How Qigong Can Support Your Autonomic Nervous System

Western science helps explain what Eastern wisdom has known all along.

If you read my most recent email, you know that I touched on the autonomic nervous system and its role in regulating (or not, as the case may be) our blood pressure. If you’ve also been reading this blog for a while you know that I like to bring a Western understanding into Qigong theory and its benefits to make a seemingly esoteric concept more approachable.

It’s great to see Qigong and other mindfulness practices being studied so that we can understand just how and why they are so effective. Across all of these studies, we can see how these arts reduce inflammation, lower cortisol, improve blood pressure, regulate insulin metabolism, and much more. The common thread that ties all of these fantastic benefits together is inducing a parasympathetic state and regulation of the autonomic nervous system.

Our autonomic nervous system manages all the activities in our body that we don’t consciously think of but need to do in order to survive: think the beating of your heart, the inflation and deflation of the lungs, churning food through the intestines, and the like. Our brains selectively engage one of these systems depending on the circumstances and surroundings. Parasympathetic, when we are at rest or relaxing (hence the nickname ‘rest and digest’), or sympathetic, when we are under any kind of stress perceived as life-threatening. Our parasympathetic systems govern activities like digestion, going to the bathroom, and all that fun stuff associated with reproduction. Our sympathetic systems alert us to danger and get us back to safety by raising our heart rate and dilating our blood vessels so we can fight, flight, or (hopefully not) freeze.

But while our sympathetic nervous system has helped us survive and evolve as a species over time, it doesn’t fully differentiate between a very real, serious threat and ordinary, everyday stressors like traffic, the news, and difficult relationships. What this means is that when we are constantly in a state of low-grade sympathetic activation, our bodies are also pumping out the cortisol and inflammatory cytokines that it needs to rescue us from the perceived threat. Over time and exposure, we see all of the markers that mindfulness DECREASES start to creep up which cumulatively result in poor health and disease.

It is said that neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that our reactions to stressors become habitual over time, along with all of the consequences of those actions. This is where Qigong and the parasympathetic response comes in. Just as we can let a negative response become habit, so too can we let a positive response become habit. When we enter into a Qigong state, we also induce a parasympathetic state. The more time we spend in this state, the more normal it becomes to us. As our responses to real and perceived stressors become less intense or even positive (is that annoying traffic jam just an opportunity to finish a favorite podcast?), our brains build the habit of a more beneficial response to the world and all it throws at us, and as this happens, those inflammatory markers go down. We, as a result, become more happy and more vibrant.

Phew! That’s a lot of science. But it’s important to understand just what is really happening in our bodies when we smile from the heart, enter into a Qigong state, let ourselves go physically and mentally, so as to allow our Qi to move spontaneously to eliminate all of those blockages. We’re just on the cusp of Qigong For Health and Vitality starting up this fall, where you can learn these very grounding and centering skills so that you rise up to meet life, with all of its flowers AND warts, with grace and poise. Head to the link below for more details.

UPCOMING CLASSES