Natalie is a registered psychologist and a Yoga Therapist, passionate about making yoga accessible, inclusive, and body positive for all.
Natalie’s broad-reaching work includes supporting survivors of domestic violence, indigenous communities, adults experiencing mental health issues, women with body image challenges, and people with acquired physical and mental impairment.
Recognising that often mental trauma is stored physically, Natalie is an advocate for helping people understand the mind-body connection and combining talk therapies with movement therapies.
Natalie is also a long-term collaborator with The Yoga Institute’s sister-organisation, The Yoga Foundation (a not-for-profit organisation co-founded by Michael de Manincor that seeks to bring the benefits of yoga to at-risk and disadvantaged members of the community).
Dr Judy Lovas is dedicated to quality education in evidence-based Relaxation Therapy for anxiety, pain, depression, sleep disorders, trauma and chronic conditions.
Judy has a PhD from Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney and an eclectic background in psychology, tertiary education, massage therapy, research and clinical practice. Judy’s keen interest in health and medical science plus her passion for high quality education combined to create Art & Science of Relaxation in 2010.
The Art & Science of Relaxation offers workshops to the general public, to organisations and corporates, as well as teaching medical professionals and other allied health professionals how to clinically apply relaxation therapy. Judy is also a sought-after speaker and teacher.
How does stress impact our immune and inflammatory responses, and what role does yoga play in regulating our body’s response systems?
The words ‘stress’ and ‘inflammation’ can often be associated with purely negative implications, but the truth is that both can be helpful or unhelpful.
Stress and inflammation play a vital role in our body’s ability to defend itself and maintain homeostasis, but chronic, unchecked stress & inflammation leaves us more vulnerable to a range of complications and conditions. Let’s break it down to note where a natural body response becomes problematic.
Stress 101
Eustress vs distress
Stress is a natural physiological and psychological response to our ever-changing perceptions of our circumstances.
Exercise is a form of good physical stress that prompts our muscles to strengthen and lengthen. Good psychological stress can can feel energising, motivating, or even exciting. It helps us stay focussed and energised during a test or job interview, and give us those feelings of excitement & thrill on a first date or rollercoaster!
Distress is when the stress response adversely affects us. It can be prompted by just about anything that we perceive as being a threat to our physical or emotional wellbeing, or beyond our immediate coping resources, such as a death, relationship tension or separation, financial crisis, abuse or injury. It can include effects such as mood deterioration, shortness of breath, fatigue, sleep and appetite issues, headaches and feelings of overwhelm.
The body’s response to threats
When a stimuli or threat is perceived, our body is capable of producing chemicals that can help us adapt. In the case of a perceived threat, the body will move resources away from actions that it doesn’t deem necessary there and then (such as digestion) and towards the job-at-hand of keeping you alive. This is the Fight, Flight or Freeze response.
During this response, our body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated: adrenaline and cortisol chemicals are produced, our heart rate increases, our breath shallows and quickens, pupils dilate to hone in one particular thing, blood rushes away from extremities and digestive systems and towards muscles.
Evolutionarily, this helped us run from predators, hide from enemies or fight an attacker.
Unfortunately, the amygdala part of our brain (responsible for processing emotions around fear) can set off the alarm in non-life threatening situations, putting us into survival mode well before our rational mind has a chance to assess the situation. Put simply, our body can’t always distinguish between a situation that genuinely puts our lives at risk – such as jumping out of the way of an oncoming vehicle – and all the other things life throws at us every day such as deadlines, workloads, relationship problems, shuttling our children to daycare, or heavy traffic.
Our bodies are well-equipped to deal with short acute bursts of stress, but are not equipped to tolerate chronic, unrelenting stress with swirling stress chemicals ever-present.
“Between 70% – 90% of all conditions that a primary care doctor sees in any given day, are in some way related to stress” (Dr Rangan Chatterjee)
Read. That. Again.
