Vagus Nerve

This beauty is a complex bundle of nerves that connect the brain to various parts of your body (ear, throat, neck, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, and gallbladder), creating a 2-way street of communication. However; about 80% of the information is going from body to brain.

What Does The Vagus Nerve Do?

The vagus nerve provides many critical bodily functions, but why are psychologists such as myself becoming more interested in it? It has to do with the ways it is associated with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system functions. The vagus nerve receives fight, flight, or freeze messages from your brainstem, and helps the rest of your body prepare to engage in a survival response. The same nerve is responsible for receiving and spreading the message that you are safe, so it can restore regular functions, and you can relax. Because many of us are in an anxious or shut down state when there appears to be no danger, we want the vagus nerve to help us regulate. To achieve this, we can do some work to support our “vagal tone”

Supporting Vagal Tone

Your vagus nerve tells most of the muscles in your body when to constrict, release, move, and relax and settle. It also has a special muscular function; it is connected to the trapezius and the sternocleidomastoid (SCM), two large muscles in the neck and shoulder.

It’s no wonder that when we are stressed, our shoulders seem to crawl up to our ears and our head hangs forward. With chronic tension in these muscles, we reduce our breathing capacity, increasing anxiety, general fatigue, and low energy levels. Boo.. who wants that?! Here are some ways to help support the rest and digest mode.

• Voice and Throat

  Singing, humming, and chanting help to activate the surrounding muscle to stimulate the vagus nerve.

• Breathing exercises and Meditation

  Breathing exercises help support the parasympathetic and vagus nerve responses, which can be particularly helpful for stress, anxiety, and heart rate variability.

• Yoga and movement

  I’ll be soon posting some of my own videos that can help activate the parasympathetic response. Vagus nerve practices are best utilized with a little and often approach. Just a little bit and do it often. You might connect it to a daily practice such as when you first sit at your desk, go to the bathroom, etc.

• For now, check out Arielle Schwartz’ polyvagal yoga