The Vagus Nerve and You
Have you met your friend, the Nervous System yet?
You may have heard of the fabulous and powerful vagus nerve before. Some health professionals state there are key health benefits from activating the vagus nerve. It is reported that stimulation of the vagus nerve therapeutically effects stress, anxiety, depression, and even physical health issues like digestive, brain and heart conditions.
Before I share the ways we can activate the vagus nerve in talking therapy, let’s have a look at what the vagus nerve is and what our clever friend, the nervous system, does to help us in times of danger and disconnection. Firstly, it is important to note that we are wired and designed for connection and safety. The Polyvagal Theory highlights how we use neuroception to better understand ourselves, so we can stay anchored in a safe and connected state. Neuroception is a term coined by Dr. Stephen Porges (who developed the Polyvagal Theory). It is an unconscious and almost instinctive understanding, which we use to decide if we are safe. All our senses are involved, smell, sound, sight, taste and touch, and they send information back to our brain to help us stay safe.
Porges says that neuroception explains why a baby will coo at a caregiver but then cry at a stranger, or why a toddler enjoys a caregiver's hug but when given a hug from a stranger they can feel almost attacked. Using neuroception, we can very quickly and unconsciously respond to signs of danger. For example, hearing a twig break in the bushes can send our body into a quick response as we jump and experience a whoosh of energy in our heart and body, before we even consciously become aware of what is happening. After the fright experience, we may then notice that the twig was broken by a cute wombat and not a wild ferocious animal. It was our awareness of things through our senses (neuroception) that helped us be ready to get safe and then later decide it was a false alarm.
Polyvagal Theory also shows us that we can learn to pull ourselves back up into a safe and connected state when we fall down into dysregulated states. When our nervous system notices signs of threat, such as an angry tone of voice or a dissatisfied look in the eyes from a loved one, using neuroception, it helps us by turning our bodies into superhero’s, thus enabling us to use our energy differently.
Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is one of twelve cranial nerves found in our brain stem. This nerve is called the vagus nerve because it wanders through our whole body and into all our body organs (vagus means wandering in Latin). The front part of this nerve is called the ventral vagus nerve and this is also what we call our compassion and connection portal (and our social engagement system). When this part of the nerve is activated and running our body, we feel safe and connected.
We feel courageous, compassionate, sexy, creative, resilient, peaceful, resourceful, and flexible. Our body’s breathing, heart rate and digestive systems are also regulated and calm. Our ability to connect with ourselves, our friends, family, lovers, spirit, and the world around us, is at optimal capacity. We can engage and disengage with our self and with others as we need to. We feel loved, helpful and peaceful.
Nervous System is your defender in times of danger.
⇨ Your sympathetic nervous system turns on your fight or flight response
⇨ Your dorsal vagus nerve turns on the freeze response
Sympathetic Nervous System
Life, however, is not always so safe and connected, all the time. Sometimes we won’t need the ventral vagus nerve to run the body. Sometimes, we need to access large amounts of cortisol and adrenalin quickly to be able to run from danger or to fight and get ourselves safe and connected again. Our body has a great and effective system, called the fight or flight response, which helps us in times of danger. It turns off the ventral vagus nerve communication between body and brain and switches the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.
This significantly increases our heart rate, mobilises our body and moves oxygen quickly. With this system turned on, we have an excellent chance to get safe again, and once we do, the nervous system turns off the fight or flight function and the ventral vagus nerve system comes back online, helping us go about our life again. Happy, safe and connected.
Dorsal Vagus Nerve
If our fight or flight system doesn’t get us to feel safe again, our vagus nerve comes back in the game, to save the day. This time it is the back part of the nerve called the dorsal vagus nerve which jumps onboard to turn on the freeze system. When the freeze system is running the body, we can immobilise and essentially “play dead” in the hopes the danger might lose interest in us and go away.
Very helpful at those times when a bear might be sniffing at us, trying to decide if we would be a good dinner. Thanks helpful nervous system!
Once the danger goes away our nervous system turns off the freeze system and once again the ventral vagus nerve comes back online to help our body and mind connect with itself, others and the world once again.
Your friend needs your help
Our survival system is excellent! Unfortunately, our nervous system can start to get spooked a little easily if we experience trauma or lots of stressful events. The nervous system can start to think people and/or situations might be a danger to us when they are not.
When we have a hypervigilant nervous system, it can sometimes turn on fight or flight and/or freeze, when we don’t really need it. Sometimes our helpful nervous system needs our help to regulate, so our ventral vagus nerve can run the show again.
