The vagus nerve was appropriately named as its Latin meaning is “wanderer,” and the vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve, wandering from your brain to your large intestine. This nerve reaches into most of your body, including your throat, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, and gut (both your large and small intestines).
The vagus nerve connects the gut and brain and communicates information from the gut to the brain using neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and glutamate, and gut hormones, all of which play a vital role in sleep, mood, pain, stress, and hunger. Meaning the vagal pathway is bidirectional with 80 percent of the information going from the body to the brain and 20 percent from the brain to the body.
Resma Menakem, the author of My Grandmother’s Hands, accurately describes the vagus nerve as the soul nerve because it not only communicates between different parts of the body but also from one person to another.
The vagus nerve is the largest organ in your body’s autonomic nervous system, which regulates all of your body’s basic functions like breathing, your heartbeat, and the dilation of your eyes. This “soul” nerve unifies your entire nervous system.
Much of what we know about the vagus nerve was discovered in the past two decades, and there is undoubtedly much more than we need to learn.
One of the main functions of the vagus nerve is to receive fight, flee, or freeze messages from your brainstem, aka your lizard brain, and help the rest of your body prepare to engage in a survival response. The same nerve is responsible for receiving and spreading the message that you are safe, so it can restore regular functions, and you can relax.
The connection of your vagus nerve to your brainstem is different from being connected to your thinking brain. There is only one language the brainstem speaks: Am I safe, or am I unsafe? Through your brainstem, your vagus nerve — along with the cranial nerves responsible for senses like sight and hearing — scan both your internal and external environments for safety and danger.
With practice, you can consciously use your vagus nerve, as well as other cranial nerves, to settle your nervous system and body, which will help you avoid reflexively sliding into a fight, flee, or freeze response in situations where such a response is unnecessary.
To get a better sense of the system that is your soul nerve and its many branches, put your left hand on the base of your neck, and with your right hand, trace the pathway of the vagus nerve around the side of your neck, down your throat, to your lungs, your heart, and finally your abdomen. Imagine energy moving up and down this pathway.
Now place your right hand over your heart. Imagine the vagal pathway and feel the energy moving between your two hands. Let’s take a moment and acknowledge the powerful ability of your soul nerve to unify your nervous system and its ability to regulate and connect.
Now move your hand from your heart to your stomach and take a moment to acknowledge the ways this system works on your behalf to protect you when necessary.
Stimulating your vagus nerve and utilising your cranial nerves can help restore a sense of safety and regulation, allowing you to better connect with yourself, your surroundings, and others around you.
Melissa Romano
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