Dialing in Bliss and Hot Yoga Dance

The Happy Hormone Dance 

The food we eat, the company we keep, activities we practice, and the drugs we take all affect the delicate hormonal dance that gets us through each day.

Consistent practices like yoga and dance can build routines that encourage “flow states” and lead to homeostasis even when the world feels like it is falling down around us.

There is no magic pill that will fix you. Dialing in pleasure and creativity is a survival tactic that is best served by tracking and understanding your hormones, activities, and the key neurochemicals that drive happiness, pleasure and creativity. 

Key Neurochemicals:

• Dopamine - Instant Reward (energetic pleasure)  

• Serotonin - Mood Stability (balance and bliss) 

• Oxytocin - “Love Hormone” (bonding) 

• Endorphins - Pain Relief (euphoria)

Practicing yoga, finding your “flow state”, and indulging in orgasmic pleasure can help increase neuroplasticity. Practiced consistently, it can energize and balance the mechanisms that drive these key neurochemicals.  

Serotonin and Dopamine work together, when in balance they create a positive feedback loop. They are Yin and Yang. Serotonin thrives on communal experiences and connections. It is not addictive. It offers balance and stability. It plays the long game. Dopamine, on the other hand, provides instant gratification. It is addictive. You just can’t get enough!

Oxytocin rounds out the dopamine and serotonin dance with feelings of connection, love and trust. It binds pleasure while endorphins tackle pain and, if lucky, drop you into euphoria. 

Who wouldn’t want these magical neurochemicals dialed in?

Between consistent routines that help you flow, better sleep, and healthy eating, what can you change and do to help prioritize this balance?

Finding Your “Flow State” 

Pure happiness, bliss, comes when all these mechanisms work in concert. While instant gratification can jump start neuroplasticity, it thrives on repeated and predictable stimulation, on practice, routine and ultimately ritual. 

Practicing yoga, creativity, and orgasmic pleasure helps to balance these mechanisms. Working in concert, this magical dance can lead to meditation, pure presence, and bliss.  

The challenge, of course, is getting everything to work in concert, to dance together. This takes practice and commitment. It requires adapting your lifestyle to focus on balancing these mechanisms despite the noise and uncertainty all around us.  

Practicing “flow states” such as yoga, running, orgasmic pleasure, and focused creativity can help drive increased neuroplasticity and perfect the positive feedback loop. The more you practice the better this balance and the better your ability to dial in “flow states”. 

Tanya’s Tips: We often lean on drugs (prescribed and recreational) to help balance this dance of hormones. We band-aid stunted neuroplasticity allowing life’s noise to drive the dance. Instead, or alongside, build practices and routines that lead to homeostasis and flow baby, flow! Learn More @YestoSex Dancing with Cannabis, Estrogen and Orgasms

Yoga Gets a Bad Wrap

Yoga can be polarizing. One tends to be either “all in” or “all out”.  While the “all outs” may have never tried it, connect it with cults, or felt overwhelmed by advanced or “hot” practices, I am in the “all in” camp. Here's my pitch:

The Practice of Yoga       

Yoga is the practice of asana (movement), breathing and meditation. After years of practice, you can learn to drop deeply into the moment. Your mat is your Universe. The community is there to feel and absorb the collective energy. It is why we practice “om”.

The teacher is a guide to this experience. Bliss comes in practices that provide a safe place to breathe, flow, and meditate.  

I have been practicing yoga for decades. After 700+ hours of practice since my studio started post-pandemic recording, I have found my groove. I like it hot and gravitate to teachers that do not impose their ego on my raw id. While music can help tap into flow and trigger increased neuroplasticity, some of my favorite yogis guide without music or personal stories. They flow with the practice. There is no place for shame. 

I prefer functional (no mirrors) Vinyasa (flow) yoga, hot with low lights and, if music, intentionally instrumental to stimulate but not interrupt either focused or empty thoughts.

There are 4 types of Yoga: Vinyasa (flow), Hatha (strength), Ashtanga (serial), and Yin (slow). If you live in an urban area, you should be able to find a studio that fits your needs. I suggest following teachers that help you show up and stay present without disrupting your flow. 

For those that like it HOT expect 90-105 F and high humidity. Plan to sweat. I can ring out my pigtails after practice. If you're a midlife woman navigating fluctuating hormones, heat, whether sauna or hot yoga, can be healthy and promote longevity.  Dr. Stacy Simms is my “go to” expert when heating up exercise.

Tanya’s Tips: Schedule healthy practices and build routines you can stick to. Let them become rituals. Find that safe place to breathe and flow then make it non-negotiable. Over time your body, mind and that happy hormonal dance within will thank you!