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Yawning, the most shared physiological reflex in the world, has a tremendous power over our level of stress. Let's find out why...

During one's life, a person yawns on average 250,000 times. Man's most widespread and shared physiological reflex, yawning concerns almost all vertebrates. A sign of empathy, boredom, fatigue or alertness, this behavior, often perceived as rude (wrongly), is not insignificant. Among other things, it helps any normal person to relax in moments of intense stress. Highly recommended, yawning therefore acts as a natural anti-stress, free and accessible to all.

Why do we yawn?

During sleep, airway muscles go into (quasi) off mode and their activity greatly decreases. When waking up and in order to get these muscles going again, yawning and stretching play a liberating role. They open the airways, cause deep breaths and therefore oxygenate the blood. The body's energy comes back to life. In Chinese medicine, yawning is recommended to properly circulate this vital energy and free it from the stress that paralyzes it. The respiratory and digestive functions are stimulated by yawning as well as the internal organs.

Our body undergoes constant changes, and yawning is also a sign of the passage from one state to another. It tells the brain that a physical change is underway and increases our vigilance. When our tone drops undesirably, the yawn reflex appears precisely to counteract the effect of fatigue. It alerts the brain and serves as a sort of boost for better concentration. Yawning is therefore an expression of a need and a messenger of the body. This reflex also leads to a significant mimicry phenomenon. Seeing someone yawn, especially someone close to us, encourages us to imitate them. Good to know: mimicry is specific to primates.

Yawning to find relaxation

In yoga or meditation, breathing is integral and often, it's by practicing these practices that we become aware of its benefits, mainly its anti-stress capacities. Yawning, combined with breathing, also fully participates in this relaxation. Faced with danger, our body produces adrenaline in order to face a state of "stress". This natural and protective state allows us to flee or fight. What's harmful therefore lies in the accumulation of stress, in its intensification which doesn't allow the heart to calm down and muscle tension to decrease. It then becomes essential to relax throughout the day by using yawning (and breathing).

Provoked several times a day, this physiological behavior leads to a relaxation of the diaphragm similar to that produced by deep breathing. The key is therefore in training. Let's train our jaw and our yawning muscles, in a conditioned way. In every situation of stress, fatigue, wear and tear, it's beneficial to train yourself to breathe deeply and yawn so that one day everything will happen naturally. So let's yawn to free our body and mind from overly invasive anxieties!

(MH with Anne-Sophie Debauche - EVG - Illustration: Sander Sammy via Unsplash)