Today I’m going to talk to you about one of the most complex organs in our bodies called the Vagus nerve (Vagus means “wandering” in Latin). The Vagus Nerve is the largest bundle of nerves in the body and it’s a central component to regulating our nervous system. Resmaa Menakem, author of the book My Grandmother’s Hands, astutely calls it the Soul Nerve because of its critical nature to our overall wellbeing.
The Soul Nerve reaches most of the body, including the throat, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney and gut (large and small intestines). Unbeknownst to us, the Vagus nerve is in constant communication with our primitive brain. When we feel safe, it soothes the body’s organs; when we feel a real or perceived threat, it constricts the body to prepare it for a survival response (fight, flight, freeze, submit/appease, etc.).
The Vagus nerve is where we experience a felt sense of our emotions—love, compassion, hope, joy, empathy, caring, happiness, expansion, AND fear, grief, dread, sadness, loneliness, depression, anxiety, despair. We experience emotions in the body and more specifically, we feel them when the Vagus nerve constricts or soothes our organs—stomach clenching/releasing, throat clenching/relaxing, shoulders tightening/loosening. Unprocessed emotions often become internalized in our bodies, eventually causing stress and disease.
That’s why it’s so important that we learn simple tools to help us regulate our nervous system by working with this critical bundle of nerves. The Vagus nerve is essential to our survival but it’s also essential to our ability to thrive. It is part of what unlocks the key to optimal health. It regulates breathing, vocalization, heart rate, blood pressure, prevents inflammation, reduces pain, improves mood and manages fear. Helps us build more capacity to meet whatever comes our way. You can think of this nerve as a tool to managing stress and disease in the body.
We can learn to regulate our Vagus nerve through daily practices that teach it to settle and in turn, communicate to the primitive brain that we’re safe. That signals to the primitive brain that it can open up the gateway again to our thinking brain so that we can be creative, innovative and expansive in our thinking. It allows us to meet complexity and daily stressors with more capacity (less reactivity), optimizes overall wellbeing, significantly expands our range of thought.
Watch this video to learn one simple practice that will help you regulate your nervous system.
Rebecca A. Ward, LMFT, SEP, PCC
Founder, the Iris Institute
Psychotherapy, Executive Coaching & Consulting