Core Emotion: Pressure, vulnerability, joy, openness
Primary Body Focus: Heart center, sternum, face, jaw, eyes
Scientific Foundations
Pressure triggers dorsal vagal parasympathetic responses—causing emotional shutdown, low energy, and postural collapse (slouched shoulders, head down, eyes averted). This withdrawal is a primal mechanism of hiding. It impacts facial expression, eye contact, and social bonding.
In contrast, joy and spaciousness activates the oxytocin system, expands the chest, and stimulates the ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting openness and connection. Chronic pressure impairs mirror neuron activation and self-compassion, but these can be rehabilitated through somatic self-regulation, facial softening, and heart-focused practices.
Main Focus
Pressure closes us. Joy opens us. In this week, we will work on creating space. We will learn how yoga can alter the way blood flows through the body, and how we can use the patterns of these currents to strengthen the heart.
We will moreover learn how the face is directly connected to connection and emotional intelligence, and how we can break down tension held in the facial muscles in order to become freer in our self-expression, and more vulnerable in our relationships.
We will moreover learn techniques that self-regulate cardiac rhythm, and how we – by simple yogic technologies – can maintain a healthy heart, even under pressure.
