Karmuka Yoga · Yoga Therapy Online
Your brain listens to your body. Your gut is part of the conversation.
The gut–brain connection offers a fascinating perspective on how we experience stress, bodily sensations and wellbeing. At Karmuka Yoga, this relationship inspires an approach to yoga therapy that brings together movement, breathing and self-awareness.
Have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach before an important conversation, or noticed your digestion change during a stressful period? These familiar experiences remind us that mental and bodily processes are closely connected.
Understanding this relationship can deepen our approach to yoga. Instead of focusing only on flexibility or the external shape of a posture, we can explore how movement, support and breathing influence our experience from within.
Meet Your Enteric Nervous System
The enteric nervous system, or ENS, is an extensive network of neurons within the walls of the gastrointestinal tract. It helps coordinate essential digestive functions, including the movement of food and digestive secretions.
Often called the “second brain”, the ENS can organise many digestive activities locally while remaining connected to the brain and spinal cord. The nickname recognises its complexity and relative independence; it does not mean that the gut thinks like the brain or contains more neurons.
The gut and brain work in relationship. Understanding that relationship is more useful than deciding which one is “in charge.”
The Gut–Brain Connection: A Conversation in Both Directions
The gut–brain axis describes communication between the digestive system and the central nervous system. This exchange involves neural pathways, hormones, immune signals and the activity of intestinal microorganisms.
One important pathway is the vagus nerve. Its sensory fibres carry information from internal organs towards the brain, while other fibres help regulate bodily functions.
You may have read that approximately 80% of vagal fibres are sensory, carrying information towards the brain. This does not mean that 80% of all gut–brain communication travels through the vagus nerve, or that the gut controls our thoughts.
It does invite a useful question: how much of what we feel is influenced by signals arising within the body, alongside our thoughts and external circumstances?
Why This Matters for Stress and Wellbeing
Research has explored connections between intestinal microorganisms, stress responses and anxiety-like behaviour. Animal studies allow researchers to investigate possible mechanisms, while human research examines how these relationships operate in the complexity of everyday life.
The intestinal microbiota and the enteric nervous system are different parts of this picture. Microorganisms can interact with neural, immune and hormonal pathways, but findings about gut bacteria should not be treated as proof that a particular yoga posture changes the microbiome or treats anxiety.
For yoga therapy, this research encourages curiosity about the whole person: physical comfort, breathing patterns, emotional experience and the conditions in which practice takes place.
Yoga Therapy: Creating Space to Notice
One way to understand yoga asana is as a practice of creating space: room to move with less unnecessary effort, room for comfortable breathing, and time to notice what is happening before responding.
Here, “space” describes an experience of greater ease and possibility. It is not a claim that stretching creates space around enteric nerves or automatically increases vagal tone.
In a supported posture, you might notice whether your abdomen can soften, whether your ribs move comfortably with breathing, or whether a small adjustment changes your sense of effort. Those observations become part of the practice.
Support the Body
A chair, wall, blanket or bolster can help you explore a position with less strain. The aim is to find support that suits your body.
Listen to the Breath
Observe breathing without forcing it deeper or holding it. Notice whether a change in position makes breathing feel more comfortable.
Make Room for Awareness
Notice sensations, thoughts and emotions with curiosity. You do not need to produce a particular feeling for the practice to be meaningful.
Explore this approach further in our introduction to
yoga asana and therapeutic practice.
Where Yoga Philosophy Meets Scientific Curiosity
Yoga invites us to examine how habits and conditioning shape perception. In philosophical discussions of Maya, we can explore the difference between our immediate interpretation of experience and a more attentive way of seeing.
Neuroscience and yoga philosophy offer different ways of asking questions about experience. Their dialogue can be valuable without assuming that traditional concepts are anatomical explanations or that modern research proves every traditional claim.
Practice begins with listening: to the body, to the breath and to the patterns that shape our experience.
Online Yoga Therapy with Dr. Michelle Goodrick
Dr. Michelle Goodrick is a psychologist, researcher and yoga therapy educator whose