Have you ever heard of the vagus nerve?

It is a really important nerve that everyone should know the importance of for our overall well being.
Scientists say that it may be the single organ that has the most decisive effect on our happiness and peace of mind.

The vagus nerve is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the right hemisphere of our brain and serves for relaxation, rest, digestion, rejuvenation, regeneration and overall balance in human physiology. It is also responsible for heart rate variability. When you get stressed, the vagus activation is immediately suppressed and the heart rate increases. This means that our mind and body become unstable because every major organ does it's work according to the vagus. Therefore, it has the main effect for homeostasis, which is the ability of internal stabilisation mechanism due to variable environmental effects. Homeostasis is the ability to maintain internal stability in an organism in response to environmental changes.
The vagus nerve comes from the brain stem and gradually passes through the neck, chest, heart, stomach and the entire digestive system. I'd call it a general nerve with a stick in its hands, wandering through the whole body to witness and regulate imbalance.
What's more, it sits not only between our sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, but also between our conscious and subconscious minds.

Research has shown that a healthy vagus nerve is vital for the development of empathy, social relationships, the ability to witness without judging, a broad perception of life and the ability to make complex decisions. Research suggests that a healthy vagus nerve is vital to our ability to empathise, socially connect, observe, perceive and make complex decisions
Tests show that people with disturbed vagal activity suffer from depression, panic attacks, stress-related disorders, anxiety, rapid mood changes, fibromyalgia, even early Alzheimer's, and obesity.

So what can you do for vagus stimulation and healthy vagus activity?
1.    Laugh a lot
2.    Diagram breathing exercises and pranayama breathing techniques like Kapala Bhati, Bhastrika, Ujjai, Bhramari etc.
3.    Chanting Hummm or Ommm
4.    Eye movement exercises
5.    Yoga poses (especially forward and backward bends, twisting poses with nasal awareness or ujjai breathing), tha chi, chi gong.
6.    Tongue cleaning in the morning before brushing your teeth (the last movement of the tongue should touch the back of the throat as far as possible to stimulate the vagus nerve).
7.    Weeping

If we consider our public psychology and look at the health statistics, it may be a most effective and cost-free solution to stimulate the vagus nerve in a proper way every day, not only for individual health, but also for general public health. In this way we can prevent or cure the %95 of diseases that are related to stress and vagus nerve damage.

Ebru Şinik | Wellbeing Coach & Ayurveda Instructor