The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It originates in the brain and travels down to your gut, liver, spleen, pancreas, heart and lungs.
By stimulating your vagus nerve you can help your body to deal with gut issues and other health conditions as well as help develop a healthy stress response and become resilient. When stimulated, you feel calmer, more compassionate, and clearer, since the vagus nerve is involved in counteracting your fight/flight system. The vagus nerve sends information from the gut to the brain when dealing with stress, anxiety or fear – hence the saying ‘gut feeling.’ These signals help us to recover from stressful and scary situations.
Here are some easy things you can do to stimulate your vagus nerve:
✔️ Gargle forcefully with water a couple of times per day.
✔️ Breath deeply through your belly.
✔️ Singing gets your vagal pump to work.
✔️ Laughing increases vagal activity.
In his book 'Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve' Stanley Rosenberg, a craniosacral therapist, recommends the following exercise:
Full Salamaner Exercise:
Get on all fours
Head is facing down
Look left without turning head
Tilt head to the left
Let your left spine twist with the head tilt to the left
Hold for thirty to sixty seconds
Bring head and spine to center to straighten out
Repeat on right side
Try these simple exercises to make your body and mind stronger!