{"id":12832,"date":"2019-09-25T16:54:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T15:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehappiempire.com\/?p=12832"},"modified":"2023-05-18T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T11:03:17","slug":"how-to-use-your-vagus-nerve-to-bust-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappiempire.com\/how-to-use-your-vagus-nerve-to-bust-anxiety","title":{"rendered":"How to use your vagus nerve to bust anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"
When you feel anxious, you have a built-in tool to dial it back, called the vagus nerve.<\/p>\n
I’ve been an anxious little petal throughout most of my life. It’s shown up in all sorts of ways. One of the ways it’s shown up is travel sickness.<\/p>\n
Through my discovery about the vagus nerve, I have traced travel sickness back to being a form of anxiety, as it makes me feel out of control.<\/p>\n
Our bodies are marvellously intelligent and have a vast kit of tools to bring us back into equilibrium if things feel wrong. Something that’s always made me feel better when I feel travel sick is humming. I do it just quiet enough that no one thinks I’m crazy, but loud enough (it turns out) that it activates the vagus nerve.<\/p>\n
Since discovering that the vagus nerve is stimulated by humming or omming (from this functional medicine doctor<\/a>), I realise this is what I’ve been doing naturally when I feel sick, to help me return to a peaceful balance.<\/p>\n The vagus nerve runs from your head to your abdomen. When stimulated by the vibration of humming ‘mmm’, it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which leads to peaceful feelings.<\/p>\n You can stimulate the vagus nerve by humming, or chanting OMMM (like a cool yogi!). Turns out, yogis have know about this trick for years. There’s such a thing as Om Baths, where you sit in a circle and all chant ommmm on the natural out breath. Everyone gets out of sync when they settle into their natural breathing rhythm, which creates a continuous Ommmm sound all around. At the end you feel SO peaceful and light.<\/p>\n Breath in gently, then on the out breath, hum or om. Make the \u2018mmmm\u2019 of the hum just strong enough so you feel a vibration in your head.<\/p>\n Try 5 gentle breaths of humming and notice the difference. Or do 20+ for a totally chilled out vibe!<\/p>\n It’s so useful to have LOADS of tools to combat anxiety, to suit different situations and your level of ability to support yourself in the moment.<\/p>\n I’m so happy I’ve found this one and hope it can help you too!<\/p>\n Boost<\/a> is full of thoughts to uplift, motivate and instil confidence in your awesome self. Underneath the layers of doubt, you’re perfect. And the layers of doubt are false evidence appearing real.<\/p>\nWant to stimulate your vagus nerve to stop anxious feelings?<\/h3>\n
For more inspiring thoughts like this, check out the Boost book<\/h3>\n