How to Balance Sympathetic and Parasympathetic States

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated April 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that regulates the various mostly unconscious functions of the body such as digestion, heart rate, respiration, and sexual arousal. The two main divisions of the autonomic nervous system are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and to a large extent these two divisions of the nervous system are antagonistic to each other.

Function of Sympathetic Nervous System

The responsibilities of the sympathetic nervous system are most easily described by the common fight or flight phase. When the body is primed for action the sympathetic nervous system is dominant. Exercising, stressful high-stakes situations, fighting, or fleeing are all examples of when the sympathetic nervous system is dominant. The release and presence of cortisol and adrenaline is another easy way to identify a sympathetic state from a parasympathetic one.

Function of Parasympathetic Nervous System

The responsibilities of the parasympathetic nervous system are most easily described by the common feed and breed and rest and digest phrases. The parasympathetic nervous system is dominant when the body is in a relaxed state. Relaxing, sleeping, and low-effort activities are all examples of when the parasympathetic nervous system is dominant. The parasympathetic nervous system also governs sexual arousal, though the autonomic nervous system may begin shifting to a sympathetic state if sexual activities become especially energetic.

While most people are aware of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, their functions, and the importance of keeping the two balanced, many people still have unbalanced nervous systems. Using everyday examples this article presents an easy to grasp methodology of how to stay balanced between sympathetic and parasympathetic states. First let’s examine the symptoms of an overly-active sympathetic and (less commonly) an overly-active parasympathetic nervous system.

Adrenal Fatigue

The entire nervous system is highly complex being composed of many different parts, from various glands of the endocrine system, to an assortment of chemicals and neurotransmitters, to neurons themselves and the ion balances they maintain in order to discharge (known as a neural spike). Whenever the nervous system is interacted with it is stressed to some degree, and this impact will tax the resources available to the system. The larger the stress to the system the larger the depletion of required components like vitamins, minerals, and neurotransmitters.

For example endurance exercise like running will causes the adrenal glands to release the hormone cortisol and also vitamin C (both useful for performance purposes_. Post exercise the adrenal glands now will replenish cortisol levels to normal by synthesizing it from cholesterol and other chemicals. A 20 minute jog will stress the adrenal glands much less than a 90 minute run. If adequate recovery and nutrition is not provided after the exercise, the body suffers but will adapt to the new reality, reducing performance capabilities. Overtime after many bouts of exercise if such disregard of keeping the natural systems well fueled and in balance continues the result is adrenal fatigue, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. The body underwent long term adaptations (like low-energy sluggishness) to the stresses of an overly active sympathetic nervous system in order to provide the body the best chance of recovery through unconscious behavioral alteration. Said another way, you’ll be less likely to exercise if you don’t feel high energy to begin with, which gives the adrenal glands a better chance of restoring themselves to proper function.

Note - For those who practice herbalism taking ashwagandha before the exercise, or later as part of a recovery protocol, could have helped prevent adrenal fatigue from developing in the first place (though certainly a good diet, enough rest, and the right mindset are the most important factors).

The adrenals are one gland of many in the endocrine (hormone) system, and the endocrine system is one part of many of the nervous system. For this reason, if balance isn’t maintained between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, the imbalance can manifest in a nearly limitless amount of ways, from reduced immunity to the development of a chronic disease.

Visualizing the Activity of the Autonomic Nervous System

In the example above with the constant endurance exercise causing adrenal fatigue it’s important to note two things. First, exercise which is a sympathetic activity is good for health and wellness when done to the proper limit which causes a beneficial adaptation. Second, after this exercise occurs it’s most advantageous to rest and refuel fairly soon afterwards.

Let’s visual various states of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity using waves. Each wave has a positive (peak) and negative (trough). A wave cannot be a wave without both parts. Sympathetic waves will be colored pink and parasympathetic waves will be colored green.

Example 1 - Laying in bed all day

If one was to wake up and continue lying in bed all day until it was time to sleep again, the wave would actually look like a straight line going deeper and deeper into parasympathetic activity.

Example 2 - Hectic day with no rest

If one was to wake up and immediately afterwards be crazy active all day fueled throughout with a few cups of coffee and no rest is taken then the wave would look like a line going upwards further and further into sympathetic nervous system activity.

