Issue 122: What Happens in Vagus ...

When my clients return from their relaxing summer vacations, they tell me about how their digestion, mood, energy, cravings, and sleep all improved, and they feel so much better.

This is yet another reminder of how critical it is to my clients’ healing, health, and overall well-being that they quite literally feel safe in their bodies, or know how to get there. Psychological and emotional safety give our bodies time to heal and then thrive.

This is some of my favorite stuff!

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We’re learning how to harness our own nervous systems to help our mental and physical health. The body communicates a veritable firehose of information about the status of the body to the brain, which informs both our health and our mood. So I’ll tell you all about that firehose, called the vagus nerve. Then I’ll give you a useful theory about how our bodies orient toward or away from feeling safe. Finally, I’m going to share some super accessible practices that use this theory to help you heal both physically and emotionally.

The Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is a “wandering nerve” known as cranial nerve X (ten in Roman numerals) that starts in the brain and “wanders” through the body. The other eleven cranial nerves serve the five senses and the movements of the head and neck, like our facial, eye, and neck muscles, and the tongue - even things like saliva production. The vagus nerve is in constant bidirectional communication with the other cranial nerves, the heart, the organs, and the digestive tract.

A whopping 80% of the vagus nerve’s communication is from the body up to the brain. When you have an instinctive gut feeling, feel stimulated (excitement? anxiety?), or feel the heart’s intuition and emotion, your brain automatically translates that feeling into a response. The same messaging and responding happens when there’s something occurring in the body, like relaxation or stress, slow/strong or rapid heart beat, or good or poor digestion.

That’s the vagus nerve sensing what’s happening in your body and sending a message to your brain: “This is what’s going on and we are safe (or not safe).” The brain assigns that message a meaning, creates a story to explain it, and instantly sets you up with thoughts, words to describe your experience, and actions. The action might be movement, like smiling or hitting something; an emotion, like joy, anger, or depression; or a biochemical or physiological process, like an immune response, sleepiness, hunger, or thirst. The upshot is that the body-mind is enmeshed in tightly designed programming to seek, support, protect, and defend our health and safety. And the vagus nerve is our key.

There’s so much to know about how the vagus nerve allows the gut, the organs, the heart, and the brain to talk to each other! Do some exploring in this informative, succinct article about the many physiological roles of the vagus nerve.

The quality of the bidirectional messages between brain and body through the vagus nerve directly influences our health. Persistent messages of “danger” result in increased risks of  colds/viruses, digestive woes, heart disease, high or low blood pressure, blood sugar imbalances, metabolic diseases (diabetes, cholesterol, arteries)…even mood disorders, focus/attention issues, sleeplessness, sexual dysfunction, and cancer. Understanding this allows integrative practitioners to bring to bear both nutrition and non-nutrition healing practices.

There’s This Theory …

And it has a name: Polyvagal Theory. It was conceived by Dr. Stephen Porges in 1994 (you can learn about him here). Understanding it allows us to create tools that retrain our bodies to reorient toward safety, and therefore better physical and mental health.

As the brain interprets and reacts to nervous system communications, it does it based on one of two broad, overarching messages that help it direct the body’s responses. The first message is safety, during which it allows the body to heal, rest, and renew itself. The second is when we feel unsafe, which is all about defense and protection.

Polyvagal Theory offers up the visual of a ladder, and each rung is whatever is primarily being communicated to the body and brain through the vagus nerve. Whichever rung is the top rung becomes the dominant, prevailing response. There are three rungs on this theoretical ladder:

• Sympathetic (stress) response, aka fight or flight (unsafe).
• Dorsal branch of the vagus nerve, aka freeze or flop (unsafe).
• Ventral branch of the vagus nerve (safe).

Sympathetic: When we’re in danger, our brains and bodies typically prompt us into action. We are prepped to turn and battle the danger or turn the other way and run. Fight or flight is a highly stimulated stress response, and it is directed by the sympathetic nervous system. If the sympathetic branch is the top rung, we will be anxious and overwhelmed.

Dorsal Branch: However, sometimes when we’re in danger we feel trapped, unable to run or fight even though we don’t feel safe. Polyvagal Theory says there’s a branch of the vagus nerve called the dorsal branch, which essentially shuts us down, like a possum playing dead. In an acute situation, a human might actually faint, and over a somewhat longer span that person might become sad, unmotivated, sluggish, etc. If the dorsal branch is the top rung, we will be depressed and unable to engage.

