Healing & The Vagus Nerve

[Phil]

What Is The Vagus Nerve? 

The vagus nerve gets its name from the word vagabond, as it ‘wanders’ from the brain through out pretty much the entire body and is connected in one way or another to just about every organ, aspect & function in the body. The primary function of the vagus nerve is relaying sensory information about the body to the central nervous system. 

 

Why Is It Being Mentioned? 

Arguably, the overall importance of the vagus nerve is the difference in being able to live & respond to life from a place of relaxation, peace of mind and equanimity or emotional balance vs from tension, stress or ‘fight or flight mode’. Therein, the vagus nerve plays a key role in healthy & proper digestion, and tending to it can be curative of chronic inflammation, high blood pressure, headaches & migraines, nervousness, arthritis, anxiety, depression and virtually countless other aspects of desirable well being.  

 

What Is The Vagal Tone?

There is a lot of medical research which points to the vagus nerve being a ‘missing link’ to addressing all of the issues mentioned and many more. Current research seems to be honing in on the vagus tone, which is derived from comparing the inhibitory control of the vagus nerve to the heart rate. Inhibitory is a pointing term similar to emotional repression or suppression. 

 

The vagal tone is a measurement of the ‘gap’, also referred to as the ‘shadow’, between the vibrational frequency of the heart when inhaling compared to exhaling. 

 

The higher the vagal tone (frequency, vibration) the more one is able to experience ‘stressful situations’ without experiencing stress, in comparison to a lower vagal tone.

 

People with higher vagus tone experience little to no anxiety, depression, stress or tension, fewer, less severe or even no headaches or migraines, lower blood pressure, a better night’s sleep, decreased risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease, less or no cognitive impairment and better digestion due to proper production of digestive enzymes. 

 

Medical scientific research has discovered the vagus nerve constantly monitors the gut microbiome to determine if there are any pathogenic organisms, and if so, it initiates a response that then controls inflammation that results from these foreign organisms, which can affect mood, stress level, clarity, cognitive ability, ability to respond rather than react, and overall inflammation levels.

 

What To Do About it?

Addressing the vagus nerves is addressing and changing interpretations & bodily / nervous system responses stored in the body, in a direct manor and can be life changing. There are many simple yet highly effective exercises available on Youtube, here are just a few. Please see their channels as well, as there is a plethora of high quality related information. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please feel free to add any resources you’ve found helpful, and let us know how it went. 

Thanks! 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve

[Loop]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

The vagal tone is a measurement of the ‘gap’, also referred to as the ‘shadow’, between the vibrational frequency of the heart when inhaling compared to exhaling. 

This is usually referred to as measuring HRV (Heart Rate Variability). 
Where a bigger gap between the the frequency between the heart rate during inhaling & exhaling is shown to be related to resting, & a lower gap (the heart rate doesn’t vary between inhale & exhale very much) being related to stress (Fight, flight, freeze, fawn).

 

Freeze & fawn aren’t talked about as much, but I feel they deserves more attention.
 

Fight, flight, freeze, & fawn are all states of the nervous system in dysregulation.
Some of the things I talk about in the Reintegrating Repression thread can pull up hidden unconscious or sub-conscious emotional energies, which when balanced with the nervous system integration techniques & mindfulness can help us process or reintegrate trauma/ shadows/ repression drives that are putting the nervous system in chronic dysregulation.

Pulling up the stuck energies can feel very dysregulating at first, and it is, as we drop addictions, habits, and armour protecting ourselves from dysregulation. We find the lost child energies, or unprocessed emotions to be reintegrated, expressed, & we find the deeper regulation of the nervous system the body-mind is seeking so to speak. 
 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Loop

[Phil]

@Loop

Thank you sir. If you happen to know of any good videos or material on freeze & fawn feel free to post em here. 👊🏼 

[Blessed2]

I did some of the practices in those videos and I also once tried the eye-method @Loop shared. In both I felt the same sort of like a quite intense detoxification. Especially in the exercise Loop shared.

 

It feels a bit like a bunch of toxins are suddenly released and you get sick since the poisons move through the body and organs as they are being washed out.

[Loop]

This channel has a lot of good stuff on freeze & nervous system regulation in general. 
She often times talks about childhood development, & how the dysregulations/ traumas can affect someone later in life.  
 

 

Chronic freeze/ shutdown. 

The concept is easy to get, but is much more difficult to spot than flight or fight, as you are frozen, stuck on a thought-loop, but not seeing it, repressing or suppressing it. 
 

It is very hard to heal when we don’t feel safe in the environment we are in, or don’t feel ok in our own bodies. We really need a foundation of environmental safety first before we will feel ok to move into internal safety. 

Environmental safety:

 

Is there emotional tension in the house?

Can we meet with a friend who allows us space to feel safe if not at home? 
Can we go outside a sit or walk alone somewhere in nature?

 

Internal safety: 

Do we feel ok the feel into the body?

Can we listen to the visceral feelings?

Do we feel ok to express how we really feel? 
 