In both of these simple examples we’ll note that in order to return to balance the person who slept all day should be fairly active the next (and they should have the energy for it), whereas the over-active person should rest and relax most of the following day (and they should be sufficiently tired). If these steps are taken then the full up and down of the autonomic nervous system wave would be balanced over a two day time scale rather.

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Example 3 - Lazy day with run then rest

Now let’s visualize a lazy rest day with a run in the middle. They’re doing some chores, some relaxing, it’s a fairly good balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity up to the run.

As shown, the run caused a spike in sympathetic activity and then because they rested afterwards a corresponding dip into parasympathetic activity, a healthy balance over that few hour timespan.

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Now let’s visual a hectic workday fueled by a couple cups of coffee followed by a run immediately after work. After the run two main options are present. Does the person rest enough to recover from all the go-go-go activity for the day, or do they continue around being busy and stressed? Here’s what each of these options looks like.

Example 4 - Hectic day with run & no rest

This graphic shows the person accumulated a net sympathetic balance which the body will require to be balanced out at some later point in time, the sooner the better. While that day may have been stressful, with sufficient rest the following day (like shown in the 2 day version of example 2) the body will adapt to the whole experience and health is maintained. If that day is never recovered from, and in fact that type of lifestyle continues on day after day for a couple years, then the tide that eventually flows out (deep parasympathetic rest) will be just as large as the tide of sympathetic activity that flowed in unbroken for weeks/months/years.

The required parasympathetic recuperation that the nervous system requires might finally be triggered by the onset of an illness or disease…or if the person is conscious and checks their ego they’ll catch it early and make the necessary lifestyle adjustments in order to return to optimal health and wellness.

Example 5 - Hectic day with run then rest

This graphic on the other hand shows that sympathetic and parasympathetic balance was reached on that day and no long term health effects will result. Having recovered sufficiently, the person adapted to the run and improved their future performance slightly.

The point of these examples is to impress upon you the importance of having a lifestyle that maintains sympathetic and parasympathetic balance and to typically keep the waves small. Larger waves have the potential to create more problems, so don’t create large waves yourself as life will do that for you already in abundance. If a large wave of stress comes in, like from being fired or the death of a family member, if you’re already riding a large wave of sympathetic activity then things can go south quickly.

Note - All these examples made the assumption that the person slept a restful 8 hours after the day was done. If sleep is poor then parasympathetic recovery will be reduced correspondingly and will add further complications to the matter. Learn more about the importance of sleep.

Easy Recovery Methods

We’ll return to the example of a bout of exercise to outline the strategy I follow to maintain sympathetic and parasympathetic balance across a short time scale in order to parasympathetic debt to accumulate.

• Ease into a workout with a warm-up. This primes the body for better performance by allowing time for the metabolic systems to warm up instead of being quickly jolted into a demanding sympathetic state.

• Rest after a workout with a cool-down. Once the main working sets of a workout are complete, take a short period of time to rest afterwards, whether it’s a minimum of five minutes of shavasana or a more complete thirty minute stretch session. The yogic systems teach this well, every yoga session is followed by some time lying down in shavasana (corpse pose) and deeply relaxing. Increase the efficiency of a post workout rest with healthy sun exposure if possible in order to replenish vitamin D levels in the body (important after a workout).

• If a workout is one hour long, set aside one hour of rest afterwards or later in the day. This can watching a show, reading a book, light conversation, etc. Three hours of hard physical fitness is best served with three hours of rest. This 1:1 ratio is a simple rule of thumb that can be followed, the intensity of an activity (fitness or rest) will determine exactly how much is required to balance out the demands of the other.

Sympathetic and parasympathetic fluctuations over longer time spans are harder to measure unless careful observations are continuously made. For example the demands and stresses of the first 3 months of a new job would build over time, and to recover from the sympathetic stress that accumulated would require a longer period of rest and recovery, such as a long weekend spent camping in nature and grounding. Or that stress could have been balanced out by starting a new recovery practice like grounding alongside the job.

One final relevant example would be if drinking coffee daily for 4 weeks (which increases sympathetic activity through the release of cortisol), then coffee consumption should be reduced or cycled off completely for 4 weeks or so. If that proposition sounds difficult, read my caffeine usage and tolerance reset guide.