Without a way to balance our nervous system and allow the Parasympathetic nervous system to take the lead (otherwise known as ‘Rest & Digest’ or ‘Feed & Breed’), the toll on our body is associated with increased risk of heart disease and stroke, obesity, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, mood & sleep disorders, and a reliance on addictive distractions such as alcohol, gambling, television, food, internet and nicotine. (Yes, there ‘s a big difference between consciously choosing to enjoy a TV programme for example, and being anaesthetised by an unconscious go-to habit)
Inflammation 101
Inflammation is generally a natural and helpful response to the presence of pathogens or physical or chemical injury. (but it can also be activated by processed food and other poor nutrition habits, oversensitivities/allergies and stress). It is part of our immune response.
We have specific immune cells that act as watchdogs to start the inflammation response when necessary to arrest invaders and heal damaged tissue. We can observe this in the way of heat, swelling and pain and these symptoms are designed to be short and adaptive, while our body recovers.
Much like stress, our body is well-suited to short bursts of acute inflammation, but not to long-term chronic inflammation and we know that chronic inflammation is the pathway to chronic disease.
Stress & Inflammation
The special cells (such as cytokines) and chemicals in our body (such as cortisol) designed to initiate inflammation can self-perpetuate under conditions of chronic stress, damaging healthy cell tissue, suppressing immunity and leaving us more prone to colds and flu and other infections, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, depression, digestive issues such as Irritable Bowel, and cancer.
Stress & Telomeres
Telomeres are the protective DNA-caps at the end of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, the telomere shortens until tissue-ageing occurs. Telomeres can be replenished by an enzyme called telomerase, but this is also impacted by chronic stress.
The study of the interplay between our stress response (brain and nervous system), with our hormones and other chemicals (endocrine system) and our immune response is a relatively new field of science (perhaps a few decades old) called Psychoneuroimmunology(PNI for short).
Managing Inflammation
Given that inflammation can have multiple causes, it makes sense that a strategy involving multiple factors may be most beneficial, influencing inflammation directly, and indirectly via stress management. This may include:
Improving the quality of food that you eat (fresh, seasonal food with an emphasis on plants)
Improving sleep habits
Introducing small self-care daily routines into your day including mindful movement, pausing and resting, self-massage, getting fresh air and connecting to nature
Conscious breathing
Reducing exposure to screens (especially dramatic or violent depictions)
Finding more laughter
Find your ‘tribe’ and develop strong social ties that uplift and nourish you
Resolving long-standing resentments and other psychological issues
Yoga’s Contribution to the Management of Inflammation
The holistic healing nature of an integrated yogic practice, including asana, breathwork, and meditation, can play an important role in balancing the body’s biochemistry, and thus our vulnerability to chronic illness.
With yogic models of care coupled with an ayurvedic lifestyle – incorporating healthy self-care daily habits that honour the body and the connection to nature – we give our body its best chance to self-regulate, heal itself and reduce the risk of chronic illness.
This topic also beautifully demonstrates the interconnected nature of our mind, body and emotions,the power of a whole-of-person approach, and the yogic principle of not seeking quick-fix ‘hacks’, but rather introducing incremental and sustainable healthful habits and practices into all aspects of our life.
At the core of Yoga’s sister-science – Ayurveda – are concepts including the individual as a microcosm of our surroundings, and the balancing & harmonising of this relationship. Ayurveda teaches us to better listen to our inner-wisdom and the messages our body is telling us, and to establish routines that keep us feeling balanced and in harmony.
The word ‘routine’ can get a bad rap. We might associate it with something resembling boredom. But routines sit snugly between a conscious choice and a habit and serve as a valuable bridge to reaching new habits. Just as young seedling vine crops (such as beans and peas) need something to climb on to establish themselves, routines form a structural trellis for our conscious choices to climb up on, helping us reach and entrench habits.
Now let’s face it, habits can either make or break us, depending on whether they serve us well or not. One long exercise session wont make a huge difference to our health, but a little sustainable exercise on regular basis most certainly will. One late night wont make a big difference to our health, but skimping on proper restful sleep over and over will take a big toll. It all comes down to routine and habit.
