behavioral flexibility, depression, anxiety disorders, and adverse health outcomes
  • Vagus nerve:
    • Composed of 80% afferent fibers
    • Serves as a conduit for interoceptive communication to brain structures
  • Interoception:
    • Essential for top-down and bottom-up processing
    • Integration of interoceptive input, emotion, and sympathovagal balance in insular and cingulate cortices
    • Important for pain, addiction, emotional regulation, healthy adaptive behaviors, social engagement, and resilience
  • Self-regulation:
    • Dependent on accurate interpretation and response to interoceptive information
    • Greater accuracy leads to enhanced adaptability and self-regulation
  • Mind-body therapies:
    • Effective tool for vagal function regulation
    • Mitigate adverse effects associated with social adversity, reduce allostatic load, and facilitate self-regulatory skills and resilience of the ANS.

POLYVAGAL THEORY AND MIND-BODY THERAPIES FOR REGULATION AND RESILIENCE

  • Mind-body therapies focus on somatic awareness (interoception and proprioception) and mindfulness-based qualities
  • Encourage reinterpretation or reorientation to stimuli for insight, adaptability, regulation, and resilience
  • Altering relationship and reaction to BME phenomena essential for self-regulation and well-being

Effects of Mind-Body Therapies

  • Patients report shift in experience and response to negative emotions and sensations
  • Development of self-regulatory skills in pain management, emotional regulation, and reappraisal

Polyvagal Theory Insights

  • Learning to recognize and shift underlying neural platforms affects physiology, emotion, and behavior
  • Mind-body therapies affect vagal pathways, fostering self-regulation and resilience of physiological function, emotion regulation, and prosocial behaviors

Neural Regulation and Resilience

  • Optimal ANS regulation fostered through active engagement of Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC)
  • Improve activation of VVC for homeostatic influence and flexibility in response to stress
  • Widen threshold of tolerance to other neural platforms (Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) or Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC))

Breathing Practices and Connection

  • Breathing maneuvers within yoga facilitate shifts in autonomic state with psychological and health consequences
  • May contribute to experiencing connection beyond social interactions or networks, promoting oneness and unbounded sense of connection.

FIVE GLOBAL STATES AND PREPARATORY SETS

  • Polyvagal Theory: three neural circuits (SNS, VVC, DVC) co-arise and co-exist, allowing for complex human responses to threat
  • Coactivation and complexity in SNS and parasympathetic nervous system interactions (autonomic space)
  • Five global states based on predominant neural platforms:
    • VVC
    • SNS
    • DVC
    • safe mobilization
    • safe immobilization
  • VVC and SNS co-activation: safe mobilization - mind-body practices like yoga or tai chi
  • VVC and DVC co-activation: safe immobilization - social bonding through prosocial activities
  • Preparatory sets: relationship between physical posture, visceral state, affective state, arousal and attention, cognitive expectation
  • Impacting neural platforms affects muscle tone, visceral state, attention, affect, cognition
  • Prolonged time in maladaptive threat states may contribute to disorders like irritable bowel syndrome or fibromyalgia
  • Necessity to investigate mind-body therapies as integrative methodologies affecting multiple components of individual's experience
  • Mind-body practices teach individuals to become aware of preparatory sets, shift unhealthy patterns, and learn adaptive responses through techniques.

Three neural circuits: SNS, VVC, DVC

  • Co-arise, co-exist, and co-mingle
  • Complexity allows for response to threat with withdrawal of cardiac vagal tone before SNS activation
  • Five global states based on dominant neural platforms

Ventricular Vagal Complex (VVC):

  • Enables experience of safety and connection
  • Co-activation with SNS results in safe mobilization
  • Mind-body practices: hatha yoga, tai chi

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS):

  • Supports mobilization of body's resources for dexterity, movement, quick thinking
  • Co-activation with VVC results in safe mobilization
  • Mind-body practices: dance, play, artistic expression, writing

Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC):

  • Facilitates immobilization without fear
  • Co-activation with VVC results in safe immobilization
  • Prosocial activities: childbirth, conception, nursing

Preparatory Sets:

  • Relationship between physical posture, visceral state, affective state, arousal and attention, cognitive expectation
  • Impacting neural platforms affects muscle tone, visceral state, attention, affect, cognition

Mind-Body Practices:

  • Teach individuals to become aware of preparatory sets
  • Shift unhealthy patterns and learn adaptive responses through techniques
  • Tools for self-regulation and cultivation of resilience

Disorders:

  • Prolonged time in maladaptive threat states may contribute to disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia.

