{"id":152252,"date":"2024-03-05T14:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152252"},"modified":"2024-03-05T14:01:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:01:11","slug":"vagus-nerve-stimulation-3-tricks-to-stop-anxiety-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152252","title":{"rendered":"Vagus Nerve Stimulation \u2013 3 Tricks to Stop Anxiety Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2rJvWLN8rtE<\/div>Do you get stressed out and anxious? Do you find\u00a0 yourself just overthinking things that are totally\u00a0\u00a0 out of your control? You know when I was growing\u00a0 up, I had this dog named Zack and he was just as\u00a0\u00a0 anxious as me. He’d get all worked up and\u00a0 shake and tremble. But with my dog I could\u00a0\u00a0 just scratch on his belly and every single\u00a0 time within about a minute he would completely\u00a0\u00a0 calm down. And I thought wouldn’t it be great if\u00a0 me and you, what if we had a technique like my\u00a0\u00a0 dog where we could just scratch our belly when\u00a0 we’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed out and\u00a0\u00a0 calm ourselves down? Well, I later in life\u00a0 learned there is a technique and it’s called\u00a0\u00a0 vagal nerve stimulation and I’ll show you how to\u00a0 do it. Hey, my name is Lucas. I’m a yoga teacher\u00a0\u00a0 and in this short video I’ll show you some\u00a0 ancient yoga techniques for stimulating your\u00a0\u00a0 vagus nerve to calm down, to de-stress, and\u00a0 to find more peace and balance in your life.\u00a0\u00a0 Just a quick disclaimer: if you’re suffering from\u00a0 generalized anxiety disorder, clinical depression,\u00a0\u00a0 any serious mental illness, please check with\u00a0 your doctor. I’m a yoga teacher, I’ll just be\u00a0\u00a0 sharing with you things that I’ve picked up\u00a0 over two decades of teaching and practicing\u00a0\u00a0 yoga. Let’s talk about the vagus nerve. What is\u00a0 it? Well, your vagus nerve is your tenth cranial\u00a0\u00a0 nerve and the name vagus comes from the Latin “to\u00a0 wander” like a vagabond. Your vagus nerve wanders\u00a0\u00a0 throughout your thoracic cavity and your nervous\u00a0 system, of course. This is your body’s electrical\u00a0\u00a0 signals. And the vagus nerve innervates and\u00a0 also gives signals to lots of the most important\u00a0\u00a0 functions of your body. Things like breathing,\u00a0 and heart rate, and blood pressure, and orgasm, so\u00a0\u00a0 many different things. For the sake of this video\u00a0 let’s think about the vagus nerve in relation to\u00a0\u00a0 your parasympathetic nervous system response.\u00a0 In our body we have different nervous systems\u00a0\u00a0 but your autonomic nervous system this is, like\u00a0 the name suggests, usually automatic. And there\u00a0\u00a0 are two main branches to your autonomic nervous\u00a0 system. One is called your sympathetic nervous\u00a0\u00a0 system, that’s your fight or flight response.\u00a0 This is for exercise, for busy work, through\u00a0\u00a0 physical exertion, through hunting. And then you\u00a0 have your parasympathetic nervous system response,\u00a0\u00a0 and this is rest and digest, peace and love,\u00a0 deep cognition, and those feelings of cool, calm,\u00a0\u00a0 and collectedness. The reason I’m sharing with\u00a0 you this is because our vagus nerve is largely\u00a0\u00a0 responsible for our parasympathetic nervous system\u00a0 response. Now our autonomic nervous system, in an\u00a0\u00a0 ideal world it’s automatic, and we have periods of\u00a0 our day where we’re fight-or-flight, go, go, go,\u00a0\u00a0 clean the house, do the laundry, empty the inbox.\u00a0 We have periods of our day when we’re resting and\u00a0\u00a0 digesting, and problem solving, and thinking, and\u00a0 loving, and collected. In our modern life it’s not\u00a0\u00a0 really like that. In our modern life you open up\u00a0 your phone and you’re bombarded by crisis news.\u00a0\u00a0 You go to work and you’re overwhelmed with more\u00a0 work than a person could really handle in a week,\u00a0\u00a0 and many of us are managing family and work and\u00a0 lifestyle stress that’s really through the roof,\u00a0\u00a0 not to mention things like air pollution, noise\u00a0 pollution, processed food. It’s a lot to take in.