This message was posted on December 17, 2025 by Charlotte Bell. </p><div>
A while ago I wrote a post about 4 ways to sharpen your balance skills. In the post I describe several ways in which our body and mind help us stay balanced. Yoga is ideally suited for one aspect of balance in particular: stimulating the vestibular system.
What is the vestibular system?
The vestibular system is essential for keeping us upright, not only during yoga practice, but also when standing and walking in our daily lives. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this is what our vestibular systems do for us:
“Your vestibular system is an important part of a complex sensory system that keeps you balanced. Walking, running, and even staying upright without falling are all activities you can do thanks to your vestibular system.
“Vestibular organs in your inner ear sense the movements of your head and send this information to your brain. The movements provide information about your position and orientation in your environment. Your brain integrates this data with sensory information from your eyes, muscles and joints. Your eyes help you orient yourself based on what you see, while your muscles and joints provide sensory information as they contact your environment.
“Based on these three inputs (vestibular system + eyes + muscles and joints), your brain sends signals that tell your body how to stay balanced.”
How can yoga help?
Yoga is unique among physical exercises because of its ability to do just that stimulates the vestibular system. Every time we change our head position, we create vestibular input. Most forms of physical exercise – running, walking, cycling, Zumba classes – keep our heads upright. In a typical yoga practice we change our head position many times, in different ways.
Basic poses like Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose), standing wide-legged poses like Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), standing and seated forward bends, back bends like Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) and of course all inversions require our head to be in a position other than upright.
- Increases vestibular input. Practice yoga poses where you place your head in different positions. Here are a few examples:
- Head Down: Downward Facing Dog Pose, Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), Prasarita Padottanasana (Standing Wide Leg Forward Bend)
- Head Sideways: Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose), Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)
- Facing the ground: Parsvottanasana (Pyramid Pose), Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III) and all seated forward bends
- Head Back: Ustrasana (Camel Pose), Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hands Pose)
- Upside Down: Sirsasana (Headstand), Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand), Pinca Mayurasana (Elbow Balance), Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand), Upward Bow Pose
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<strong class="author-name">About Charlotte Bell</strong>
Charlotte Bell discovered yoga in 1982 and began teaching in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice and Yoga for Meditators, both published by Rodmell Press. Her third book is titled Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Practitioner's Guide to Protecting the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Pain (Shambhala Publications). She writes a monthly column for CATALYST Magazine and is an editor for Yoga U Online. Charlotte is a founding member of GreenTREE Yoga, a nonprofit organization that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte plays oboe and English horn in the Salt Lake Symphony and folk sextet Red Rock Rondo, whose DVD won two Emmy Awards.
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