YOGA AND YOGA THERAPY

Yoga and Yoga Therapy

  • Payne and Crane-Godreau (2015) suggest yoga as a mind-body practice that affects preparatory set through:
    • Muscle tone/posture
    • Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
    • Attention
    • Affect
    • Cognition

Yoga

  • Ancient practice with various meanings and definitions
  • Historically, yoga as methodology and state of being
  • Yoga as union: union with essential nature or supreme Self
  • Other definitions: equanimity, skill in action
  • Concepts from Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Samkhya Karika, and Yoga Sutras
  • Ancient wisdom integrated with scientific knowledge for healthcare applications

Yoga Therapy

  • Evolving practice in Complementary and Integrative Healthcare (CIH)
  • Accreditation for schools and credentialing of yoga therapists (IAYT)
  • Definitions of yoga practice vary, leading to heterogeneity and poor research reporting
  • Explanatory framework necessary for understanding and utilization as a distinct CIH profession

EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK FOR YOGA THERAPY

  • Definition and establishment of a framework for yoga therapy (Gard et al., 2014; Schmalzl et al., 2015; Streeter et al., 2012; Sullivan et al., 2018)

Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Yoga Therapy

  • Alleviating suffering by transforming relationship to BME phenomena
  • Catalyzing emergence of eudaemonic well-being (Sullivan et al., 2018)

Eudaemonia

  • State of human flourishing or sense of well-being
  • Nontransitory and connected to meaning, purpose, self-realization (Keyes & Simoes, 2012; Ostwald, 1962)

Health Benefits of Eudaemonic Well-Being

  • Mitigation of gene expression changes in response to social adversity
  • Reduction in perceived loneliness
  • Decreased inflammation
  • Improved immune regulation
  • Mental flourishing
  • Decreased all-cause mortality independent of other variables (Cole et al., 2015; Fredrickson et al., 2013; Keyes & Simoes, 2012)

Yoga and Eudaemonia

  • Correlated with eudaemonia (Ivtzan & Papantoniou, 2014)
  • Facilitates mitigation of response to social adversity, decreased inflammation, improved immune regulation (Black et al., 2013; Bower et al., 2014)

Significance of Eudaemonic Framework for Yoga Therapy

  • Promotes emergence of eudaemonic well-being and its concomitant physiological and mental health benefits
  • Important for research and expanded integration into modern healthcare contexts
  • Wide variety of patient populations and conditions.

YOGA’S PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION: PRAKRITI AND PURUSHA

  • Yoga teaches that suffering comes from individual's relationship, reaction, and misidentification with phenomena of the material world (BME)
  • Yoga practices help change relationship to BME phenomena and potentially alleviate suffering through discrimination and discernment
  • Discrimination involves understanding the difference between: Material Nature (Prakriti)
    • All that is seen, changes, and is made manifest
    • Consists of three fundamental qualities or gunas: tamas, rajas, sattva Spirit (Purusha)
    • Spirit, indweller, observer, seer, or experiencer of material nature
    • Does not change, does not interact with prakriti
  • Realization of the difference between purusha and prakriti leads to:
    • Eased suffering
    • Potential experience of steadfast joy (eudaemonia)

References: Bawra, M. (2012). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Translation. Shambhala Publications. Easwaran, E. (2007). The Bhagavad Gita. Nilgiri Press. Mallinson, J., & Singleton, M. (2017). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Translation. Penguin Books. Miller, J. I. (2012). Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life. Rodmell Press. Stoler-Miller, G. (1998). The Inner Tradition of Hatha Yoga: Its History, Philosophy, and Psychology. Shambhala Publications. Stoler-Miller, G. (2004). The Inner Heart of Yoga: A Guide to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Shambhala Publications.

THE GUNAS, QUALITIES OF MATERIAL NATURE

  • Three qualities of material nature, shaping characteristics of everything in the BME (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Enable dynamism and unique qualities in the BME (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012; Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Misidentification of purusha with gunas leads to suffering (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012; Stoler-Miller, 1998, 2004)

Understanding the Gunas:

  • Knowledge and practices of yoga help realize difference between purusha and prakriti (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012; Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Apprehension and discernment of gunas essential for understanding causes of suffering and its alleviation

Description of the Gunas:

Sattva:

  • Quality of pleasure, calmness, tranquility (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012; Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Lightness, clarity, harmony, buoyance, illumination, lucidity, joy, understanding (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012; Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Foundation for wisdom, discrimination, clear seeing (Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Maladaptive states: avoidance, unhealthy attachment, psychospiritual crisis, indifference (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)