If taking an herb like cistanche (which raises testosterone levels and therefore sympathetic activity) for performance or health reasons cycle off the herb for as long as you were using it for. This on/off strategy holds true for most supplements. Creating longer fluctuations of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity can be useful for certain endeavors, whether health or career related, just be aware that certain risk factors will increase and the proper steps should be taken to maintain balance as best as possible.

Over-active sympathetic nervous system activity is far more common than experiencing too much parasympathetic activity, so learn more useful recovery methods you can use to maintain balance by reading through our recovery focused articles:

Balancing Stress and Rest

The equation is simple, the addition of new stresses requires the addition of new recovery practices. Likewise, if lazing and grazing about all day (parasympathetic), then it would be best to introduce some sympathetic activity like walking, yoga, calisthenics, strength training, running, heat therapy via a sauna or steam room, etc into the daily routine.

The recommendations given in how to balance sympathetic and parasympathetic states is not intended to be viewed through the lens of limitation but instead seen opportunistically. Lifestyle changes may be required to better maintain a state of autonomic nervous system balance, but when those waves of beyond-our-control stressors eventually roll in, better adaptability to these challenges more than makes up for any slight conveniences that may have been sacrificed up until that moment. With time and practice, the flow of maintaining balance is felt intuitively pretty easily, and it’s not difficult to keep activity balanced with recovery. In addition to being a very important factor in the maintenance of good health, being in the flow of balance requires minimal thought and consciousness which frees up time, cognitive power, and resources for other desires and ventures.

The information presented here is a combination of biological science and my own experience learning how to maintain nervous system balance. When I was in my mid to late twenties I went through a multi-year phase of heavy strength training coupled with a disregard of performing an equivalent amount of recovery practices. I pushed my sympathetic system further and further until I was jolted to the realization that I needed to practice better management of my energy systems. I experienced adrenal fatigue and it took me about a year to really reset my nervous system back to point of health and balance by moving away from weights and by practicing a lot of yoga, meditation, and grounding. I am thankful I learned he lesson of maintaining balance when I did rather than many years down the line after greater unnecessary hardship.

Too much or too little stress/activity is a large causal factor in serious health problems like obesity, infectious diseases, and chronic diseases, so if you respect your physiological and psychological need for both activity and rest and you’ll have solved for yourself one of the largest wellness problems that effects humanity.

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Calisthenics, Weight Training, and Isometrics for Physical Development

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated January 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There are many ways to train the physical body for increased strength, vitality, health, and performance. Each training modality is different in where and how it stimulates the systems of the body, and the adaptations that occur. While there are many ways to exercise, three common methods are by using bodyweight exercises (calisthenics), by lifting weights, and using isometrics (zero movement exercises).

Calisthenics is a form of resistance training which relies solely on the movement, weight, and tension of the body. The simple pushup, squat, or pullup are the most common examples of calisthenics exercises, though more advanced gymnastic movements such as muscle-ups, planches, and levers all apply.

With weight training, force is produced against objects of various weight such as dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells. Machines and strongman training implements like stones and logs also are types of weights. Weight training is scalable by increasing or decreasing exercise weight based on methodologies such as progressive overload.

Isometrics are exercises that involve zero movement, and this can be done resisting the force of gravity using weights, or pushing/pulling against immovable objects. Holding a plank is an isometric exercise, as would holding the open position of a dumbbell fly, or pushing as hard as possible against a large boulder. Isometric exercises can be used to precisely target stabilizer muscles or to generate max force safely.

I have trained with all three modalities for years and have experience in their best use and application. Let’s dig into each exercise modality, how they overlap, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

Calisthenics, weight training, and isometrics done together can build a strong, resilient, and aesthetic body

Calisthenics for Beginners

The most immediately approachable training methodology is calisthenics. People of all shapes and sizes can use bodyweight movements of different leverage patterns to exercise to a degree appropriate for their body. Vinyasa yoga is a great example of calisthenics exercise with many different movement patterns that stimulate the whole body and can be easily scaled for anyone.

Another example of how calisthenics can be scaled to anyone can be understood using the squat. If a trainee is in great shape and free of injury, they can perform jump squats to increase power output, building muscle and strength in the process. If a trainee is overweight and/or injured, then assisted squats can be done, using gymnastic rings/TRX and a reduced range of motion, both safely deloading the body. As a trainee becomes stronger and more fit, the squat movement pattern can be increased in difficulty and complexity to create further adaptation stimulus.

