If you are experiencing chronic pain, fatigue, or anxiety, it can be extremely difficult to absorb information while trying to find relief.
(too long, didn’t read) section below for immediate solutions. Then, bookmark this article for when you’re feeling up for an educational deep-dive!
If you’re living with high levels of stress, you are living like in a stress factory, you’re putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life. You can recover from the past accumulation of stress, be more content, and improve resiliency for future challenges by strengthening your vagal tone and you can stimulate the vagus nerve at home. Incorporating simple practices into your daily routine will enable your vagus nerve to operate optimally for greater enjoyment of present moments and you will not need any sleep music, sleep gifs or some habit menu to relax and activate your parasympathetic nervous system.
What is the role of the vagus nerve?
The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve, cranial nerve X, or simply CN X, is a cranial nerve that interfaces with the parasympathetic control of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. It comprises two nerves—the left and right vagus nerves—but they are typically referred to collectively as a single subsystem. The vagus is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system in the human body and comprises both sensory and motor fibers.
How to activate your vagus nerve at home?
habit menu
Breathing
One of the main ways that you can stimulate the healthy function of the vagus nerve is through deep, slow belly breathing. The human mind processes one thing at a time. If you focus on the rhythm of your breathing, you’re not focused on the stressor. To practice deep breathing inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth remember to:
- Breathe more slowly (aim for six breaths per minute).
- Breathe more deeply, from the belly. Think about expanding your abdomen and widening your rib cage as you inhale.
- Exhale longer than you inhale. It’s the exhale that triggers the relaxation response.
Yoga can also be helpful for the same reasons. Just make sure you pay attention to your breathing. As you reduce your breaths per minute and get into parasympathetic nervous system activation, your muscles will relax, dropping your worries and anxieties. The oxygen supply to your body’s cells increases and this helps produce endorphins, the body’s feel-good hormones like listening to some good sleep music.
Or you can use external device so called neuromodulation. You can check here.
Cold Water
Physical exercise causes an increase in sympathetic activity (HPA axis – fight/flight, stress response), along with parasympathetic withdrawal (resting, digesting, healing, immune system), resulting in higher heart rates (HR) you can read here about HRV. Studies have found that cold water face immersion appears to be a simple
and efficient means of immediately accelerating post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation via the
vagus nerve stimulation, stimulating the reduction of heart rate, motility of the intestines, and turns on the
immune system. It is also effective in a non-exercise environment to activate the vagus nerve.
Sleep Music
Sleep Music can help motivate us, bring us joy and tap into our emotions. When it comes to the vagus nerve, the research is mixed on how music affects it. Your vagus nerve is connected to your vocal cords, the muscles at the back of your throat and passes through your inner ear. Try humming or singing or just listening to calm, soothing music. Those sounds and vibrations may stimulate your vagus nerve and form a perfect habit menu for the rest of your day.
Massage
Vagus nerve stimulation by massaging your ears and scalp or give yourself a foot massage. One general way of massaging the ear, most efficient to do both sides at once.
- Place your index finger behind the bottom back of your ear. Your fingertips will land in the valley behind your ear where it attaches to your skull and in front of a round bone (mastoid process).
- Massage from bottom to top around the curve of your ear where the ear attaches to your head.
- Repeat massage bottom to top around the curve using fingertips on back of ear and thumbs in front to massage rest of back of ear.
- Now focus on massaging front side of ear top to bottom around the outside, moving to center
- Gently massage the external ear canal.
- Mix massage with some sleep music for better parasympathetic nervous system activation
- Finish by putting gentle pressure down on the skin flap that covers the ear canal – gentle popping motion pushing that skin flap (tragus) to cover the ear canal.
What is vagus nerve stimulation?
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a type of neuromodulation, which is a treatment that alters the activity of nerves. Vagus nerve stimulation involves implanting a device that sends regular, mild pulses of electrical energy to your brainstem through your vagus nerve in your neck. After reaching your brainstem, the electrical charge is discharged to different areas of your brain to change the way brain cells work. Vagus nerve stimulation is a treatment option that you and your healthcare professional might consider after other traditional treatments haven’t been successful. The use of Vagus nerve stimulation is limited to a select group of individuals who have treatment-resistant epilepsy or treatment-resistant depression. More recently, Vagus nerve stimulation has been approved as a rehabilitation aid for select people who’ve had a stroke.
What conditions does vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) treat?
- For use in epilepsy
- For use in depression
- For use in stroke rehabilitation
- And various others, many research are constantly ongoing it’s really hard to keep up.
Try the Pulsetto
TLDR: A revolution in the fight against stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders. The Pulsetto device is an easy-to-use, wearable piece of tech that only needs minutes to activate your Vagus nerve at home. Operated by a simple mobile app, the Pulsetto has pre-set sessions to either prevent or deal with current instances of stress, anxiety, or sleeplessness. Pulsetto parasympathetic nervous system activation sessions last just 6 minutes, and science indicates that the effects are felt immediately. You will find yourself calmer, more relaxed, and with a clearer mind. It lowers stress and anxiety, enhances your quality of life, and boosts your focus.
So, ready to fight back against stress factory? Utilize the benefits of vagus nerve stimulation at home now to improve both your results at work and your well-being at home