Rajas:

  • Quality of energy, turbulence, pain (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Supports movement, creativity, motivation, activity (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Obscures knowledge and clear seeing, impedes yogi's capacity to discern prakriti from purusha (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Balanced with sattva and tamas: motivation, creativity for inspiring change (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Preponderance may increase anger, agitation, anxiety (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)

Tamas:

  • Quality of inertia, delusion, indifference (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Provides support for stillness, stability, groundedness (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Fosters dullness, inertia, obscuration, delusion, ignorance (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Balanced with sattva and rajas: provides form and stability (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Overpredominance may give rise to delusion, inertia, or obscuration (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)

The Three Gunas Working Together:

  • Metaphor of a lamp: wick, oil, flame work together for illumination (Bawra, 2012; Larson & Isvarakrsna, 2014; Miller, 2012)
  • In constant movement and coexistence (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012)
  • Different proportions in each object of material nature give them unique attributes (Bawra, 2012; Miller, 2012

CONVERGENCE OF POLYVAGAL THEORY WITH THE GUNAS

  • Both frameworks provide insights into the foundations of physical, psychological, and behavioral attributes
  • Polyvagal Theory: neural platforms activated in response to perceived threat or safety with BME phenomena
  • Yoga: gunas influence the emergence and interplay of physical, psychological, and behavioral attributes

Polyvagal Theory:

  • Coexistence of neural platforms leads to experiences of play (safe mobilization) and intimacy (safe immobilization)
  • Activation of a neural platform results in BME states
  • Neural platforms reflected in gunas in a convergent and analogous manner

Gunas:

  • Coexistence of gunas creates varied phenomena of BME and influences reaction to stimuli
  • Predominance of a guna supports activation of a neural platform
  • Sattva guna: reflects through the nervous system, manifesting VVC attributes; vice versa

Relationship between Polyvagal Theory and Gunas:

  • Activation of one guna influences the activation of a specific neural platform
  • Shared characteristics emerge when a neural platform is activated or a guna predominates
  • Yoga therapy may affect both underlying neural platforms and gunas, leading to improved self-regulation and resilience.

COMPARATIVE LOOK AT NEURAL PLATFORMS, GLOBAL STATES, AND GUNAS

  • Both Polyvagal Theory and yoga describe three primary neural platforms or qualities: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas

Sattva and the VVC (Ventral Vagus Complex)

  • Emergent attributes: connection, equanimity, eudaemonia
  • Foundation: interoception, calmness, tranquility, understanding of "Self"
  • Supports: interoceptivity, connection, equanimity, eudaemonia
  • Neurophysiological foundation: VVC neural platform
  • Well-adapted for restoration, relaxation, and connection
  • Maladaptive when individual cannot respond adequately to environment

Rajas and the SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System)

  • Emergent attributes: mobilization, activation, creativity, motivation, optimal action, change
  • Foundation: activating and motivating forces
  • Well-adapted response to immediate threat or eustress
  • Maladaptive: excessive allostatic load, fear, anger, aggression

Tamas and the DVC (Dorsal Vagus Complex)

  • Emergent attributes: stability, restraint, immobilization, inertia, dissociation
  • Foundation: internal conditions for social bonding and intimacy
  • Well-adapted responses to extreme threat
  • Maladaptive: chronic disease states

Preparatory Sets

  • Five distinct preparatory sets stemming from Polyvagal Theory and gunas
  • Alteration in predominant guna affects all layers of the preparatory set (muscle tone/posture, autonomic state, affect, attention, expectation)

Integrative Yogic Approach

  • Affect underlying gunas and correlated neural platforms for comprehensive intervention
  • Evaluation, assessment, and direction of intervention toward affecting the gunas
  • Result: change in gunas leads to concurrent effects on all layers of the preparatory set and physical, psychological, and behavioral well-being.

