Gorkem makes the case that most yoga instruction is built on anatomical studies, not on kinesiological studies of how a living, moving body actually organises itself – and that many common instructions in yoga classes (grounding evenly through the hands, fixing your gaze to hold a balance pose) are inadvertently triggering the same primitive stabilisation strategies the body uses to deal with threat and danger.

In our conversation, we explore:

• The developmental sequence every body already knows – Why extension, flexion, lateral flexion, and rotation must be learned in that exact order in infancy, and why skipping straight to twists or side bends in a yoga class creates compensation instead of strength and capacity

• Polyvagal theory and the nervous system in the room – How safety, threat, and freeze states show up as posture, breath, and muscle tone, and why modern "threats" like a difficult boss or school bullying can leave the body stuck in fight-flight for years

• The body as evidence – Why constipation, cold hands, brittle nails, and autoimmune flare-ups can all be signs of a nervous system locked in chronic stress, long before anyone calls it that

• The "fantastic four" for down-regulating the nervous system – Proprioception, vibration, deep pressure, and vestibular input, and how each shows up in a well-designed yoga sequence

• Reading the red flags in a pose – What clenched jaws, curled toes, and raised shoulders are really telling an instructor, and why the fix is not to merely"push through it"

• Why the hand should never bear weight evenly – A small, very concrete example of how a widely taught practice works against the body's own design

Gorkem's approach asks a provocative question: if yoga's alignment instructions were built on an incomplete model of the body, what would it look like to rebuild them on the model of how humans actually develop movement? This is a rich episode for yoga teachers, therapists, and anyone who has ever struggled with their yoga practice.

Learn more

📌 Neurodevelopmental Yoga: 🔗 https://norogelisimselyoga.com/

📌 Follow Gorkem Dizdar on Instagram: 🔗 https://www.instagram.com/gorkemdizdar/

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