An Intro to Vagal Toning
Do you feel like you're stuck in a fight, flight, or freeze response? I think many people have felt like they've been stuck in a stress response since March 2020. The autonomic nervous system, the system responsible for our stress response, does an amazing job at protecting us from imminent threat. The thing is, much of the time, our lives are not in immediate danger - but our body doesn't catch up with what our mind already knows. Autonomic state shifts are out of our control: they are biologically hardwired responses to help us survive.
This is where the vagus nerve comes in, and more specifically vagal toning. The vagus nerve is the messenger system between your body and your brain: it sends signals to let you know that everything is okay, that it's time to rest and recover.
Since I started learning about the vagus nerve a few years ago, the more I learn, the more in awe I am about its intricacies. Every time I learn something new I think 'Why don't more people know about this?!'
The vagus nerve goes from the brainstem all the way into our gut: it is the longest nerve pathway in the body. It triggers the parasympathetic nervous system response, which is our rest and digest system and helps us to feel calm and relaxed. It's also sometimes referred to as the 'wandering nerve': you can see why in the above drawing from UC Berkeley
In moments of activation or crisis, having access to vagal toning can be an extremely powerful tool to de-escalate our internal landscape. There are many reasons to tap into vagal toning as a tool, it's not just about getting calm. Low vagal tone is linked to mood instability, chronic fatigue, inflammation, depression, diabetes, and cognitive impairment. A high vagal tone improves Heart Rate Variability (which you can learn about in this blog post), emotional stability, digestion and heart health.
So how do you practice vagal toning? A few simple techniques:
Humming + singing - the vagus nerve passes through our vocal chords and inner ear so humming and singing is a really accessible way to strengthen it
Breathing - take deep breaths into your belly and take long exhales out of your mouth
Call a friend - co-regulation and feeling safe with others in relationship is a BIG part of strengthening the vagus nerve
I'm leading a movement and breath workshop with Poppi in Hudson, NY tomorrow from 530-7 pm where we'll get into all this and more. If you're in the area or have friends in the area please let them know about it! You can sign up on my website here or register at Poppi's website and pay on the door.