The Vagus Nerve

““By developing an understanding of the workings of your vagus nerve, you may find it possible to work with your nervous system rather than feel trapped when it works against you.” -Arielle Schwartz, Clinical Psychologist ”

— Quote Source

In Latin, vagus means "wanderer." Aptly named, the vagus nerve is longest crainial nerve in the body, wandering all the way from the brain to the bottom of the digestive tract. Along it's journey it connects to the heart, lungs, and all the digestive organs, weaving an integrated network of connection that branches throughout the viscera, connecting mind and body. 

What's interesting about this nerve is that 80-90% of it is composed of afferent nerve fibers-- that is, fibers that send information from the body to the brain. This makes the vagus nerve one of the most important networks through which our brains learn about the state the body below. It's a major bottom-up information highway.
 
The vagus nerve is also one of the most important components of the parasympathetic nervous system. Also known as the "rest and digest" system, the parasympathetic nervous system is the branch of the autonomic nervous system that is responsible for feelings of ease, relaxation, and rest. Contrast this with the sympathetic nervous system, sometimes known as the "fight or flight" system, and is involved with the activation of the stress response.
 
If the sympathetic nervous system is like the gas pedal of a car, the parasympathetic nervous system is like the break. In individuals who have low vagal tone, once the car gets moving, it can be really hard to slow it down again. If you've ever felt "wired" after experiencing something stressful and couldn't calm down, this was your parasympathetic, "rest and digest" system having a hard time coming back online. 
 
If this sounds like you a lot of the time, strengthening the tone of your vagus nerve might be helpful. 
 
Whenever we stimulate the vagus nerve, we help to build its tone, or the ease with which it "comes online." Because the vagus nerve is so intricately connected to the body, there are lots of body-based ways that we can engage this key part of the nervous system:

• Exposure to cold: You don’t have to go full on Wim Hoff and swim in arctic waters to get the benefits of cold exposure. Feel free to experiment with blasts of cold water at the end of your shower. You can also take a pack of peas out of the freezer and place it on your neck or chest to help elicit a vagus nerve relaxation response.

• Belly breathing: Taking slow, deep, intentional breaths in which the lower abdominal area moves as you breathe is another way to stimulate the vagus nerve. Emphasizing and gently lengthening the exhale can be helpful with this practice. (Note: breathing practices are a powerful way to interact with the autonomic nervous system, and for some people, it can feel like “too much” and become agitating. If you’re new to breath work, take your time and feel free to let the practice go if it doesn’t feel right.)

• Singing, chanting, and gargling: When we engage in these practices, we activate the muscles in the back of the throat that are attached to the vagus nerve. Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, recommends working with the “voo” sound to vibrate the vagus nerve and all the viscera. You can watch a demonstration of how to do this here.

Why is the body key to trauma healing?

The body and the mind are inseparable

Our sense of safety is something we feel in our bodies. In the aftermath of trauma, we might know, cognitively, the danger is gone. However, if our bodies don’t register a felt-sense of safety, we remain stuck in survival mode. This is one of the many reasons that incorporating a body-based approach to healing trauma can be more helpful than talk-therapy alone.

Through our bodies, it’s also possible to both discern and alter the state of our nervous systems. By learning to read and respond to the cues produced by our felt-sense of being in a body (capacities that are often diminished in the wake of trauma), we expand our resiliency and support the nervous system’s innate capacity to heal. Through sensing and moving the body, we can restore our natural capacity to down-regulate the nervous system when it’s stuck in high-activation (fight or flight, hyperarousal) or up-regulate the nervous system when it’s stuck in low activation (freeze, dissociation, hypoarousal).

What happens as we expand our resiliency? When our nervous systems are well-regulated, we are able to move from stressful experiences back into states of calm-alertness with relative ease. Our bodies were designed to do this: to feel some stress, and then return to a comfortable baseline, like a pendulum seamlessly weaving back and forth. Trauma can disrupt this flow, but using body-based approaches, it is possible to work directly with the nervous system to restore this innate capacity.

Collecting Glimmers: A Hobby that Supports the Health of your Nervous System

Glimmers are the opposite of triggers. They are the moments we encounter throughout the day that tell us that we're safe, and that help us feel more connected, confident, and at ease.

Seeing a friendly face; listening to a song you love; catching a glimpse of a cute dog; smelling something delicious baking; noticing the beauty of the stars shimmering in the night sky...

Any moment that is pleasing, no matter how tiny, can help our nervous systems move out survival-mode, back toward regulation and resiliency.

Taking time to notice glimmers takes effort. In fact, it takes much more  effort than is required to notice cues in the environment that point toward potential danger. We tend to notice signs of danger much more easily-- and sometimes over-zealously! That's because human beings are biologically wired to have a negativity bias.

As you might imagine, this negativity bias is useful for survival purposes. If we're out strolling around in grizzly country, we want our internal radar to be sharply attuned toward any sign that a bear might be nearby. However, this tendency to notice potential danger can sometimes be overpowering,  making it hard for us to register the cues that tell us when we're safe. If we're not registering cues of safety, our nervous system will be unlikely to let us feel fully at ease-- which paradoxically means that we're even less likely to notice those cues of safety in the first place. It can become a vicious cycle, and this cycle is a defining characteristic of a trauma response. 

However, the more the more we take the time to consciously notice glimmers, the more we interrupt this cycle and strengthen the neural pathways that lead us toward greater regulation.

The more we strengthen those neural pathways, the easier they are to traverse next time.

We can collect glimmers by taking note of them as they occur throughout the day. One possibility is to set a daily goal for how many glimmers you'd like to spot. Set yourself up for success by choosing a goal that's bite-sized and doable. One or two a day is a great place to start.

Moment by moment, one glimmer at a time, we can literally reshape the structure of our nervous systems.