I used to teach yoga classes at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. After the second or third class, I began to notice that, when I walked into the room, people began to yawn.
Little time passed for boredom to set in.
Besides, I'm not boring.
It became a pattern. Thus, it deserved to be explored.
What I guessed or heard over time
Yawning happens due to lack of oxygen to brain (since debunked)
Stress is being lifted off your heart
You are moving into a different frequency of being (heard from a channel)
In ER rooms, when providers see a patient yawn, that is a signal that the patient is out of crisis or is coming out of crisis.
I notice at times that when I massaged heart chakra in a clockwise manner (you the face of the clock looking outward) I would yawn several time in a row. Similar experiences would happen if I was about to do a guided meditation or deep breath work.
I was informed recently that yawning is a somatic response that signals the yawner has moved out of a sympathetic/fight, flight, freeze state to a parasympathetic state. This is a place of safety.
To go back to my walking into the yoga room, people yawn as they felt safety in my presence. My yawns acknowledged safety before moving into a a different state of being.
I am showing two processes to ease you into this "safe" state.
The first trick you see in the video is a containment technique. Containment signals our central nervous system that we are in control of our emotions in such a way that they do not overwhelm our systems, By sensing where our body ends and the rest of the world begins we ground and balance. This is extremely valuable for those of us who lean anxious or hypervigilant. The yawn is a signal that you've reached a safe point. Continued yawns signal that you continue to deepen in into or integrate more that sense of safety.
Key here is that you may not always "feel better" as you yawn. Welcome to the world of our central nervous system and a 99% subjectively coordinate body. A "symp/parasymp" transition is not always a felt response. It is always a physical one. Your yawn signals "change for the better" For now that is enough. And THAT is major.
The second sweeping technique provides the same effect. The difference is that you are "sweeping" through your energy field. This is the field that surrounds your body. The sweeping is literal. You are clearing your filed. It similar to moving your hand through a bathtub. Your movement creates a vacuum that "energy/water" fills in from behind. Your yawns signal your transition into safety.
Road test these two techniques and see what happen.
Or, for more fun, rewatch the sweeping technique. Do you feeling sensations in your forearms as I sweep mine. Do you find yourself wanting to yawn on your own?
High love and yeehah!