Thankfully, we can edit a hypervigilant system and teach our system to regulate and calm down. We are not stuck with this reactive system running our life! We can learn ways to help ourselves. Talking therapy helps us identify our triggers while also teaching our brains and our bodies new strategies to help us calm our nervous system. The more you activate your ventral vagus nerve, the thicker and stronger it gets. It is like a workout; therapy tones your ventral vagus nerve. You may start to notice changes and gain rewards like reduced depression symptoms, reduced anxiety symptoms, feel more grounded, wise, peaceful and feel more confident in living an authentic satisfying life.
When we have the ventral vagus nerve activated regularly, we feel we have the resources and connections to help us when the hard times come. We can mentally pull ourselves up faster, each time we fall. It is not a perfect and problem free life we aim for, but a flexible and resilient mindset to help us when we need it. Plus, we aim to build a safe community around us to support and receive support from. This will keep us anchored in a safe and connected state and help us return to it quickly after we are triggered.
Regulating and helping your nervous system: Breathing
Deep slow breaths. Breathing out longer than your breath in, communicates to your body that you are not running from or fighting a bear but are indeed safe. Try this as you read along now.
Breath in for the count of 5
Breath out for the count of 7
Do this three times and then check in with your body and notice if you feel calmer.
2. If you don’t feel better, try again for another 3x breath cycles, in and out. Check in with your body to notices any changes. Try another round of 3 and check in (this will be 9 breath cycles all together). If this doesn’t help you feel more grounded, then you may need to try the next strategy to harness and ground your thoughts and help you regulate more.
“Sometimes we don’t catch ourselves early enough when we are learning how to regulate so we need to keep trying strategies to steady our racing thoughts and sooth our racing bodies.”
Regulating and helping your nervous system: Grounding
We often find ourselves worrying about the future or the past. Turning our thoughts towards being more present in the here and now can help your body regulate. We can do this by using the 5,4,3,2,1 grounding technique. Look around where you are right now to slowly notice your surroundings. Say things to yourself aloud, slowly, and calmly:
5- What are 5x things you can see around you. Stating each one slowly and out loud helps.
4- Tune into your body to notice 4x things you can feel. This can be paying attention to what your feet feel like in your shoes or what your clothes feel like against your skin.
3- Pay attention to 3x things you can hear. Slowly, say out loud the 3 things you can hear. Wait until you hear 3.
2- Notice 2x things you can smell. Sometimes, you may need to find two things around you to smell such as your clothes, hair, or hands.
1- Finally, what is 1x thing you can taste in your mouth? Are there any leftover tastes from your recent meal or perhaps you’ve just had a cup of tea? Maybe there isn't much to taste at all.
By the time you have slowly gone through each step you will have drawn your mind and thoughts into the present and broken the anxious thought pattern of going around and around to past or future worries. Using the grounding strategy with the breathing strategy can be a powerful self-regulating tool.
Practice these two strategies when you are calm. This helps your nervous system to recognise that you are calm and to trust what you are teaching it. Then, when you start to notice you have racing thoughts, or your heart starts to beat faster, or you have shallow breath, you can use the strategies to regulate your nervous system and help yourself soothe and settle.
Getting to know your friend, the helpful nervous system, and your triggers, increases your sense of being grounded, equipped, and anchored.
Book in for therapy if you want to explore getting to know your nervous system more and learn ways to regulate yourself and increase peace in your life.
If you want to improve yourself and your connections with others, then the journey of therapy may be right for you. We can help you explore and strengthen your inner self, improve your confidence, and allow you to meet life’s challenges with an enlightened sense of awareness.
Author: Rachel Whitton
References:
Armstrong. C (2015). Vagus Nerve Compassion Portal. The anatomy of God’s link within our spirit. USA: Silver Springs and Dayspring Publishers
Breit, S., Kupferberg, A., Rogler, G., Hasler, G (2018) Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain– Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders, Frontiers in Psychiatry
Dana, D (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. Engaging the rhythm of regulation. New York : W. W. Norton & Company Inc
Dana, D (2021). Anchored. How to befriend your nervous system using the polyvagal theory. Boulder, CO: Sounds True
Porges, S. W., & Carter, C. S (2017) Polyvagal theory and the social engagement system: Neurophysiological bridge between connectedness and health. In P.L Gerbarg, P.R. Muskin, & R. P. Brown (Eds.), Complementary and integrative treatments in psychiatric practice. (pp. 221- 240). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association Publishing
Porges, S.W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New York : W. W. Norton & Company Inc