Ventral Branch: The ventral branch shepherds us to safety without feeling overstimulated or shut down, even in the face of something that we might see as dangerous. It is the essence of resilience and widens our Window of Tolerance. It borrows energy, focus, and clarity from the sympathetic nervous system and relaxation from the dorsal branch. That is to say, we feel like we have the mental space, ability, and confidence to make good decisions and act in our own and others’ best interest. This can be described as flow.

We’re in the moment. We can identify, absorb, and act on good information for a positive outcome, or hit the ball right in the sweet spot, or make our best work presentation, or ace the test.

Importantly, both consciously and unconsciously we are better equipped to protect and defend our health and well-being while simultaneously cultivating our ability to heal and renew.

A body-mind that primarily has ventral dominance will be healthier - physically, mentally, emotionally, and even in spirit.

(Please seek proper professional support if you suffer from a mental or physical illness).

Practices: The Ventral Branch is Yours for the Taking

The beauty of it all is that we can train our bodies to attune to a dominant ventral response, even if right now our emotional, psychological, and environmental triggers typically lead directly to stress, anxiety, or depression. Physical and mental resilience, more balanced emotions, focus/attention, improved cognition and memory, and flow are within reach with some accessible practices.

We can use cranial nerve X - the vagus nerve - to reorient our bodies to safety by using other cranial nerves and our lungs to communicate with it.

The more we practice any combination of the exercises you’ll find below, the more resilient we become.

And there you go!

This issue ends with suggestions for practices that can help you build resilience in the face of hard things. Practice them away from your triggers as training. That way your body will automatically respond when you choose to use them during the hard stuff.

When our body feels safe, our mind, emotions, and health follow suit, fostering a state of balance, well-being, and peace.

Check out the exercises below!

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Breath Work

Of all the autonomic processes that we can’t control, we can control our breath. We only breathe deeply when we’re safe. Intentional breathing engages the stretch receptors of our lungs, which sends a signal through the vagus nerve to the brain that the body is safe. It also increases heart rate variability.

Box Breathing:
Breathe in for a slow count of four, pause for a slow count of four, release the breath for a slow count of four, pause for a slow count of four. Repeat at least three times.

4-5-6 Breathing:
Breathe in for a slow count of four. Pause at the top for a slow count of five. Release for a slow count of six. Pause for a couple of seconds and repeat at least three times. Once this is familiar, increase to 5-6-7 breathing, then 6-7-8 breathing.

Engaging Cranial Nerves

Eyes
Dr. Porges’ Basic Exercise:

• Lie on the floor or other flat surface, legs bent or straight.
• Make a basket of your hands by interweaving your fingers, and cradle your head in it.
• Look straight ahead at the ceiling.
• Without moving your head, look as far in one direction as you can without moving your head or straining.
• Stay in that position until your breath changes. You might yawn, sigh, take a deep breath, have a hitching breath, or some other change.
• Reset your eyes by looking ahead, and then repeat the eye movement on the other side.

**If you are tightly bound by protective mechanisms, it may take practicing 2 or 3 times for a few days before you notice a difference in your breath. Keep at it!**

Ears

• Listen to any music that reliably makes you feel energized and upbeat and you know improves your mood.
• Preferably listen on headphones that cover your ears, but pods or earphones work, too, and having it on speakers can work in a pinch.
• Listen in such a way that you feel immersed (hence the headphones, but you can also turn it comfortably loud. (Don’t blow out your ears).
• Listen long enough to feel that the shift in your body will be maintained, or at least five minutes.
  

Smell
Take in the odor of real lavender or rosemary, which are especially calming.
Perhaps grow them in your garden or kitchen window for easy access.

Vocal Cords
Gargle with water three or four times in a row. Repeat as many times as you’re comfortable.

Sing! Sing hymns, showtunes, etc. or along with your favorite songs as loudly as practical.

Hum to engage the vocal cords. Choose one that also resonates in the chest.

Touch
Hug and be hugged by someone you consider safe for at least 10 seconds.

Hold hands.

Get a back rub or massage.

Rub your hands up and down your own arms and/or legs.
Snuggle with your pet.