Healing your Nervous System

Katka Rosabelle
Jun 24
4 min read

What Yoga knew all along (that I only just understood)

I’ve said it for years—Yoga saved my life.

But I didn’t fully understand how until much later.

For the longest time, I thought the physical practice mattered; my body felt more open and my breath slowed down. The stillness at the end gave me a weird sense of peace I couldn’t quite explain.

It wasn’t until I got deeper into nervous system healing, somatic practices, and trauma work that it finally clicked:

Yoga taught me to regulate my nervous system long before I had the language to describe it.

Now, I see so clearly what the modern science world calls “vagal tone,” “polyvagal theory,” “interoception,” or “neuroplasticity”… yoga has been quietly teaching for thousands of years.

And it’s not that science had to catch up. It’s that I had to catch up. I had to become conscious enough to understand what yoga had been showing me all along.

Yoga and Nervous System Healing: Ancient Practices, New Language

Let’s look at the practices trending in wellness spaces, what I call the “hype science”, and how yoga has always had its version.

Fasting → Tapas (Discipline for the Mind and Body)

Fasting is now all the rage. But in yoga, tapas, the fire of discipline, has always been about building resilience, purifying the system, and learning to observe cravings of the mind without acting on them.

Yes, intermittent fasting gives your digestion a break. But it also sharpens your awareness, cuts through the noise, and brings your nervous system into stillness. It's not about restriction. It's about focus.

Breathwork → Pranayama (Control of Life Force)

Pranayama isn’t about breathing deeper. It’s about consciously directing your energy.

Modern science tells us that breath can stimulate the vagus nerve, shift us into parasympathetic rest-and-digest, reduce anxiety, and improve HRV. Yogis have known this for millennia. Inhale. Retain.

Exhale. Pause. Feel. Each breath pattern changes your internal state.

Breath is the remote control to your nervous system. It’s also the bridge between your body and your consciousness.

Movement → Asana (Not Fitness, But Awareness)

Let’s get one thing straight: Yoga is not a workout.

Modern fitness culture sells yoga like it’s another calorie-burning option at the gym. But real asana practice is about embodied awareness, not just flexibility or core strength.

Every pose is an opportunity to observe your patterns. Your reaction to discomfort. Your ability to breathe through intensity. You’re not just stretching muscles. You’re stretching your capacity.

Meditation → Mental Rewiring & Regulation

The neuroscience crowd now talks about the default mode network, neuroplasticity, cognitive dissociation, and brainwave states.

You know what the yogis called it? Meditation.

When you sit long enough, without distractions, something magical happens. Your thoughts are quiet. Your identity softens. You enter that deep state where healing starts to happen when your body knows it’s finally safe.

Meditation rewires your nervous system. It teaches your brain to stop looping in fear and to start noticing space.

Detachment → Nervous System Mastery

Yoga teaches aparigraha, the art of non-attachment, not in a “spiritual bypass” way, but in a let-go-or-be-dragged way.

Detachment is not apathy. It’s the ultimate nervous system skill.

Can you stay steady when things don’t go your way? Can you hold your centre without needing to control every outcome? That’s regulation. That’s emotional sobriety. That’s freedom.

Discipline → Real Self-Leadership (Not Rest)

Here’s a myth I want to blow up: Yoga is not just rest. It’s not always soft. It’s not always gentle.

Yes, it includes rest, but yoga is a discipline.

It’s a daily return to the mat, your breath, your body - even when it’s boring. It’s the original version of Atomic Habits.

Show up. Sit down. Breathe. Observe. Again. And again. And again. Not because it feels good every time, but because it teaches you to hold yourself.

That’s what builds nervous system resilience.

Svadhyaya (Self-Study) → Somatic Awareness

Yoga teaches svadhyaya—the practice of studying the self. And no, that doesn’t mean reading more books.

It means learning to witness your thoughts without becoming them. Tracking sensations in your body without judgment. Watching your mind spiral into fear, and choosing to stay grounded instead.

Now we call it somatic tracking.

It’s the same practice: presence without drama.

From Yoga to Coaching: How I finally understood what Yoga was whispering

For years, I was on the mat. Breathing. Moving. Meditating. I felt better. Calmer. Stronger.

But I didn’t realise what I was doing: training my nervous system to hold more.

And then came the curveball - starting an online business.

Suddenly, every subconscious fear I had ever stored in my body showed up in full force.

Fear of being seen. Fear of rejection. Fear of success. Fear of getting it wrong. Fear of doing it differently.

And here’s what surprised me most: all the yoga I had done prepared me for this.

When I froze before launching something new, I could feel it and stay. When I spiralled into impostor syndrome, I had breath as my anchor. When I wanted to run, people please, or shut down—I chose to stay with myself.

Building a soul-led business is not just about strategy. It’s the nervous system's work. It’s trauma work. It’s spiritual work.

I used to think coaching was about helping others.

Now I know: it’s about learning to hold yourself so you truly hold space for someone else.

Purpose is a Nervous System Experience

When people come to me asking for clarity on their purpose, they’re usually stuck in their minds.

But your mind doesn’t hold your purpose. Your body does.

And if your nervous system is still stuck in survival, you’ll never hear the whisper of your soul. You’ll only hear the noise of fear, urgency, and exhaustion.

The work is not just to find your purpose. It’s to create the safety to live in.

And that’s why yoga, coaching, and online business are so deeply connected for me.

All of them ask: Can you stay with yourself long enough to hear what your soul is asking you to do?