The repressed/ suppressed emotional energies that are suck need to be processed so the frozen fear (Fearing feeling) can melt, and the trauma can be felt, & processed. 
 

Chronic people pleasing/ false connecting. 
 

We aren’t really being who we are, to get a sense of safety we only express what we believe others want. 

Often found in a dynamic where the child is seen trying to be the parent, or emotionally repress so their parent’s emotional energies don’t hurt them or those around them. 
Someone who grew up like this might end up in relationships they don’t really want to be in, as they put other’s needs over their own chronically. 
 

What do I get out of trusting authority? 
Can I be myself around them? 
Can I feel & express what I really want?

I feel every dysregulated nervous system switches in between fight, flight, freeze, & fawn, but each person has different patterns for how it goes about, depending on personality & how they were traumatized. 
 

[Loop]

53 minutes ago, Blessed2 said:

It feels a bit like a bunch of toxins are suddenly released and you get sick since the poisons move through the body and organs as they are being washed out.

That is a great moment to practice mindfulness, notice images & words. 
Ask (to the poisonous/ toxic feeling) “What is this feeling saying?” Or “What images are here?”. 
 

Let the thoughts be there & allow them to let go of You, in a sense. Innocence. 

 

57 minutes ago, Blessed2 said:

I also once tried the eye-method @Loop shared. In both I felt the same sort of like a quite intense detoxification. Especially in the exercise Loop shared.

Lay down somewhere comfortable with a lot of space. Then interlace your fingers together & put them on the back of your head. It is best to get used to the releases with the eye movements that way before doing it any other way. 🤍

 

[Orb]

I've tried the practices from two of the videos shared in op. Already can feel my stomach digesting food better! 

 

This may as well be my practice from now on 🙂. 

 

The pipes in my body are clearing up after just a few minutes of that, what a relief!

[Orb]

Susie Baxter is really cool, I love her therapeutic approach. 

[Orb]

@Phil @Loop Do you guys know if caffeine messes with the vagus nerve in a negative way? 

 

I drink green tea mostly and sometimes yerba mate but green tea is my favorite. It has lower caffeine than coffee, like a third. 

[Orb]

Another helpful healing modality.

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Orb

[Kevin]

This seems good. I have a question though. I’ve been doing the practices for a couple days and I actually feel worse. I feel super emotional and vulnerable and I want to cry but I can’t. Is it normal to feel worse doing the practices? I think in one of the videos they mention that you have to go through the disgust reaction to heal toxic shame. I’ve been burping a lot. And my neck and throat are holding lots of tension.

 

Also lots of thoughts about how I shouldn’t feel what I’m feeling because if I do, it’ll never go away. Idk basically I’m wondering if anyone has been through this in a similar way. I guess I’m looking for reassurance.

[WhiteOwl]

@Kevin I haven't tried these particular exercises yet, i am first reading about it now. But sometimes when working with stuck emotions, they seem to linger / be active for for some time, where i feel like i could cry very easily, and i feel very vulnerable and open, yes. Unless you "release" all of it and notice a big shift in how you feel, it usually stays there for a while. So i would say its a very normal. Just keep it up and continue to give space and attention to how you feel, at some point you will have "drained it".

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by WhiteOwl

[WhiteOwl]

5 hours ago, Kevin said:

Also lots of thoughts about how I shouldn’t feel what I’m feeling because if I do, it’ll never go away.

You get thoughts responding to your feelings, so you recieve a lot of "difficult" thoughts when dealing with difficult emotions, just let go of those and return attention to feeling and your body. 

[Mandy]

7 hours ago, Kevin said:

This seems good. I have a question though. I’ve been doing the practices for a couple days and I actually feel worse. I feel super emotional and vulnerable and I want to cry but I can’t. Is it normal to feel worse doing the practices? I think in one of the videos they mention that you have to go through the disgust reaction to heal toxic shame. I’ve been burping a lot. And my neck and throat are holding lots of tension.

 

Also lots of thoughts about how I shouldn’t feel what I’m feeling because if I do, it’ll never go away. Idk basically I’m wondering if anyone has been through this in a similar way. I guess I’m looking for reassurance.

If you focus on what's holding you back, you bring it into your present. If you can't bring in some element of curiosity, inspiration, intuition and spontaneity into a  practice but are using it only with the attitude of ridding yourself of what you think is holding you back, it's better to take a break for a bit. Or stick with it, it doesn't matter, because it's absolutely not the practice it's the thoughts about it. Journaling might be really helpful. Meditation might bring up something that journaling clears, journaling might bring up something that meditation clears. No way of knowing, but you know the path of least resistance by feeling. 

[Loop]

9 hours ago, Kevin said:

Is it normal to feel worse doing the practices?

Sometimes, as the amour trying to protect us falls away, trapped emotional energies & sensations come up which can make it seem more intense. Breathe, do body scans, & labeling (image, word) of thoughts. 
 

9 hours ago, Kevin said:

I feel super emotional and vulnerable and I want to cry but I can’t.