A basic progression squat progression would be: assisted squat -> parallel squat -> deep squat -> shrimp squat -> pistol squat

Calisthenics exercises have the benefit of being performable just about anywhere. Some advanced moves like pullups and muscle-ups require a bar to hang from, but for most calisthenics exercises all that is required is some open space to move in.

Calisthenics also has the benefit of stimulating and strengthening stabilizer muscles throughout the body. Calisthenics exercises are all open-chain and the entire body must work in symmetrical balance to perform movement correctly. Posture is very important, and when programmed correctly, calisthenics will improve posture while strengthening the connective tissues of the body at the same rate muscular development occurs, reducing the risk of injury.

Calisthenics is a very balanced and safe method for improving the physicality of the body while also increasing other desirable characteristics such as endurance, flexibility. Calisthenics also improves metabolism and it’s not uncommon to build muscle while loosing body fat at the same time while practicing a lot of calisthenics. Calisthenics is great when the primary goal is to lose body fat.

Calisthenics Pros

• Can be performed nearly anywhere

• Improves posture

• Strengthens the body symmetrically

• Increases muscle mass and connective tissue strength

• Calisthenics exercises can be used for endurance training safely

• Most exercises are compound and target multiple muscles at once

• Easy to exercise in nature for other health and wellness benefits (nature bathing, fresh air, grounding, sunlight vitamin D production)

Calisthenics Cons

• Lower upper limit on muscular growth compared to weight training

• More advanced movements are best learned with coaching

• Progressive overload is not as easily applied as it is with weights

• More difficult to isolate and develop a single muscle

Weight Training for Beginners

When sheer muscular size and maximum strength is desired, weight training is the best way to exercise the body. Isolating muscles and applying progressive overload to them is easily accomplished with free weights. Large closed-chain compound exercises like barbell squats and deadlifts stimulate muscular growth and central nervous system adaptations throughout the entire body in a way calisthenics and isometrics can’t match. In addition, weight training can be very precise in application for the stimulation of small muscles to strengthen and grow. The biggest and strongest people on the planet, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and strongmen all use weight training as their primary training modality.

Injuries are also common in these sports, sometimes only minor, sometimes very severe. This is because with weight training it is much easier to develop muscular imbalances. The most successful athletes combine weight training, calisthenics, and isometric exercises in order to stay balanced in muscular, strength, and connective tissue development.

When it comes to dramatically transforming the physicality of the human body, weight training is unequaled. With faith and hard work it is possible to transform from weak and lanky to big and strong using weights and progressive overload. It’s not uncommon for men to add 50+ pounds of muscle to their frame over many years using weight training. Calisthenics will create a beautiful aesthetic body, but weight training has the benefit of allowing the trainee to precisely sculpt the physique in anyway they wish. For women bodybuilders training the glutes, upper chest, and shoulders while tightening the midsection creates the coveted hourglass figure and improves the waist-to-hip ratio closer to the biologically attractive 0.7.

Weight Training Pros

• Greatest potential for lean body mass and strength gains

• Unparalleled ability to shape and sculpt the body

• Weights can range from light to heavy and with proper guidance can be used safely by all people

• Many people use weights, and though experience levels vary, most gym-goers are very friendly and help others learn exercises, provide tips, etc.

Weight Training Cons

• Increased risk of injury if small supportive muscles and connective tissues aren’t developed at the same rate as larger muscles.

• Preexisting muscular imbalances can lead to improperly overloaded joints and muscles, increasing risk of injury

• Weight training requires access to weights, either purchased or at a gym.

• Weight training environments such as the gym can be intimidating for many

Isometrics for Beginners

An isometric exercise is a static muscular tension pattern held for time that involves no concentric or eccentric movement. Every different joint angle of a movement or exercise can be held as a isometric contraction, and as such 1000's of different isometric exercise patterns are possible.