THE APPLICATION OF YOGA’S MODEL AND PRACTICES FOR SELF-REGULATION AND RESILIENCE

  • Yoga practices proposed to integrate autonomic, cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes for regulation across physical, psychological, and behavioral domains
  • Effective at downregulating system toward parasympathetic, ventral vagal dominance (VVD)
  • Benefits diverse conditions: depression, epilepsy, PTSD, chronic pain, etc.
  • Influence on autonomic nervous system and other interrelated mechanisms
  • Promotes vagal tone, decreases allostatic load, enhances self-regulation
  • Concurrent benefits for autonomic regulation, attention, affect
  • Greater body awareness, compassion, eudaemonic well-being

Yoga's Comprehensive Methodology

  • Autonomic regulation, attentional and interoceptive awareness, intrinsic values promotion
  • Integrated practice of yamas and niyamas, asanas, pranayama, meditation

Ethical Principles (Yamas and Niyamas)

  • Inform and direct response to BME phenomena
  • Facilitate positive states and prosocial behavior
  • Nonharming, nonattachment, contentment
  • Alter the way we pay attention to stimuli
  • Emergence of compassion, nonjudgment, acceptance

Physical Practices (Asanas)

  • Bottom-up regulatory tool
  • Alter state of autonomic nervous system
  • Promote resilience

Breathing Techniques (Pranayama)

  • Directly affect cardiac vagal tone
  • Initiate vagal brake
  • Move system toward VVD platform
  • Another bottom-up regulatory practice

Mind-Training Practices

  • Focused attention and open monitoring meditation
  • Regulation practices offered by yoga tradition

YOGA PRACTICES FOR SELF-REGULATION: FACILITATING THE VVC NEURAL PLATFORM AND SATTVA

  • Sattva and VVC neural platform share beneficial characteristics for physical and mental health, prosocial behavior, and self-regulation
  • Yoga practices can strengthen one to affect the other
  • Cultivating sattva:
    • Essential for clarity needed to gain insight into relationship with phenomena (BME)
    • Builds discriminative wisdom, developmental clarity, systemic adaptability, and resilience
    • Supports positive internal relationships with interoceptive sensations, memories, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs
    • Facilitates healthy relationships with others
  • VVC neural platform:
    • Supports physiological restoration, mental regulation, and prosocial behavioral attributes
    • Anchor for critical self-regulatory skills
    • Enhances individual's ability to activate the VVC for greater systemic adaptability and resilience
  • Benefits of Sattva and VVC:
    • Connection
    • Tranquility
    • Equanimity
    • Eudaemonia (self-restoration, interoceptivity, prosocial emotions)
  • Reciprocal relationship between Sattva and VVC:
    • Facilitates emergence of eudaemonic well-being
    • Crucial step in learning self-regulatory skills
  • Yoga practices to enhance function of vagal pathways and strengthen sattva:
    • Yama/Niyama (ethical guidelines)
    • Asanas (postures)
    • Pranayama (breathing exercises)
    • Meditation

References:

  • Bawra, S. (2012). The Bhagavad Gita: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment. Shambhala Publications.
  • Chu, D., et al. (2017). Effects of yoga on cardiac autonomic function in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(5), 489-496.
  • Kolacz, K., & Porges, S. W. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Yoga: An Integrative Approach to Physiology and Psychology. In Handbook of Yoga Science and Practice (pp. 357-369). Springer, Cham.
  • Miller, P. D. (2012). The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation and Commentary for Contemporary Readers. Shambhala Publications.
  • Porges, S. W., & Kolacz, K. (2018). Polyvagal theory in yoga: An integrative approach to physiology and psychology. In Handbook of Yoga Science and Practice (pp. 349-356). Springer, Cham.
  • Sarang, V., & Telles, S. (2006). Effects of pranayama on heart rate variability in healthy subjects. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 54(1), 117-123.
  • Stoler-Miller, S. (2004). The Bhagavad Gita: A Modern Translation and Commentary. Shambhala Publications.
  • Sullivan, M., et al. (2018). Yoga as an adjunctive intervention for depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Depression and Anxiety, 35(4), 329-346.
  • Telles, S., et al. (2016). Effects of yoga on heart rate variability in healthy subjects: A systematic review. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 22(8), 675-682.
  • Tyagi, D., & Cohen, L. G. (2016

YOGA’S PRACTICES TO CULTIVATE RESILIENCE

  • Yoga practices promote resilience by activating Sattva and optimizing autonomic control

Sattva:

  • Increases neural capacity for regulation and promotes psychological adaptability
  • Reduces emotional reactivity and lowers physiological set point of reactivity (Gard et al., 2014)
  • Navigating VVC, SNS, and DVC neural platforms: Vagus Nervous System (VVC):
  • Creating a therapeutic container for safely challenging resilience
  • Neural exercises expanding capacity to regulate state and promote resilience

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and Dorsal Vagus Complex (DVC):