\u00a0\u00a0 And so our autonomic nervous system it gets\u00a0 dysregulated and many of us get stuck in a\u00a0\u00a0 fight-or-flight response. That’s where\u00a0 at 11 o’clock at night you’re feeling\u00a0\u00a0 completely physically exhausted, but\u00a0 you’re mentally wired. You’re wired,\u00a0\u00a0 but tired. I’m sure you know the feeling. Despite\u00a0 all of your best efforts, you just can’t seem to\u00a0\u00a0 self-soothe, like my dog rubbing its belly. And\u00a0 this is where your vagus nerve can be really,\u00a0\u00a0 really important. Now many of you know the feeling\u00a0 of being wired but tired, but sometimes you’re not\u00a0\u00a0 really sure what’s going on. When we think about\u00a0 your vagus nerve in relation to the self-soothing,\u00a0\u00a0 we often talk about vagal nerve tone. The\u00a0 terminology can get a little bit confusing,\u00a0\u00a0 but if you think about this vagus nerve and you\u00a0 think about its role in your rest and digest\u00a0\u00a0 response, when you have high vagal tone that\u00a0 means your ability to self-soothe is really high.\u00a0\u00a0 That doesn’t mean you don’t get stressed out, that\u00a0 doesn’t mean you don’t get anxious or worried,\u00a0\u00a0 you will, but it does mean that you’re able\u00a0 to respond rather than react. That means\u00a0\u00a0 when somebody cuts you off in traffic, rather\u00a0 than spinning out with anger for three hours,\u00a0\u00a0 within a couple of minutes you’re able to respond\u00a0 and collect yourself. That doesn’t mean you never\u00a0\u00a0 get worried or anxious about the future, but it\u00a0 does mean that you’re able to let it go at night,\u00a0\u00a0 put your head on the pillow and go to bed.\u00a0 That would be indicative of high vagal tone.\u00a0\u00a0 Now the opposite is what a lot of us suffer from.\u00a0 Low vagal tone. We’re not able to self-soothe.\u00a0\u00a0 What happens is somebody cuts you in line at the\u00a0 grocery store and you’re angry and ruminating\u00a0\u00a0 about it for the rest of your day. What happens is\u00a0 you get an angry email from a vendor at work and\u00a0\u00a0 again you just can’t let it go and it’s 11 o’clock\u00a0 and you’re spinning, and spinning, and spinning.\u00a0\u00a0 This is low vagal tone. To check in with your\u00a0 vagus nerve, to check in with your nervous system\u00a0\u00a0 in general, there’s a few techniques that can be\u00a0 really helpful. The first one I’ll share with you\u00a0\u00a0 is called the nasal cycle test. Some of you have\u00a0 done this with me before. It’s a very simple test,\u00a0\u00a0 doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s pretty\u00a0 effective for most people. Take your index finger,\u00a0\u00a0 put it underneath your nose, and let’s\u00a0 exhale three times through your nose.00:05:17<\/a> What we’re looking for is to identify which\u00a0 nostril, right or left, is dominant. Which nostril\u00a0\u00a0 is the air flowing through more freely? Your right\u00a0 nostril is indicative of a sympathetic nervous\u00a0\u00a0 system state. Your left nostril is indicative\u00a0 of a parasympathetic state. Let’s check again.00:05:37<\/a> Right nostril, fight-or-flight. Left nostril, rest\u00a0 and digest. Why is this relevant? Well it’s not\u00a0\u00a0 that fight-or-flight is bad and rest and digest\u00a0 is good. There are times in our day when we’d\u00a0\u00a0 like to be stimulated with our sympathetic nervous\u00a0 system, we need blood flow to our muscles and our\u00a0\u00a0 heart and our lungs, we need to get things done.\u00a0 But there are other times when we need to be cool,\u00a0\u00a0 calm, and collected. So if it’s 11 o’clock\u00a0 at night, like I mentioned before, and you’re\u00a0\u00a0 wired but tired, and you’re in your right nostril,\u00a0 that’s indicative of low vagal tone. Let me give\u00a0\u00a0 you another test. Now this is a weird one. You\u00a0 need your phone. So hold up your phone and put\u00a0\u00a0 on a selfie video. Stick out your tongue and\u00a0 make a “ha” sound like this “haaaaa”. And now\u00a0\u00a0 take a look at the video. What you’re looking for\u00a0 is in the back of your throat there’s this thing,\u00a0\u00a0 you’ve seen it before when you’re brushing your\u00a0 teeth, it’s called your uvula. Your uvula is\u00a0\u00a0 this little piece of tissue that hangs down in\u00a0 the back of your throat. And because your vagus\u00a0\u00a0 nerve innervates your soft palate, remember I told\u00a0 