The benefits of isometric exercises is that no joint movement is required, making isometrics a good alternative to conventional exercises when a trainee is injured or returning to exercise after a period of detraining. If weak at a certain point of an exercise, such as the midpoint of an overhead press, an isometric performed at that midpoint can be used to build strength at that specific leverage, improving overall force mechanics for the lift. With the overhead midpoint isometric exercise, force can be directed upwards, inwardly, or outwardly depending on what muscular activations are required to break through the sticking point. Isometrics are like calisthenics in that they don't require any specialized equipment to perform and can be performed with bodyweight exercises, but isometrics can also be done in the gym with barbells/dumbbells/machines, or with specialty-made isometrics equipment.

Isometrics have a remarkable ability to improve mind-muscle connection. By taking movement out of the equation, it’s easier for a trainee to feel how force is loading joints and muscles with a particular posture, and in this way isometric exercises can be very effective at building muscle and strength because the trainee learns how to better control the force they generate. Most isometric exercises involve pushing or pulling against an immoveable object, and this allows a trainee to generate maximum force without any risks inherent with movement. This maximum force generation ability of isometrics makes them very effective exercises for strength development as they dramatically increase muscular innervation, better connecting the mind to the central nervous system and musculature of the entire body while also better aligning the body, joints, and fascia into safe positions which force flows through easily.

Isometrics Pros

• Can be performed anywhere and in a million different ways

• Supportive to both calisthenics and weight training

• Very useful in recovery from injury

• Increases mind muscle connection and helps with sticking points

• Builds strength and can be used to preserve strength when away from the gym

• Can be performed during other wellness activities such as walking, meditation, and breathing exercises.

Isometrics Cons

• With poor posture, isometrics can load joints instead of muscles

• Isometrics have no measurable way of recording force output without sophisticated devices not commonly available (whereas a weight is a quantifiable load)

• Isometrics that involve maximum force generation create a large stress adaptation response which can be deceiving in its scale to new trainees, requiring more recovery time than they realize

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How to Start with Exercise

A combination of calisthenics, weights, and isometrics will transform anybody into a fitter, stronger, and more resilient individual.

Each of us was given a tremendous gift when born into a human body, and exercising physically in order to reach your maximum human potential is one way to celebrate the beauty of life and to thank the forces of creation. Benefits of physical training include happiness, health, and looking good!

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

— Socrates (470-399 BC)

If you don’t know where to start with physical fitness, I offer coaching services with meal plans and workout routines custom tailored to your individual situation and needs. Coaching at the beginning of a physical transformation or during times of low willpower offers valuable motivation and support that can make the difference between making a positive change or sticking with the status quo.

Use the email contact form to get in touch with me and to schedule your first wellness coaching session.

Yoga will transform your life

Article by Jason Brown - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

We all recognize that in order to condition our bodies and improve our fitness, we need to take up some sort of physical exercise. However, it is often missed that the same concept applies to our mind, and that in order to condition our thoughts, emotions, and internal experiences, we need to take up some form of inner exercise.

When I first heard of yoga, my initial impression was that it just involved middle-aged moms doing aerobics on a mat in an unnecessarily hot room. Luckily, my open-mindedness and curiosity prevailed, and I eventually discovered the many different dimensions of yoga.

On the surface, yoga may seem like an alternative version of exercising for people who prefer to stay out of the weight room, but upon closer examination, you might find that there’s more going on under the hood. While yoga certainly does provide a number of physical benefits including flexibility, core strength, and posture, keep reading to learn how yoga can transform your life beyond the physical benefits.

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Practice Mindfulness with Yoga

It is so easy to get distracted by the hundreds of stimuli that fight for our attention every single minute of the day. Whether it’s our thoughts or the physical things around us, these distractions can make it seem like your default state of mind is to bounce around from one thought to the next. It really takes a deliberate effort to be present with the moment and aware of what is right in front of us.

Most who first start practicing yoga will find themselves impatiently thinking of other things, such as wondering how much time is left until the end of the class. The more you practice, the more you learn to let go and not worry about the time, instead focusing on the movements. The reward is much greater. With the uniquely challenging activities found in yoga, to master and perfect the poses you will eventually be required to completely clear your mind. Once you start to practice losing yourself in the flow you will start to notice that you legitimately feel different when I walking out of each class.

With my personal yoga practice, I eventually realized that the potential to lose myself in the moment existed with every activity that I encountered in my day. This skill can be learned by anyone. Use yoga as a way to practice mindfulness and apply that to your daily routine in a way that resets and reorients your perspective.

