Everyday Relaxation: The Role of Vagal Tone in Maintaining Calmness
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Introduction
Lately, we’ve come across lots of videos on social media of people sharing techniques to calm the vagus nerve, which supposedly reduces anxiety and has other benefits. In this article, we are going to look at what the vagus nerve actually is and whether it is possible that these techniques we are being shown can in fact help our bodies and minds to relax.
We normally write about beauty; but the reality is that, as we get older, maintaining our youthfulness and beauty is very hard to do if we are stressed and anxious. When we are feeling calm it is much easier to make good choices about nutrition, exercise and lifestyle that all contribute to our outward appearance.
We’ll also include three simple techniques that you can use to help you relax when you are feeling stressed.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body and plays a crucial role in regulating various bodily functions. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps control many automatic functions such as heart rate, digestion, and immune response. It serves as a communication highway between the brain and the rest of the body, particularly the organs in the chest and abdomen. It’s involved in a wide range of processes, including digestion, breathing, and even emotional responses.
How Does Stimulating the Vagus Nerve Help Us to Relax?
According to a 2018 study, the vagus nerve is a key part of the body’s nervous system, looking after many important functions like controlling mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. This nerve connects the brain with the gut and sends information about how our organs are doing back to the brain. There’s some early evidence showing that stimulating the vagus nerve could help with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and inflammatory bowel disease. Techniques that stimulate the vagus nerve and some meditation techniques show that regulating the vagus nerve has a beneficial effect, mainly due to its relaxing and anti-inflammatory properties.
What are the Positive Benefits of Stimulating the Vagus Nerve?
The New York Times wrote an article in 2022, where they examined the research to back up the many claims being made on social media about how various exercises and techniques to regulate the vagus nerve can be beneficial.
Some of the methods they mention show people plunging their faces into ice water baths, lying on their backs with ice packs on their chests, doing neck and ear massages, eye movement exercises and deep-breathing techniques.
They found that the research supports that vagus nerve stimulation can help treat epilepsy, diabetes, inflammatory autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis, and depression.
Three Simple Techniques to Regulate Your Vagus Nerve
#1 Humming
We have taken this one from the YogaBody video below. The technical term is Bhramari but it is a very simple technique where you let out a low hum while exhaling. The benefit of this technique is that it is easy to do – but the downside would be that you can only really do it when you have privacy.
The idea is that the vagus nerve runs down either side of your neck and that the humming causes vibration in your throat which is felt by the vagus nerve. It is a low hum with the ‘mmmmmm’ sound.
#2 Lie on your back & move your eyes to the side
We got this one from a video by Sukie Baxter. We’ve included it because we’ve tried it and we find it works, and its easy to do in bed at night if you can’t sleep.
While lying on your back you move your feet towards your bum so that your feet are still on the ground but your legs are bent, with your knees in the air. Interlace your hands and put them at the back of your neck and, while keeping your head straight, you move your eyes to the right, and hold them there for 30 seconds. During this time, you may feel some release in the form of a yawn or a sigh. Then bring your eyes back to the centre for a few seconds before moving them to the left for 30 seconds.
You can repeat this as often as you want to and, when you have more practice, you can do it standing up.
#3 Massage points inside your ear
For this one, we are going back to the YogaBody video above. Using your index finger and thumb, you place your index finger inside your earlobe, close to where you ear meets your head, and your thumb goes behind the earlobe.
You massage in a circular motion for a few seconds anti-clockwise and then for a few seconds clockwise. You can then repeat as often as you want to.
This is our favourite one because you can do it almost anywhere – on the bus, at your desk at work or in bed at night. And we have found it to be very powerful in that we can really feel a difference in our relaxation levels after doing it.
Conclusion
As always we will say that, if you have any medical condition, you should check with your doctor before using any of these techniques.
We really do believe that these exercises are beneficial. The science certainly seems to support them but the really great thing about them is that they are free, you can easily try them yourself and it is quite obvious whether they work or not. You’ll either notice that you feel more relaxed or you won’t – so why not give them a try?
Have you used any of these techniques or any other techniques for vagus nerve stimulation? If so, how did you get on?
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