How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to Beat Anxiety?

Fear and anxiety seem to be common trades in our day-to-day lives, especially in this current period known as ‘Kali Yuga,’ or the age of darkness, according to the Vedic calendar. This age is characterized by moral and spiritual decline, chaos, and suffering, where the family system is broken, and children are growing up with a lot of trauma and feelings of abandonment. We live in an outward-energy-focused society. Our inner energy is being depleted, pushed away, and neglected. Fortunately, ancient Vedic wisdom provided us with tools like Yoga and Ayurveda to calm us down and move us away from fear into a subtler and more coherent state of being. These tools help us to become witnesses, not reactors during harsh situations, and not only to survive but also to thrive as evolved humans.

What’s The Connection Between Anxiety and The Body?

Anxiousness affects our foundation and leads to physical disturbances, bodily pains, and weaknesses, and it may eventually lead to the formation of disease in the body and mind. Ayurveda is based on the concept of the Five Elements of nature, the Panchamahabuta, which are Ether (space), Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.

Everything, every action, and every emotion is comprised of these elements and carries their qualities. Sadness, for example, is a cold and bitter emotion made up of Air and Space. Conversely, happiness is a warm and sweet emotion made up of Fire and Earth. Respectively, fear and anxiety are primarily made up of the Air and Ether elements. They are drying, draining, and erratic emotions resulting from depletion in the Earth, Water, and Fire elements, which bring about moisture, stability, warmth, and feelings of safety. The emotions we feel are very physiological, and as they affect us on a mental-emotional level, they impact us on the gross body level.

Have you ever thought that the backache and joint pain you are experiencing might be caused by your fear? Both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine consider the kidneys the seat of fear, hence why we tend to feel pain and heaviness in the waist and lower back. Moreover, the bone tissue is the supportive foundation of the body, and it is composed of the Earth, Air, and Space elements. As previously mentioned, fear and anxiety deplete Earth while Air and Space increase. The air element induces fast movement and instability. If this excess is not navigated and used, the spaciousness turns into void. It causes us to feel empty and foundationless. The same imbalance in the elements can cause insomnia, moodiness, confusion, inability to focus, emotional eating, constipation or diarrhea, tremors, nightmares, hair loss, addictions, and more.

Anxiety in Ayurveda comes under Manas Roga, a mind disease caused by an imbalance in Vata Dosha, which some Ayurvedic scholars believe to be the nervous system in modern anatomy, seeing that Vata acts in similar ways and serves similar functions. The Sanskrit word used to describe Anxiety is Chittodvega – Chitta (mind), Udvega (trembling, agitated). If depression results from overthinking the past, anxiety is a byproduct of overthinking the future. Ayurvedic practitioners often identify anxiousness as a nerve weakness, acknowledging that the nervous system, particularly the Vagus Nerve, is weak and unable to deal with life.

What Is The Vagus Nerve, And Why Is It Important?

The Vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It was understood by Yogis and meditators thousands of years ago. They learned that by strengthening this nerve through specific practices and exercises, they’d be able to control pain and suffering on a mental-emotional level, which would positively impact physical health. These Yogis, who were able to gain mastery over their Vagal Tone, could control their heart rate, blood pressure, core body temperature, and immunity.

Vagal toning refers to strengthening the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body, consisting of two large nerves originating from one brain hemisphere and then traversing down throughout the body to all major organs. The vagus nerve serves as one of the primary nerves in the Autonomic Nervous System. The autonomic nervous system is the part that controls how stressed or relaxed someone is. It is split into two parts – the first is called the Sympathetic Nervous System, which initiates the fight-or-flight (stress) response. When someone is facing a threat, it sends signals from the brain to other parts of the body to respond. It signals to the heart to increase heart rate, to the lungs and diaphragm to take faster and more shallow breaths, to the muscles to tense, and to the digestive system to stop! It shunts blood flow from the gut to the muscles because digestion is the last thing we need to spend precious energy on while running away from a threat or predator. The Sympathetic Nervous System also stimulates the Adrenal Glands to produce more Cortisol and Adrenaline, the major stress hormones in the body. As a result, this increases the immune response to secrete inflammatory signals in the body.

The other part of the Autonomic Nervous System is the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is the system that activates the Rest-and-Digest (relaxation) response. The Vagus Nerve is the main nerve in this system, and it helps in opposing and toning down any stress in the body. It sends signals to the heart to beat slower, to the lungs to breathe slower and deeper, to the gut to optimize digestion, and to the immune system to be regulated by decreasing the release of pro-inflammatory signals in the body.

Chronic anxiety and stress result in an over-activation of Sympathetic activity and underactivation of the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Strengthening the vagus nerve is known as ‘Enhancement of The Vagal Tone,’ and this concept of improving stress response by toning the vagus nerve was studied extensively, validated, and used in the medical field to treat depression, anxiety, epilepsy, and other mental disorders. There are simple techniques to enhance the vagal tone and improve your well-being, especially when feeling anxious and stressed out. Here are some easy ways to do so:

1. Sound – uttering sounds activates the Vagus nerve, which is connected to the vocal cord and the muscles in the back of the throat.

Specific sounds that stimulate the Vagus nerve include humming, singing, and the sound of gargling.

2. Pranayama (breathing exercises) – the lungs and diaphragm receptors sense slow, deep breathing and send signals to the Vagus Nerve and the brain to relax. This technique is often used before or during meditation and can be very effective, especially when practiced consistently.

Specific Pranayama techniques that target the Vagus nerve include Ujjayi, Nadi Shodana with retention, and Bhramari.

3. Movement – any form of movement that is done effortlessly and with control while maintaining the breath deep and long, not rapid or short. You shouldn’t need to mouth-breathe or huff and puff while performing such movement. Stretches that open up the chest and diaphragm are beneficial.

Movement modalities that tone the Vagus nerve include Yoga, stretching, light walks, dancing, shaking, and Tai Chi.

4. Cold Exposure – voluntarily exposure of the body to cold activates the Vagus nerve and, thereby, the Parasympathetic activity. This ancient practice called Tummo was practiced by monks in the Himalayas to help them regulate their body temperature during winter and was recently made famous by a man named Wim Hof. Now, since anxiety is a Vata disorder and Vata is cold in nature, how do we protect it from further aggravation? Abhyanga! Before hopping into a cold shower, apply a thin layer of warm sesame oil all over your body and head.

Cold exposure can be done in the form of a cold shower, ice bath, dipping in a cold lake, sea, or river, or even sticking your face in an ice bucket.

Other Vagal stimulating practices:

– Gentle ear massage in the hollow above the ear canal

– Applying gentle pressure around the belly button in a kneeling forward fold (Mandukasana)

– Getting deep sleep

– Taking nervine tonics and herbs

– Eating warm, oily and grounding food

Let’s practice Vagal toning together. Here’s a follow-along sequence you can do daily or as often as possible. The instructions are in Arabic, with English subtitles.