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Relieve Stress with Yoga

His holiness the Dalai Lama

A mantra you might learn in your yoga practice is “let go of the things that no longer serve you.”

We hold onto so much weight, from our past experiences to little day to day stresses, and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that reliving or over-analyzing our grievances serves very little purpose.

Of course it's possible to learn from reflecting on our mistakes, but reflecting on a mistake 50 times does not teach you any lessons that can't be learned from reflecting on it once.

Yoga practice strengthens and develops the mind so it’s no longer a battle to calm your thoughts, allowing clarity of mind to develop. Just like a storm at sea, when the storm abates you can now see to the horizon.

“Let go of the things that no longer serve you”

By thinking, reciting, or chanting this phrase in or outside of your yoga or meditation practice, you can learn to actively let go of thoughts and outdated beliefs that add no value to your life. Release yourself from the bounds of your Not-Self. Once these steps are taken and mental solitude is established, be amazed by how much less stressed you are day to day.

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Learn Patience with Yoga

Ever been waiting in line and looked around to see that literally every other person in line has their head down looking at their phone? In truth, this probably occurs to you everyday! Generally speaking, most people lack the patience or ability to wait for something without distracting themselves with their phones. Yoga has the ability to teach patience, both with your mind and body. From the moment we wake up until the second we go to sleep, we are faced with thousands of opportunities to escape our own thoughts through technology, socializing, entertainment, or some form of consumption. Use the opportunity yoga provides to develop a new relationship with your thoughts so you can be both productive as well as mindful during the little down times of the day. You might find that those moments to yourself are sometimes the most enjoyable parts of your day.

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Develop Discipline with Yoga

Motivation and inspiration cannot solely be relied on to produce results in life. While it is certainly helpful to have ambition and drive, the main trait that you can rely on to make progress and achieve your goals is discipline. Inspiration and motivation are emotions. Emotions come and go, they are flux states that are dictated in large part by environmental factors.

Discipline on the other hand is a routine habit that you develop to work towards your vision no matter what mood, emotion, or feeling you’re currently experiencing. With discipline, you learn to experience emotion differently, let them wash over you and you recognize them, but stay distant and in control unless you decide to engage. Being emotional isn’t a problem, it is what makes us human, but emotions can also change your focus and disrupt your mindfulness.

If you have problems fostering discipline in your life, make a positive step forward by committing to something long term. Yoga is a great avenue for this, and over time you will learn that cultivated discipline throughout all aspects of your life can work miracles and enable you to achieve more than you ever thought before.

If you have trouble with discipline, start with your health. Wellness is a foundational element required to enjoy a blissful existence, and developing discipline by taking care of yourself and exercising your mind is a great place to start. Yoga is the scientific practice developed to cultivate this very thing.

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Enhance Focus with Yoga

Multitasking is something that has come to be celebrated as a strength and a sought after skill. What a lot of people fail to realize is that, as cool and useful as multitasking seems on the surface, the potential for productivity is far higher when we focus and concentrate our efforts on one task at a time, entering into a flow state.

Being in the flow is a mental state when everything seems to come intuitively and naturally, no matter how difficult the objective. The best athletes are celebrated for their ability to enter into flow states at those critical buzzer-beater moments.

The human brain is incapable of competently accomplishing two tasks simultaneously, and in order to be fully present and engaged in a conversation, we have to mindedly focus our efforts on the people we’re interacting with.

Learning how to focus will greatly benefit your life across the board, from work to social interactions. Without practice though it isn’t easy focusing on one thing. Being hyper focused can actually be very challenging if you don’t practice the skill, especially if you consider all the distractions of modern life.

Yoga is excellent for teaching focus as it challenges you to focus your attention on a single exercise, or breathing style, mantra, or awareness at a time. Yoga elevates your consciousness to new bounds, and the exercises in yoga often push you outside of your comfort zone to the point that you really have no choice but to cut the noise if you want to execute the pose properly.

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Ready? Take Your First Shavasana

Taking one yoga class is not going to immediately thrust you into spiritual enlightenment, but if you develop a deliberate and intentional practice, you will discover serious life benefits from yoga over time. You might even look back to that first class as the genesis moment that helped you create a new lifestyle, a new mindset, and…a new you.

