Tips from The Salt Room Longwood

What is the Vagus nerve and how do we exercise it? Unknown to many, this nerve constantly works to balance your over-stressed nervous system. Learn how to be more resilient and increase your overall feelings of well-being.

A Short Lesson on the Nervous System

Your nervous system is comprised of several subsets of nerve systems. The Central Nervous System (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) is made up of all the nerves that branch out. The PNS includes the somatic nervous system, which enables voluntary movements (like waving goodbye). The autonomic nervous system performs bodily functions without actively thinking about them (like breathing). The autonomic nervous system is comprised of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. 

The sympathetic side increases alertness, energy, blood pressure, heart and breathing rates. You’ve probably read many articles about the sympathetic nervous system and its role in our “fight or flight” response. These articles usually mention tigers chasing you. It helps with all the daily “to-doing.” Lifestyle habits (all those tigers) can overstimulate this system, leading to chronic spikes in cortisol and adrenaline hormone production. This causes many health problems, including digestive distress, insomnia, anxiety and much more.

The parasympathetic nervous system helps balance the sympathetic nervous system. It is often referred to as the “rest and digest” part, because it triggers relaxation in the body.  

What is the Vagus Nerve and What Does It Do?

The Vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve. It starts at your brainstem and carries electrical signals between your brain and your neck, chest, heart, lungs, abdomen and digestive tract. The Vagus nerve “wanders” through the body (vagus means “wandering” in Latin) and literally connects your brain with your gut, facilitating those “gut reactions” you may be very familiar with.

The Vagus nerve is heavily involved with regulating your parasympathetic system and many functions of your body. For example, when you go to a haunted house and a zombie leaps out and scares you, your Vagus nerve works to decrease your heart rate after your “fight or flight” response. Both responses are automatic. However, since we are often in a constant stressful state, you can learn to engage your “secret weapon” (as the Vagus nerve is often called) on purpose!  Proactively stimulating this nerve increases what experts call “Vagal Tone.” The more vagal tone you have, the quicker your body recovers from stress. The word “stimulate” sounds like the opposite of inducing calm, but to put it another way, using some simple techniques, you can trigger the Vagus nerve to do its job.

How to Exercise Your Vagus Nerve

There are many simple ways, and some may seem a little odd!

Breathe Deeply:  This works in two ways: First, focus on the rhythm of your breathing, your stressors will withdraw. Second, if you breathe deeply from your belly and exhale longer than you inhale, this physical act triggers a relaxation response.

Gargle, Sing or Sigh Loudly:  The vibration of your vocal cords and throat stimulates the Vagus nerve to soothe. These may seem odd—notice that we tend to sigh (or sing) when we are stressed, which makes us feel better. Who knew we came with built-in self-soothing instincts? 

Meditate: Meditation is soothing, and it usually includes deep, focused breathing, Chanting “OM” vibrates the vocal cords as well. This is another indication that our ancient ancestors knew how to cope before the invention of antidepressants.

Get a Massage:  Massaging the neck and shoulders helps improve Vagal Tone. A foot massage using reflexology can also help.

Practice Yoga:  Much of yoga involves focused breath work. Partaking in regular sessions keeps your Vagus very happy.

Cold Water Tricks:  Immersing your face in cold water, splashing cold water on your face or holding an ice pack to your face decreases your heart rate, increases blood flow to your brain and relaxes your body. You instinctually knew that splashing cold water on your face feels good—and now you know why.

Mind Your Gut Health:  Eating fiber and taking a probiotic helps to keep your gut healthy and facilitates the communication between your gut and your brain.

Laugh:  Laughing boosts your mood and your immune system. Try a Laughter Yoga class. Two healthy activities rolled into one!

Positive Self-Talk:  Your mind is separate from your brain. While you may have no conscious control over your brain function, you CAN exert control over the involuntary parts of your nervous system. Having stressful thoughts elicits stressful reactions. How you think and talk to yourself is not a New-Age, woo-woo concept. It’s physiological and provable! Mindset shifts will help you actively create more serenity in your life.

Get Salty:  If you are feeling stressed, get a relaxing Salt Therapy session. Unplugging in a zero-gravity chair and breathing in the salt particles has a calming effect on the nervous system.

Pre-empt Stress with Vagus Nerve Knowledge

Knowing how to actively support the natural function of your Vagus nerve allows you to use it as a secret weapon for fighting stress. Use these techniques to pre-empt the affects of stress. For example, if you’re setting out in your car for a big meeting with your boss, you may notice you’re gripping the steering wheel a bit too hard. Or instead of listening to the doom-and-gloom mainstream news, turn on the radio and sing along. Or switch to an episode of your favorite funny podcast and laugh—get those vocal cords vibrating! 

You can also teach young children to understand their bodies and learn to self-regulate. Teens can especially benefit from these techniques as their lives get more complicated with school activities, relationships and social media overload. A skilled Licensed Mental Health Counselor can educate and assist both children and adults. Knowing these simple tricks will give a sense of empowerment in these stressful times. And that is something everyone can use.

Special thanks to Diana Shaw, Ed.S, LMHC for her help with this article. Her practice, Chaos Solutions Counseling, LLC, is a neighbor to The Salt Room Longwood.  The Salt Room Longwood serves all age groups with a safe, drug-free therapy proven to be effective for relieving symptoms of many chronic sinus, lung and skin conditions such as allergies, sinus infections, asthma and eczema. Salt therapy is safe!  HEPA/carbon filters and UV light kill 99% of all airborne and surface bacteria and viruses.

Located at 357 Wekiva Springs Rd in Longwood, schedule a Salt Therapy session. Call 407-862-1163 or visit www.SaltRoomLongwood.com.