you this nerve wanders all over the place, it also\u00a0\u00a0 wanders up into the back of your mouth, your soft\u00a0 palate. When you have a vagal nerve dysregulation,\u00a0\u00a0 sometimes that uvula can actually be deviated, it\u00a0 can be off to the side. This test is really easy\u00a0\u00a0 to do with a selfie video or just in the mirror in\u00a0 the bathroom and it can give you an indication if\u00a0\u00a0 you’re in an imbalanced state. The third technique\u00a0 is subjective but it works really well too. What\u00a0\u00a0 we’re looking to do is cultivate interoception,\u00a0 understanding what’s going on inside your body,\u00a0\u00a0 not just what’s going on in the news, or in\u00a0 your environment. And a simple way to do that\u00a0\u00a0 is to close your eyes and check in. How are you\u00a0 feeling right now? Are you ruminating about things\u00a0\u00a0 that happened earlier today? Are you worried and\u00a0 anxious about things in the future? Do you feel\u00a0\u00a0 like there’s a dark cloud of anxiety hovering\u00a0 over your head? Or are you able to let things\u00a0\u00a0 go? This simple check-in, again, can be indicative\u00a0 of high vagal tone if you can self-soothe,\u00a0\u00a0 or low vagal tone if you’re out of balance. OK,\u00a0 now that we understand what the vagus nerve is,\u00a0\u00a0 its role in your parasympathetic nervous system,\u00a0 now that we have a few techniques for checking in\u00a0\u00a0 with our nervous system and checking in with our\u00a0 vagal tone status, let’s take a look at three,\u00a0\u00a0 simple, weird techniques for stimulating\u00a0 your vagus nerve. Remember we’re\u00a0\u00a0 looking to do what I used to do with my\u00a0 dog, scratch its belly to make it relax.\u00a0\u00a0 These techniques, there are lots of different\u00a0 techniques for stimulating your vagus nerve,\u00a0\u00a0 these are weird ones you probably haven’t seen\u00a0 them before, but they’re very, very effective and\u00a0\u00a0 they’re pretty well researched. The first one is a\u00a0 yoga technique called Bhramari. It’s a humming bee\u00a0\u00a0 technique, where we make a low resonant humming\u00a0 sound to oscillate and vibrate the back of our\u00a0\u00a0 throat. Your vagus nerve comes down either side\u00a0 of your neck and it’s wrapped in a carotid sheath.\u00a0\u00a0 This is essentially like a plumbing tube that goes\u00a0 down the side of your throat and inside that tube\u00a0\u00a0 you have your jugular vein, you have your carotid\u00a0 artery, but you also have your vagus nerve.\u00a0\u00a0 And when we vibrate the back of your\u00a0 throat it can massage that biggest nerve\u00a0\u00a0 and stimulate it, like the dog, and help\u00a0 you to relax. Here’s what it looks like. Try to make a low, slow, resonant sound. It\u00a0 looks kind of funny, sounds kind of funny. If\u00a0\u00a0 you’re embarrassed just go in the bathroom and\u00a0 close the door. Let me show you one more time. I’d encourage you to do 10 rounds of Bhramari,\u00a0\u00a0 slow, low, oscillating exhales, that\u00a0 will massage your vagus nerve. It also,\u00a0\u00a0 as an added bonus, it helps to release\u00a0 nitric oxide in your perinasal sinuses,\u00a0\u00a0 which is a vasodilator and a bronchodilator.\u00a0 Really helpful for your cardiovascular health,\u00a0\u00a0 but also helps to relax you as well. The next\u00a0 practice is a pranayama practice, a yoga breathing\u00a0\u00a0 practice. Of all the different things you can\u00a0 do to stimulate your vagus nerve, breathing\u00a0\u00a0 is probably the most effective and consistent.\u00a0 This practice has a couple of important elements\u00a0\u00a0 and one of them is the chin lock. In yoga this is\u00a0 called jalandhara bandha and it looks like this. We’ll use the chin lock at the top of the breath\u00a0 to hold our breath, and when my chin is locked\u00a0\u00a0 in towards my chest it puts pressure on that\u00a0 carotid sheath where my vagus nerve is and\u00a0\u00a0 again will help to massage the vagus nerve. The\u00a0 second thing I’ll do is I’ll breathe very slowly\u00a0\u00a0 and deeply. In fact, I will exaggerate my\u00a0 diaphragmatic breathing. Your vagus nerve\u00a0\u00a0 passes through the opening of the diaphragm, so\u00a0 when you do exaggerated diaphragmatic breathing\u00a0\u00a0 it massages your vagus nerve. It\u00a0 can help to relax you as well,\u00a0\u00a0 so we get kind of a double whammy effect.