Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

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There are many things you can do to activate your vagus nerve and many benefits to a healthy vagal tone. It is your secret weapon to a better you. Turn to this practice to help calm your mind and focus on deep breathing. While doing meditation, try extending your exhales, making them longer than your inhales. This will help slow your heart rate.

Don’t you always feel better when you start to hum or sing? Your worries are swept away by a song. Well, that’s because it’s activating your vagus nerve! Simply sing to feel better or gargle if you prefer. I am highly skeptical regarding the validity Mr. Rosenberg's assumptions. It is well know that there are experimenter biases in regards to comparing the before and after measurements with observation and palpation. Because of this practitioners and massage therapists are convinced that they always get positive results. This author does an excellent job of describing the Polyvagal Theory for manual therapists. If you are not a manual therapist, you may still see some benefit from reading this book. The author describes the polyvagal theory thoroughly and explains some ways of improving your autonomic state from stress or dorsal vagal to social engagement. Music can help motivate us, bring us joy and tap into our emotions. When it comes to the vagus nerve, the research is mixed on how music affects it. Try humming or singing or just listening to calm, soothing music. Those sounds and vibrations may stimulate your vagus nerve. Cold-water immersion

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Stanley Rosenberg is one of the world’s most skilled and creative hands-on therapists.His diagnostic and treatment techniques have immediate application for everyone. Read and enjoy this book, and apply the techniques in your life or in your practice.”—James L. Oschman, PhD, author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis Stanley Rosenberg has put his encyclopedic clinical knowledge to work through the lens of the Polyvagal Theory, illuminating the path away from the underlying cause of so much of today’s disease: anxiety. A tour de force.”—Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains My conclusion is that much more is needed (than what the author describes in this book, specifically the Basic Exercise) to "pump up" vagal tone. And, the autism spectrum is more complicated than just poor blood flow to the brain stem. I have found other methods that are helping to down regulate my sons "mobilize with fear" state. I think a combination of a variety of stimuli for the vagus nerve (Rezzimax tuning device for example provided greater observable changes in uvula lift), self-talk therapy (especially with guided imagery), manual therapy in the cranial field, diet changes (keto is helpful, search "keto Dr. Berg" in YouTube or avoiding toxic food and MSG, search Katherine Reid unblindmymind.com), yoga breathing (specifically Breathwalk--which is synchronizing steps with segmented breaths of 4 sniffs and 4 puffs), kundalini breath of fire, therapist or parent using a prosodic voice, creating safe environments, EFT meridian tapping, and smile rehab exercises. In other words, more work than most people will be willing to do on their own (especially those who are trapped in a defense states of fear). But when it comes to your vagus nerve (pronounced like the city of Las Vegas), it carries signals to your brain, heart, lungs and digestive system. It’s the longest cranial nerve in your body, running from your brain all the way to your large intestine. Meditation can regulate your autonomic nervous system,” says Dr. Estemalik. “It has a good effect on lowering rapid breathing, rapid heart rate and cortisol levels.”

Exercise lowers your sympathetic nervous activity and controls your parasympathetic response so that you have a good balance when it comes to your cardiovascular and respiratory function,” says Dr. Estemalik. Massage I have been trying his method to turn the Vagus Nerve on with most all of my patients (and with my son). After following his precise instructions to perform the Basic Exercise (over the last 4 weeks) I have to say that I am disappointed in the results. I have not seen a big change in the uvula lift in most all of my patients (maybe I didn’t get them to yawn enough times). The author Mr. Rosenberg is a highly skilled and experienced massage therapist that started a "school" to teach other massage therapists in Denmark some osteopathic techniques. I did love his focus on using manual therapy to make changes in a person’s physiological state as using an anatomical perspective is obviously a perfect match for me as a manual therapist. Working out and getting your body moving can affect your vagus nerve, research shows. Interval training and endurance training can increase your vagus nerve activity and improve your heart rate variability. I have to admit that this is one of the difficulties inherent to manual therapy. Especially in craniosacral therapy where ESP (yes, extra-sensory perception) is professed to be the way many practitioners determine whether a patient has positive results. So, I applaud Mr. Rosenberg’s attempt to use different measurements of palpating asymmetry, observation of the uvula lift, and palpation of tension in soft tissues. But again, experimenter bias is easily introduced in these subjectively objective measures.

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You can get these from fish oil, or if you’re a vegan, you can find them in chia seeds, flaxseed, hemp seed oil and walnuts. If you want to activate your vagus nerve, a great way to do it is by chanting “OM” over and over again. This is often used in yoga, mantras and different faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether you perceive it as a spiritual practice or just a meditation practice, it helps to calm you and create inner peace. Studies have shown that this creates greater relaxation. In Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve by Stanley Rosenberg, there are a few exercises you can do to reset your ventral vagus nerve. They include The Basic Exercise, The Half Salamander Exercise and The Full Salamander Exercise: The Basic Exercise