A healthy mind has the potential to bring a little more calmness to your life and can do wonders for your relationships with other people. If you’re thinking about trying out a yoga class, most studios offer a 1 or 2-week free trial so you can get a sense first hand of what a yoga is like. There are so many different types of yoga so it can also be difficult to choose where to begin. For most beginners, a restorative flow is best.

Most practices include both physical and mental elements, but if you really want to hone in on the inner work and mindfulness part of yoga, I recommend seeking out a Kundalini Yoga class in your area as a good place to get started.

Cannabis Yoga

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated March 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Pairing the consumption of cannabis and movement together has been practiced for thousands of years. Movement and cannabis are synergistic to each other, and together can create a powerful experience which draws awareness to the present moment and elevates consciousness.

What makes yoga and cannabis such a powerful experience physically, emotionally, and spiritually, is the endocannabinoid system. Running parallel to your nerves, sending signals from the body back to the brain, the opposite of normal. Both yoga and cannabis activate the endocannabinoid system, creating transformative experiences when used together.

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What is Yoga?

It's hard to describe yoga. In the western world, yoga is mostly thought of as a fitness modality, and treated as such.

Yoga is more than just a type of fitness, it is an eight limb path developed to be a guide for how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. Yoga will transform your life. Yoga is challenging yet easy, peaceful but also uncomfortable. The practice of yoga calms the mind but also poses challenging spiritual questions. Yoga is the ultimate tool for inward reflection and self-realization. Think of yoga as the equivalent of a cat discovering it is the cat on the other side of the mirror.

In terms of the physical, yoga is the best way I’ve learned to communicate with my body.

Yoga enables you to feel more than just musculature but also my connective tissues, fascia, joints, ligaments, and the skeletal system. Due to the way the brain and nervous system works, it is inherently difficult to feel and communicate with these deeper levels of your body because it can be dangerous. The improper application of stress on small areas can cause damage, and for this reason the connection between body and mind is initially dulled as a preventive safety measure.

Through the interactions of the endocannabinoid system, both yoga and cannabis increase the ability for the mind to connect with smaller and smaller sections of the body, and the practice of yoga is a way to responsibly learn these new feeling connections.

To understand how this works you must first learn and understand the endocannabinoid system.

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Connect to your Body with Cannabinoids

The endocannabinoid system is a biological system composed of cannabinoid receptors that runs parallel to the central and peripheral nervous system. Endocannabinoids are lipid-based retrograde neurotransmitters produced by the body which bind to cannabinoid receptors.

Fury Edge vaporizer by Healthy Rips. Vaporization of cannabis flower or consumption are the healthiest ways to consume cannabis.

The endocannabinoid system helps the body connect to the brain (1). This natural cannabinoid system is activated when cannabinoids are created or consumed, sending retrograde signals back to the brain along the nervous system using cannabinoid receptors (2).

To the uninitiated, this is very powerful because typically it is the brain which is sending out signals to the body to control bodily functions, motor patterns and more. Retrograde signaling provides feedback and enhanced connectivity from the body to the brain.

How you consume cannabis, and the quality of the flower used are very important for ensuring you create an experience which elevates your consciousness, and not intoxicates it.

Breathing exercises stimulate the endocannabinoid system, as does the consumption of cannabis. The practice of yoga is very breath focused, so when breath work and exogenous cannabis are combined together into one experience, the endocannabinoid system is highly stimulated, pushing tons of feedback from the central and peripheral nervous system to the brain.

Because the endocannabinoid system is closed related to breathing, it is involved in the many functions throughout the body. These include:

• Motor learning

• Appetite

• Pain-sensation

• Mood

• Memory

• Cognition, cognitive development

• Fertility

• Physical performance

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My Cannabis Yoga Experience

When I first tried yoga in the past sober, it was fun, but not a revolutionary experience. I definitely was not convinced of the benefits of yoga. It struck me as being a subpar workout.

Back then, my head was a storm, pulling my attention away from what is really important in yoga, which is syncing the breath to the flow of the body; clearing the mind, and being present. With more classes eventually I would have made the connection, but I didn’t take more classes because at the time the experience wasn’t anything special.

Cannabis yoga is best practiced with a trained professional

A couple years later at the invitation of a friend, I participated in a cannabis yoga class. I was newly experimenting with cannabis, so I found the concept interesting and thought why not.