Vulnerability is strength. If there is any memories in particular of your younger self that are coming up, hold that younger self in front of you with your actual or imaginary arms & hands. 

 

Say ‘I can feel sad’ 

Sit with it for a bit, look for a reaction.

Sit with the reaction for a bit. 
Tears may come up, they may not. 
 

Say ‘I can express sadness’.

Go through the same process slowly. 

These aren’t affirmations, but to trigger up what is inhibiting the expression of the tears so it can be conscious. 🤍
 

9 hours ago, Kevin said:

I think in one of the videos they mention that you have to go through the disgust reaction to heal toxic shame.

Usually yeah. It can unravel fear/ guilt/ unworthiness, then jealousy/ envy, & into the flames of rage & anger so to speak, where there isn’t feelings of powerlessness. 
 

It is the vibration of what you don’t want being flipped around into what you do. Like a disgusting smell of rotted food brings us to throwing it in the compost. We use compost as nutrients of the soils for seedlings & new plants. New desires/ preferences. 🌱
 

9 hours ago, Kevin said:

Also lots of thoughts about how I shouldn’t feel what I’m feeling because if I do, it’ll never go away.

Feeling is guidance, not something you should or shouldn’t feel. Perhaps take a break for a bit, then come back to this, like what @Mandy said, this is focusing on what you don’t want & trying to get rid of it. When it is guidance not something to get rid of. 
Journaling about what is coming up would be a great idea in my opinion. ✍

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Loop

[Loop]

On 3/14/2023 at 9:53 PM, Orb said:

@Phil @Loop Do you guys know if caffeine messes with the vagus nerve in a negative way? 

 

I drink green tea mostly and sometimes yerba mate but green tea is my favorite. It has lower caffeine than coffee, like a third. 

Do some research and share it on here if you want. ☺️

Reading & your own experience. 

 

It has an effect on the nervous system as a whole, as it is a simulant. Too much of it probably would put you in dysregulation. I enjoy tea every now and then, but if I would drink too much of it, I’d feel stressed, overly stimulated. 🤯

 

[Phil]

Some ‘dot connecting’…

Focusing on breathing (sensation) and looking up (perception) is focus upon not-thoughts, or other-than thoughts, or, is letting go… is unconditional.

[Kevin]

8 hours ago, WhiteOwl said:

@Kevin I haven't tried these particular exercises yet, i am first reading about it now. But sometimes when working with stuck emotions, they seem to linger / be active for for some time, where i feel like i could cry very easily, and i feel very vulnerable and open, yes. Unless you "release" all of it and notice a big shift in how you feel, it usually stays there for a while. So i would say its a very normal. Just keep it up and continue to give space and attention to how you feel, at some point you will have "drained it".

 

 

Thanks for the reassurance! I feel a little better today.

[Kevin]

6 hours ago, Mandy said:

If you focus on what's holding you back, you bring it into your present. If you can't bring in some element of curiosity, inspiration, intuition and spontaneity into a  practice but are using it only with the attitude of ridding yourself of what you think is holding you back, it's better to take a break for a bit. Or stick with it, it doesn't matter, because it's absolutely not the practice it's the thoughts about it. Journaling might be really helpful. Meditation might bring up something that journaling clears, journaling might bring up something that meditation clears. No way of knowing, but you know the path of least resistance by feeling. 

Makes sense. I’ve always done practices to get rid of what is not wanted maybe an attitude of curiosity would be more helpful.

[Kevin]

5 hours ago, Loop said:

Sometimes, as the amour trying to protect us falls away, trapped emotional energies & sensations come up which can make it seem more intense. Breathe, do body scans, & labeling (image, word) of thoughts. 
 

Vulnerability is strength. If there is any memories in particular of your younger self that are coming up, hold that younger self in front of you with your actual or imaginary arms & hands. 

 

Say ‘I can feel sad’ 

Sit with it for a bit, look for a reaction.

Sit with the reaction for a bit. 
Tears may come up, they may not. 
 

Say ‘I can express sadness’.

Go through the same process slowly. 

These aren’t affirmations, but to trigger up what is inhibiting the expression of the tears so it can be conscious. 🤍
 

Usually yeah. It can unravel fear/ guilt/ unworthiness, then jealousy/ envy, & into the flames of rage & anger so to speak, where there isn’t feelings of powerlessness. 
 

It is the vibration of what you don’t want being flipped around into what you do. Like a disgusting smell of rotted food brings us to throwing it in the compost. We use compost as nutrients of the soils for seedlings & new plants. New desires/ preferences. 🌱
 

Feeling is guidance, not something you should or shouldn’t feel. Perhaps take a break for a bit, then come back to this, like what @Mandy said, this is focusing on what you don’t want & trying to get rid of it. When it is guidance not something to get rid of. 
Journaling about what is coming up would be a great idea in my opinion. ✍

 

Thank you for your response. I tried the sentences you mentioned and it helped clarify why I don’t think it’s ok to feel sad. I can’t wait to try again when I have more time. I’ll probably go through your integrating repression thread as well.