How to regulate your nervous system: The Vagus Nerve

During our lifetime, we go through various physical and emotional symptoms. Sometimes we may feel a bit stuck in these symptoms and unsure of how to get back to feeling what we may call our “normal” selves.

If this resonates with you and you’d like to make a change, keep on reading.

Most of the time, we have the control to regulate our nervous system and decrease pain and other symptoms.

You may have heard “Vagus Nerve” being thrown around a lot lately, and there is good reason.

We have 12 cranial nerves, with our Vagus Nerve being one of them.
It helps regulate most of the bodily functions necessary for our health and emotional well-being.

So, when we have dysfunction in these nerves, you may experience symptoms that require a different approach to your usual hands-on treatment.

It’s important to know that we constantly shift through 3 different states in our autonomic nervous system:

1. Ventral branch of the vagus nerve: Social engagement, relaxed, safe, joyful

2. Spinal Sympathetic Chain: Fight-or-flight, stress and survival mode, sympathetic and parasympathetic.

3. Dorsal branch of the vagus nerve: Shutdown, withdrawal, depressive behaviour.

Common problems associated with cranial-nerve dysfunction:

• Chronic Physical Tension

• Emotion and mental issues e.g. anxiety, lack of energy, anger, depression, difficulty sleeping, concentrating and forgetfulness

• Heart and lung problems

• Visceral organ dysfunction e.g. poor digestion and stomach problems

• Immune system problems

• Behavioural problems: excessive medication, ADHD, autism

• Interpersonal relationship issues

• Skin and menstrual issues

All of these above problems can occur at least partly from dorsal vagal activity or activation of the spinal sympathetic nervous system.
And can be addressed by reinstating normal function of the ventral vagus nerve branch and other nerves required for social engagement.

This means bringing ourselves out of the stress and shutdown states, back into our relaxed and socially engaged state.

But how? You may be asking..

One of the multiple ways to restore social engagement is through “The Basic Exercise” shown via the images from the book ‘Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve’ by Stanley Rosenburg.
IMAGES BELOW

Try this exercise out and see if it starts to make a difference for you if your suffer with the above symptoms.
Please remember that as we are constantly shifting states of stress, the exercise is not a permanent fix, but a tool that you can use every time you want to get back into a relaxed state.

This is NOT a diagnosis. Please seek multiple avenues and health professionals if you suffer with concerning symptoms as the reason may not be this.

Reference:
‘Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve’ by Stanley Rosenburg. Forewords by Stephen Porges and Benjamin Shield.