Vagus Nerve Therapy

In a nutshell, we have two nervous systems. 

Our somatic nervous system is our conscious perception of our environment through our senses, and our response to that perception through movement. 

Our autonomic nervous system is completely unconscious… it governs all the unconscious processes of our body… our heart rate, our breathing, our sweat production, our digestion etc. This system has two arms which work together like a seesaw… as one goes up, the other goes down and vice versa. Our sympathetic system is our ‘flight or fight' stress mode. Our parasympathetic system is our ‘resting and digesting’, ‘feed and breed' chill mode. 

Most of us spend a lot of time in stress mode. For some, it is a constant way of being. This is detrimental to our health, particularly our gut and immune health. The Vagus nerve is the primary nerve pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system. Stimulating this nerve moves our body’s internal system out of its chronically stressed state.  It improves circulation to the gut, decreases our heart rate and lowers high blood pressure. 

There are several ways to stimulate the Vagus nerve – through breath work, meditation and yoga. Therapeutically, this nerve can be stimulated very effectively though advanced craniosacral and visceral manipulation techniques, as well as specific exercises using eye and neck movements.