\u00a0 It’s called triangle breathing because we\u00a0\u00a0 breathe in to the count of four one side of\u00a0 the triangle, we’ll lock and hold for four,\u00a0\u00a0 we’ll release and exhale for four on the\u00a0 way down. Let me show you how it works.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll use a traditional pranayama mudra with my\u00a0 right hand to control my nose and I’ll inhale. Close my nose, lock and hold. Lift my chin, exhale.00:11:26<\/a> I’ll show you one more time but without talking. So that’s triangle breathing. It’s four on\u00a0 the way up, lock and hold, jalandhara bandha,\u00a0\u00a0 the chin lock for four, and then exhale for\u00a0 four. I’d encourage you to do ten rounds\u00a0\u00a0 and see how you feel. It’s a very, very\u00a0 effective practice. This last one is perhaps\u00a0\u00a0 the most unusual, the most strange. If you take\u00a0 your index finger and your thumb and you make\u00a0\u00a0 kind of Pirates of the Caribbean earrings for\u00a0 yourself by placing your index finger inside your\u00a0\u00a0 ears. And let’s massage by making small, gentle,\u00a0 circular motions forward, one, two, three, four,\u00a0\u00a0 five. And now backwards, five, four, three, two,\u00a0 one, very, very gentle. Let’s go forward, one,\u00a0\u00a0 two, three, four, five, and now backwards, five,\u00a0 four, three, two, one. Remember I mentioned before\u00a0\u00a0 your vagus nerve is a vagabond, it goes all\u00a0 throughout your thoracic cavity, it also goes\u00a0\u00a0 up into your neck, it also goes up near your\u00a0 ears, your auricular branch, your ear branch\u00a0\u00a0 of the vagus nerve goes right up here. And so this\u00a0 massage technique, it doesn’t work for everyone,\u00a0\u00a0 but for some people it works really well and the\u00a0 reason I’m sharing it with you is because you\u00a0\u00a0 can do this one while you’re at work, you can do\u00a0 this one while you’re driving, you can do this one\u00a0\u00a0 while you’re on a plane, and no one will even know\u00a0 what’s happening. What we’re trying to do here,\u00a0\u00a0 what we’re focusing on, is stimulating your\u00a0 vagus nerve to stimulate your parasympathetic\u00a0\u00a0 nervous system response to help you to manage\u00a0 and mitigate the stresses of your life in a more\u00a0\u00a0 adaptive and a less reactive way. Great to have\u00a0 you here. I hope you find that helpful. Here’s\u00a0\u00a0 what we covered. We talked about how our modern\u00a0 lives just are a constant onslaught of stress,\u00a0\u00a0 mental, emotional, physical, all of the above.\u00a0 We talked about how very often we get stuck\u00a0\u00a0 in our fight-or-flight response and we lack\u00a0 the tools and the ability to automatically\u00a0\u00a0 self-soothe. So like my dog scratching its\u00a0 belly we can use these techniques like Bhramari,\u00a0\u00a0 like triangle breathing, and like this ear\u00a0 massage, to stimulate our vagus nerve. If you’re\u00a0\u00a0 interested in learning more about the vagus\u00a0 nerve I’d really encourage you to check out\u00a0\u00a0 the work of Stephen Porges, also Deb Dana. Deb\u00a0 Dana also teaches polyvagal theory. She’s been\u00a0\u00a0 a guest on the podcast, I’ll link up down in the\u00a0 show notes. And lastly, Stanley Rosenberg’s work\u00a0\u00a0 on the vagus nerve is very, very helpful. I’ll\u00a0 include references to all of these down below. If\u00a0\u00a0 you’d like more science-based yoga videos please\u00a0 hit subscribe down below. Very helpful if you\u00a0\u00a0 hit that like button and if you have questions\u00a0 I answer all the comments down below. You can\u00a0\u00a0 find my teaching schedule at yogabody.com and\u00a0 I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
Source : Youtube<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2rJvWLN8rtEDo you get stressed out and anxious? Do you find\u00a0 yourself just overthinking things that are totally\u00a0\u00a0 out of your control? You know when I was growing\u00a0 up, I had this dog named Zack and he was just as\u00a0\u00a0 anxious as me. He’d get all worked up and\u00a0 shake and tremble. But with my dog … Continue reading Vagus Nerve Stimulation \u2013 3 Tricks to Stop Anxiety Fast<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1709665271-maxresdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}