(Book Report) Activate Your Vagus Nerve
I’m convinced that the Vagus Nerve (pronounced Veh-Guess) is the key to a life of calm and relaxation…
And if you haven’t heard of the Vagus Nerve before, that’s ok.
But know that if you find yourself anxious, angry, scared, nervous, aggressive, or ‘on edge’ at times when there is little need to feel that way, then you should know that your Vagus Nerve is a critical part of the solution to helping your mind and body relax.
Some important things to understand…
Scientists believe that, over time, our brains have developed and evolved from the bottom up.
Before we grew the ability for conscious and complex thought, our brains were hard wired to simply keep us alive.
And the brain stem, located at the base of our brain, has carried that responsibility as the control center for many of the necessary functions of our bodies.
Automatic functions like breathing, heart beat, and digestion all happen without us having to think about them because of the connection from this part of our brain to a system of regulatory nerves called the autonomic nervous system.
And here’s where things get really important…
Stay with me. The autonomic nervous system has two main branches:
The Sympathetic Nervous System
The Parasympathetic Nervous System
One activates your ‘Fight or Flight’ response (Sympathetic).
The other calms you down after your ‘Fight or Flight’ response has been activated (Parasympathetic).
When you feel negative emotions like fear, anxiety, nervousness, etc., your ‘Fight or Flight’ system has been activated.
Now, imagine a life where you have control over all of these negative emotions.
That’s a life where you have command over your Parasympathetic Nervous System - your calming system.
Fight or Flight is a culprit, but it’s necessary…
The Sympathetic Nervous System (‘Fight or Flight’) has been critical to keeping us alive as a species.
Because our bodies needed to signal us to run like hell when a predator (like a lion) was approaching, or else we wouldn’t have survived.
So even if we could, we wouldn’t want to just throw the Sympathetic Nervous System out.
But now we live in a different age.
Our brains have developed further, and grown new parts that help us think critically and mentally grasp more complex concepts.
As a result, we’ve been able to create an environment for ourselves that’s much safer and mostly free from predators.
Seen any attacking lions lately?
Probably not.
Here’s the problem though…
We’ve developed newer parts to our brains.
But we still have all the old parts.
And sometimes this mix activates our ‘Fight or Flight’ system when we’re really not in any danger at all.
Also, the world around us has changed.
And our increased exposure to new technology, social media, 24-hour news and other anxiety-inducing mechanisms have helped activate our Sympathetic Nervous System (‘Fight or Flight’) to new levels, and turned it into ‘always on’ mode.
But that’s where the Vagus Nerve comes in…
Once that ‘Fight or Flight’ (Sympathetic Nervous System) has been activated, you can activate it’s counterpart (Parasympathetic Nervous System) and calm yourself on command.
Here’s a list of actions you can take to activate your Vagus Nerve, as outlined in the book:
Breathing Exercises
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
Cold Exposure
Humming or Chanting
Activating Your Gag Reflex
Gargling
Yoga or Pilates
Mindfulness Practice
Meditation
Laughter and Social Connectedness
And there are many more.
Your Vagus Nerve runs in two long strands from the base of your brainstem down the back of your neck and then connects internally into your vital organs.
If at the end of a long, stressful day you’ve had a terrible tightening in the back of your neck, you’ve felt your Vagus Nerve.
Learning how to activate and care for it is the key to a calm and relaxing outlook on life.
Read this book to learn more.
