This episode looks at some of the ways that stress can impact the brain. In the interests of full disclosure - this episode might seem a bit doom and gloom, as it focuses on the impacts on the brain of stress. However, if you join the free workshop: Understand WHY yoga works: Yoga's role in stress reduction - that’ll be the light at the end of the gloomy tunnel!

In this episode, we cover:

• A brief recap of what stress is
• Then we’ll look at three main areas 1) the pre-frontal cortex 2) the amygdala and 3) the telomeres

All of this information is taken from, and inspired by our Yoga and the Neurobiology of Stress module coming up in June 2025 - so if you’ve had your eye on that training, or you wish you could have a sneaky peek in to our 300 hour training - well there you go!

See the shownotes here

The pre-frontal cortex

The pre-frontal cortex is a major brain structure that affects thought, insight and emotion. When it’s in full working order it helps to assess situations and suggest useful ways to plan and respond to these situations. However being in a stressed state can take the pre-frontal cortex offline, and even reduce the size of it.

Amygdala

You might have heard the of the amygdala as the brain’s smoke detector and that’s exactly right. When a smoke detector detects smoke, it sets off an alarm. When the amygdala detects danger; i.e. a stressor, it sets of the internal danger alarms; the Sympathetic Nervous System and the HPA axis.

In anxious states, and this is super important - the amygdala becomes enlarged and hypersensitive.

Telomeres

Our genetic information is stored in chromosomes, which duplicate again and again and again. At the end of the chromosomes are telomeres, which are there to protect the information. The thing is that stress can cause the telomeres to shorten, which then means that the information in the chromosome might be copied incorrectly, and the impa

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Myofascial Release, Energetic Anatomy and Yoga, Mar 25
Yoga and The Neurobiology of Stress, June 25
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Restorative Yoga and Polyvagal Theory, Jan 26
Yoga for resilience, March 26
Teaching yoga for anxiety & stress, June 26

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