  • Healthy navigation of these neural platforms is essential for meeting environmental needs
  • Yoga's perspective on resilience: Gunas:
  • Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas represent the inherent movement in all material nature
  • Nonattachment, disidentification, and recognition of impermanence (Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Yoga practice objectives: Discrimination between Purusha and Prakriti:
  • Not detachment or isolation from life but changing relationship to the movement of phenomena
  • Experiencing deep equanimity, inexhaustible joy, and pure calmness (Stoler-Miller, 2004)
  • Yoga practices for resilience: Safe mobilization:
  • Activation of SNS within a container of VVC for safe activation
  • Utilizing rajas for creativity, motivation, or change without negative force

Safe immobilization:

  • Maintaining the neural platform of VVC while activating the system
  • Alternating between relaxing and activating practices to foster regulation and resilience
  • Cultivating sattva:
  • Techniques for setting ethical intentions, attentional control, meditation, breath, and movement
  • Building the foundation of sattva for greater resilience when confronted with disturbances
  • Yoga therapy process: Foundation of safety/VVC:
  • Encouraging a safe foundation from which rajas and tamas can be experienced with adaptability and resilience in relation to BME phenomena.

DISCUSSION

Theoretical Model: Yoga and Polyvagal Theory

  • Two systems explaining neural platforms and gunas' role in physiological, psychological, and behavioral attributes
  • Shifting neural platforms or guna predominance can be influenced by yoga practices
  • Development of interoceptive awareness and sensitivity fosters regulation and resilience
  • Neural platform reflects guna predominance, and vice versa
  • Yoga as a form of neural exercise for regulation and resilience
  • Cultivating sattva (calm, clarity) and accessing VVC (ventral vagal complex) for physiological restoration and positive states
  • Practices help individuals move between neural platforms and gunas for adaptability and resilience

Model Applications:

  • Self-regulation: Cultivating sattva and using yoga practices to return to restorative states
  • Expanding tolerance: Changing relationship with rajas/SNS (sympathetic nervous system) and tamas/DVC (dorsal vagal complex), finding support in underlying sattva or VVC state
  • Bridge-building: Combining yoga foundational theory with neurophysiological thinking for research, public understanding, and healthcare integration

Benefits:

  • Cultivating eudaemonic well-being (happiness, connection, tranquility)
  • Developing self-regulatory skills
  • Enhancing adaptability, flexibility, and resilience of the system.

IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Implications and Future Directions

  • Proposed implications and directions for yoga therapy research based on theoretical model
  • Include comprehensive system of yoga: yama and niyama, asanas, pranayama, meditation
  • Facilitate eudaemonic well-being in diverse populations
  • Target interventions to underlying guna states or neural platforms

Implications for Research

  1. Eudaemonic Well-Being, Interoception, and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
    • Examine mechanisms of yoga therapy's impact on quality of life, self-regulation, resilience, pain, inflammation, loneliness, anxiety, depression
    • Investigate relationship between HRV, interoception, eudaemonic well-being, and health
  2. HRV, Interoception, and Eudaemonic Well-Being
    • Quantitative and qualitative exploration of connection to physical, psychological, behavioral health
  3. Neural Platforms and Gunas Convergence Hypothesis
    • Investigate relationship between Polyvagal Theory states and guna states (SNS, VVC, DVC)
    • Associate physiological states with subjective experiences of calm, equanimity, anxiety, fear, disconnection
  4. Gunas Assessment, Evaluation, and Intervention
    • Continued definition and utilization for regulation, resilience, health and well-being in diverse populations and conditions

CONCLUSION

Yoga Therapy and Eudaemonic Well-being

  • Yoga therapy promotes eudaemonic well-being through effects on physical, mental, and behavioral health
  • Builds self-regulatory skills and resilience

Gunas of Yoga and Neural Platforms of Polyvagal Theory

  • Reflections of each other, not identical
  • Working with gunas and neural platforms facilitates systemic regulation and resilience

Sattva, VVC, and Eudaemonia

  • Strong foundation in sattva and VVC for connection, tranquility, and eudaemonia
  • Benefits to physiological, psychological, and behavioral health and well-being

Resilience and Rajas/Tamas Gunas

  • Change relationship to natural fluctuations of gunas and neural platforms (SNS and DVC)
  • Effectively bounce back to states of restoration and build resilience

Integration of Polyvagal Theory and Gunas in Yoga Therapy

  • Shifting underlying guna states and neural platforms
  • Supports self-regulation and resilience, lessens allostatic load
  • Distinct from other CIH practices

Implications for Research and Healthcare

  • Informs integration of yoga interventions for various patient populations and conditions

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