Nervous System Literacy for Yoga Teachers
by Kiara Armstrong
A nervous-system lens on the yoga classroom — anatomy, physiology, somatics, and regulation. Research-backed insights for yoga teachers who want to understand not just that yoga regulates, but how and why it works. literacy.rubberbandmethod.com
Episodes
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Why Exercise Makes Meditation Easier: The Neuroscience of Tapas
Why might movement make it easier to be still? In this episode of Nervous System Literacy for Yoga Teachers, we explore tapas through the lens of modern physiology. Patanjali placed tapas before asana, and when tapas is understood as heat, the sequence raises an intriguing possibility: exertion…
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The Most Powerful Thing You Bring Into the Room Isn’t Your Playlist
The Most Powerful Thing You Bring Into the Room Isn’t Your PlaylistIt’s your heart. What if the most impactful part of your teaching isn’t your sequencing, your cueing, or even your music—but the physiological state you bring into the room? In this episode, we explore the science of heart…
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Programming the Arc: Building Playlists as a Nervous System Tool
Programming the Arc: Building Playlists as a Nervous System Tool Have you ever noticed that some playlists seem to carry a yoga class effortlessly, while others never quite fit the room? It may have less to do with the songs themselves and more to do with how they’re sequenced. In this episode…
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Somatic Tools in the Yoga Classroom
What if nearly everything you already do in a yoga classroom is working through the nervous system? In this episode, we zoom out and look at the yoga classroom as a complete somatic environment. From asana and sequencing to mantra, music, pranayama, and touch, each tool influences the body…
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The Stress Continuum: Why Stress Isn’t the Enemy You Think It Is
Stress has become one of the most misunderstood words in modern wellness culture. We talk about it as something to eliminate, avoid, or manage away entirely. But what if stress itself isn’t the problem? In this episode, we explore stress as a continuum — from the kinds of stress that build...
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Afferent and Efferent Fibers: How the Brain and Body Talk to Each Other
What if the body is doing more of the talking than the brain? In this episode, we explore afferent and efferent signaling—the bidirectional communication pathways that allow the brain and body to constantly exchange information—and why this changes the way we understand yoga, nervous system...
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Heart Rate Variability: The Nervous System Has Something to Say
Heart rate variability — or HRV — has become one of the most talked-about metrics in wellness spaces, yet few people fully understand what it measures or how to interpret it meaningfully. In this episode, we unpack what HRV actually is, why it matters, and how yoga practices may influence the...
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Polyvagal Theory: A More Nuanced Map of Safety and Threat
Polyvagal theory offers a more nuanced map of how the nervous system organizes around safety and threat. In this episode, we explore the two pathways of the vagus nerve, the three-state hierarchy of the autonomic nervous system, and the concept of neuroception. For yoga teachers, this is not just...
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The Parasympathetic Nervous System: Not the Hero, the Moderator
The parasympathetic nervous system is often positioned as the goal—rest, relax, downregulate. But that framing is incomplete. In this episode, we re-examine the parasympathetic branch not as the hero, but as a moderator working in dynamic balance with sympathetic activation. Through the lens of...
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The HPA Axis: When the Alarm Won't Turn Off
The HPA Axis: When the Alarm Won’t Turn OffUnderstanding the body’s slow-burn stress system In this episode, we move beyond the fast-acting sympathetic response and into the body’s longer-lasting stress system: the HPA axis. You’ll learn how this hormonal cascade shapes energy, mood, sleep, and...
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The Sympathetic Nervous System: Your Body’s Accelerator
Episode 3 — The Sympathetic Nervous System: Your Body’s AcceleratorWhy Fight or Flight Is Only Part of the Story The sympathetic nervous system is often blamed for stress, anxiety, and burnout. But that story is incomplete. In reality, the sympathetic nervous system is the body’s activation…
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The Autonomic Nervous System: Your Invisible Co-Teacher
Episode #2The Autonomic Nervous System: Your Invisible Co-TeacherWhat’s actually running the room when you’re running the room Yoga teachers often interpret student behavior through the lens of effort or attitude. But much of what we see on the mat is actually the nervous system doing exactly…
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Welcome to Nervous System Literacy for Yoga Teachers
What if the yoga classroom isn’t just a room full of bodies — but a room full of nervous systems? In this opening episode, Kiara Armstrong shares the lived experience that led to the creation of Nervous System Literacy for Yoga Teachers. After years of navigating severe dysregulation and...
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Why Yoga Works (And Why That Matters for Teachers)
Why does yoga regulate the nervous system — and why should teachers understand the biology behind it? In this introductory episode, I share the vision behind Nervous System Literacy for Yoga Teachers — a space where anatomy, physiology, somatics, and research meet the lived reality of teaching in…
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About this show
A nervous-system lens on the yoga classroom — anatomy, physiology, somatics, and regulation. Research-backed insights for yoga teachers who want to understand not just that yoga regulates, but how and why it works.
literacy.rubberbandmethod.com
Hosted by
Kiara Armstrong