Have you heard of the vagus nerve before?
This week’s mental sunshine is about something that might just help you to make your way through the festive season with a little more inner calm.
Put simply, the vagus nerve is a long and complex set of nerves that run from your brain, down your spine and into the tissues and organs of your body.
It’s the thing that either puts your nervous system into “fight or flight” or “rest and digest” –
And for this reason it’s worth knowing a little about.
If you can learn to stimulate your vagus nerve, you can help your nervous system to move over to the calmer “rest and digest” state more easily.
Allowing you to feel more relaxed and less stressed.
You probably already do a lot of things that stimulate your vagus nerve without realising.
We all know that taking slow, deep breaths can help to calm us down – as can meditation.
Try going for a walk in the woods and enjoy the beauty…
Other things that stimulate the vagus nerve and so help you to calm down include singing or humming, exercise, massage, socialising and laughter.
Possibly not all at the same time though!
Why not take a moment today to try and spend a few minutes doing one of these things?
Strike up a conversation with someone; sing along to your favourite song; find a funny show on Netflix and have a good old belly laugh.
Your vagus nerve will reward you!