In other words, we become that which we repeatedly do, for better or worse.
We can make conscious choices to develop routines and patterns that serve us well.
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret to your success lies in your daily routine” – author John C Maxwell.
The Role Of Doshas
Doshas refer to the energetic or motivating principles that flow within the natural world, and within our body and mind, and are derived from the five natural elements: air, earth, water, fire and ether.
Air + Ether = Vata Dosha
Fire + Air = Pitta Dosha
Earth + Water = Kapha Dosha
Each dosha plays a different role in the natural world, and in the body.
Vata is responsible for movement and is associated with qualities such as cold, dry, rough and light.
Pitta is responsible for change and is associated with heat, sharpness and intensity
Kapha is responsible for structure and cohesion and is associated with qualities of cold, heavy, oily and dense.
We all comprise a combination of these elements in varying ratios, meaning the 3 doshas are within all of us too. It is the combination and interplay of each person’s doshas that influence our physicality and personality traits.
Our in-borne constitution (referred to as our prakruti) can be dominated by one or more of the doshas, influencing body and mind, and therefore how we need to care for ourselves to stay balanced. Our prakruti is who we were before we fell under the spell of our own stories and without the impact of certain external forces (such as weather). It can quite easily be knocked into imbalance. The principle of ‘like-builds-like’ means that without conscious choices we can unknowingly aggravate the qualities of our in-borne dosha, particularly our most dominant dosha.
For example, a Vata-dominated person once in imbalance, may find themselves rushing about, eating cold, dry food and other activities that push us further out of balance. Pitta people may find themselves eating lots of chilli and doing overly-strenuous or aggressive workouts. Kapha people may find themselves being overly-sedentary. These are all examples of unconsciously leaning in towards our dominant dosha, pushing it further out of balance. Our conscious choices can intervene to help placate our dominant dosha.
A qualified ayurvedic practitioner can help you select food, activity, self-care and other lifestyle choices to suit your personal needs. The importance of ‘what’s right for one person not necessarily being right for another’ cannot be over-emphasised. But we can outline some helpful approaches and practices that may serve us all well.
Ayurveda & Self-Care
Swasthvrtta refers to establishing healthy habits that serve us well. This can be cleaning and caring for oneself, our house, and our surroundings.
Dinacharya – Habits on A Daily Basis
Dinacharya aims to base daily practices around the cycles of nature. Healthy principles in our daily lifestyle may include habits such as:
Rising early
Emptying our bowels and bladder
Oil pulling and tongue scraping to remove toxins
Nasal rinsing
Appropriate exercise and movement
Eating nourishing foods
Self-massage (especially with appropriate oils)
Fresh air and walking on grass
Journaling
Meditation or quiet time
Ratricharya – Evening Habits
Ratricharya refers to establishing helpful patterns in the evening to help you wind down and rest well, and may include things like:
Avoiding devices and television a few hours before bed
Dimming lights (or using candles) and doing less stimulating activities like watering house plants, simple tidying of our bedroom, reading or gentle stretches
Giving yourself a foot massage
Quiet time with a pet
Enjoying a warm drink
Ritucharya – Seasonal adjustments
We’ve all heard of seasonal eating, which aligns with the principle of living in harmony with nature, but you may not have thought of how seasons may prompt tweaks to how we do our daily practices, how we exercise, and which herbs we use.
For example, did you know that aromas such as rose and jasmine can have a cooling effect in hot weather, while the aroma of cinnamon or patchouli can have warming and energising effects.
Ayurveda teaches us that no two people are the same, and how one person eats, exercises, and carries out their daily life, may not be helpful for another, and may even exacerbate imbalances. Ayurveda honours the individual needs of each person and their own innate intuition.
The more we practice routines that serve us well, the less we need to rely on discipline or willpower to do the things that are good for us. As neural pathways deepen, we move from having to make conscious choices to simply letting good habits serve us well.
