It is the longest of the 12 cranial nerves in the body. It's like a highway that tells your brain what's going on in your organs—especially your digestive tract, lungs, heart, spleen, liver, and kidneys. It is also an essential part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps calm our organs and deal with the effects of the fight-or-flight response.
If the vagus nerve is functioning well, the body can relax more quickly when it senses danger (real or perceived), and if the vagus nerve is low in tone, it has a harder time regulating the inflammation going on in the body.
So if you feel fatigue, anxiety, indigestion, depression, foggy feeling in the brain, it is possible that the tone of the vagus nerve is weakened.
A few ways to strengthen the vagus nerve:
Laughter, sound and hugs
Each of these actions releases the hormones oxytocin and seratonin, which are designed to reduce stress and improve mood.
Singing physiologically activates the vocal cords, vibrates muscle fibers, thus increasing the tone of the vagus nerve and heart rate variability. In addition, this way we activate the parasympathetic part of the nervous system responsible for "rest and digest"
So, laugh, sing, listen to music, hug as often as possible!!!
Gut health
Proper nutrition and probiotics help keep the intestinal flora stable and healthy. By supporting your digestive tract, you support your enteric nervous system, which connects to your brain via the vagus nerve.
Breathing, yoga, meditation
When we are stressed, we usually forget to exhale deeply, our breathing becomes fast and shallow. The vagus nerve directly regulates exhalation, which causes the relaxation response. Therefore, one of the ways to stimulate the vagus nerve is the practice of conscious breathing, yoga, which is full of pranayama, special body positions, locks and meditation techniques that combine sound, breathing, and concentration.
Cold shower
Cold stimulates the vagus nerve. A contrast shower (alternating hot and cold water) also helps a lot. If it is very difficult to stay in cold water, the effect will be felt after dipping your face in cold water at least a few times.
The events published on this website have an unequivocally positive effect on the tone of the vagus nerve:
Kundalini yoga: breathing, special exercises, chanting mantras, meditation; Innerdance: sound, smells, touches; Conscious Breathing Session: Lots of conscious breathing and music sounds.
You are invited and welcome
Comments