What Happens With Vagus...

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Vagus baby, the hype is real. Forming relationship with the vagus nerve is one of the most influential relationships that you can cultivate to co-regulate yourself in body, mind and spirit.

What is the Vagus Nerve?

The vagus nerve is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, making up approximately 75% of its nerve fibres: our body’s automatic ability to rest, repair and recover after the tigger or fight-flight. The vagus nerve is the largest nerve of the body, stemming from the brain stem down through the body, out reaching to connect with vital organs including the heart, lungs, diaphragm, esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, pancreas and kidneys. Therefore one can understand immediately that the vagus nerve supports the systems to produce calming neurotransmitters regulate heartbeat and respiration, removes toxins, facilitate insulin release, reduce inflammation and regulate renal hemodynamics. Sensory and tension messages are carried through this nerve from brain to body, and from body to brain

Why does this all matter?

The more you can command this nerve and strengthen its “tone”, the more readily you can consciously impact your health and emotional resilience. Sounds basics enough, but paradoxically, the autonomic nervous system and our unconscious programming limits the vagus nerve from its shiny ability. We have wired our physical bodies to feel “safest” within states of chronic stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, fatigue, inflamed, etc. The body is designed to stay the same, therefore, the more we attach ourselves to these states, the stronger they become. Feeling relaxed and calm is actually uncomfortable and foreign and so we immediately return to the known, forming an addiction to the feelings we don’t want to feel. Sounds ridiculous, but its true. You body feels the safest in these states that are wrecking havoc and preventing long-term health.

Want to make a change and begin to feel good on the regular?

Strengthening the tone of the vagus nerve (meaning the nerve is active, responsive) takes practice and consistency, as does anything within your reality when you want to encourage a change. One can imagine you would rather feel balanced, grounded and able to recover from difficulty efficiently when you do encounter a perceived stress, as opposed to the latter. Forming relationship with the vagus nerve is the key to override your automatism and begin to synchronize with nervous system resilience. High vagal tone means the interplay between alert and calm is fluid and flexible and thereby your internal state is a reflection of just that: adaptable.

Here are a few simple ways to reinforce high vagal tone and reestablish genuine well-being, however that looks and feels for you:

Breathwork

Controlling your breathing to be rhythmic, is an efficient way to enhance heart rate variability, which has a immediate effect with on the physiological response to stress. Here are a few breathwork practices that you can incorporate into your daily routine.

Cold Exposure:

Exposing the body to cold triggers the “diving reflex” which immediately slows the heart rate, deepens the breath and redistributes blood flow to protect the internal organs. It is a shocking recalibration to the body, but stimulates the vagus nerve the fastest. Don’t have access to a cold plunge on the daily? No need to worry, you can wash your face in the morning/evening with cold water, have a cold shower finisher once you’ve washed or simply take a cold compress to your neck and cheeks.

Self-Massage:

Gentle, consistent self-massage activates pressure receptors just under you skin, especially where the vagus nerve is accessible, instantly boost the tone of the vagus nerve. So go ahead and place light, sustained pressure to the neck especially the anterior neck on either side of your trachea, your earlobes and surrounding anterior outside of the ear, base of the skull especially where your cervical spine meets your skull and jaw and tmj area.

Sing and Hum:

Vocalization and sound practices are a powerful way to influence the vagus nerve as naturally, when you use your voice, you engage the muscles of your throat, diaphragm and face, signalling nerve branches. Sing in the car, start humming while you make dinner, recite or chant a mantra such as OHM for a few minutes before bed, gargle water with your throat after you brush your teeth, or listen to crystal bowl sound practices.

Remember, your body is designed to heal. The nervous system is a complex system designed to regulate and recover. It is through our subjective thinking mind that we co-create the bodily reactivity and disregulation, so feel empowered that you can readily manage any difficulty simply by being present when you are activated and witnessing your patterning, reframing perception remembering stress comes from you not at you and forming relationship with the vagus nerve through these key intentional efforts.