Before reading this post lets stimulate your vagus nerve!

1. Breathe in through your nose as you count to 4 in your head: 1-2-3-4.
2. Breathe out through pressed lips as you count to 8 in your head: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.
3. Repeat twice.

Congratulations, you’ve just stimulated your vagus nerve. Do you feel more calm? Less anxious? Clearer-minded? That wouldn’t be a coincidence—according to scientists, activating the vagus nerve can slow down your heart rate, decrease levels of cortisol, and release calming chemicals into your system.

As we mentioned previously, this is not only helpful to reduce stress and lower inflammation in the moment—it’s actually imperative for the health of your whole body in the long term. But improving mental health is just the tip of the iceberg. Vagal tone even impacts things like pelvic floor function! (Scroll to see this important note)

And all it takes is a couple minutes of deep breathing like the 4:8 exercise above. So when you’ve got a little break and you’re mindlessly scrolling through Instagram (which can be stressful in its own way), use it as a reminder to stop and BREATHE.

This isn’t the only way to get into the parasympathetic state, however. You can take a hot-and-cold shower, hum your favorite song, or meditate with your eyes closed. If you’re low on time and want to support your vagus nerve without thinking about it, some of the best stimulation comes from using electronic devices like Xen from @neuvanalife.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you do! How are you supporting your vagus nerve lately?

Give this podcast episode a listen, in which we talk to the co-founder of @neuvanalife Ami Brannon about how to support your health by increasing vagal tone!

reminder: i’m currently taking on 1:1 clients. if you’d like to explore what it would be like to work together and if we are a good fit, fill out this form to get more details!​