After vaporizing a small bowl of cannabis sativa, we started the Yin Yoga class, and immediately I began making the connections between movement, breath, and the benefit of calming the mind. That first cannabis Yin Yoga class was an evolutionary experience, and really was the catalyst for my journey of spiritual development.

Now that I have had the initial “wow” experience, I don’t need cannabis in order to enjoy the incredible benefits of yoga. At the time though, cannabis helped me to cut down on the high frequency noise constantly humming through my head, enabling me to focus and experience a clarity of mind unlike ever before.

My first cannabis yoga class was an incredibly enlightening experience. Cannabis elevates consciousness, and the clarity of mind and connection to body that I experience every time I practice cannabis yoga helps to ground me in the present moment, relieve stress, wipe clean my anxiety, and fosters a deep sense of peace.

Due to the retrograde nervous system actions of yoga and cannabis, and the mental and physical awareness that brings, cannabis yoga can be a tremendously powerful experience for many people, and something few people in western society have experienced. Our modern world is endlessly distracting and creates a barrier between behavioral consciousness and elevated consciousness, and cannabis yoga under the guidance of a professional yogi can shift your consciousness out of a distracted information-rich environment.

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Experience Yourself

If you wish to experience cannabis yoga yourself, follow the guide below:

1. Create your environment: Find a quiet secluded place free of distractions. Silence or turn off your electronics. Set aside one hour for yourself to intuitively feel and discover your body as never experienced before. A yoga music playlist, quiet in the background and without ads, can help create the mood for self exploration. Otherwise the sounds of your environment are also ripe for conscious exploration.

2. Consume some cannabis: If using a mild edible, consume it 1 hour before the cannabis yoga session. If inhaling cannabis, do that a few minutes before, breathing deeply to ensure zero irritation to the lungs. Use a 50/50 mix of THC dominant cannabis flower and CBD dominant cannabis flower for a more well-rounded, paranoia free experience

3. Begin by Breathing: sitting cross-legged or in lotus posture, spine upright and head forward, begin taking slow deep breaths and find your natural rhythm. Expect your breath to change throughout the course of this yoga session, follow your instincts and don’t overthink.

4. Begin Moving: self expression through movement. Start with small movements. You can begin with your head, circling it and looking side to side to release built-up tension. Explore your shoulders, shrug them up and down, roll them, forward and back. Twist, bend, splay open! No matter your shape or body type, let go of your preconceptions and you’ll be amazed as your body begins move where it needs and wants too. Like a leaf floating down a river, follow the current and enter into a flow state of pure intuition and expression.

5. Meditate: when movement comes to an end, either because you’re tired or because it is time to recover, resume your starting seated posture or enter shavasana and return to slow deep breaths. Movement can be incredibly healing because it breaks up stiff tissues and improves circulation throughout the body. This can create a cellular mess that needs to be cleaned up by the immune system, kidneys, and liver. Practicing meditation for 10 - 20 minutes at the end of cannabis yoga starts the recovery process, lets you enjoy the bliss of the moment, and gives you time to understand the experience you went through.

If you want a more structured movement plan, then follow the simple beginners flow below:

• Lotus Pose - Starting position

• Table Pose - Engage your body

• Cat Cow Pose - Loosen up the back

• Child’s Pose - Open the Hips

• Pigeon Pose - Feel Your Legs

• Rabbit Pose - Contract Your Spine

• Cobra Pose - Stretch Your Spine

Please share your cannabis yoga experience, or any you have had before in the comments below.

Updated October 2020

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References:

1. Pacher P, Bátkai S, Kunos G. The endocannabinoid system as an emerging target of pharmacotherapy. Pharmacol Rev. 2006;58(3):389-462.

2. Russo S, De Azevedo WF. Advances in the understanding of the cannabinoid receptor 1 - focusing on the inverse agonists interactions. Curr Med Chem. 2019;26(10):1908-1919.

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Stefan Burns

“My wellness journey has evolved many times, and throughout this process there have been constants I’ve deeply realized. These truths form the foundation of a healthy and balanced lifestyle which anyone can build on. It’s through Wild Free Organic that myself and others share the wellness practices we’ve learned through our experience and backed up by science. Thank you for being here, and bless you.”

🙏 Namaste