The Vagus Nerve

There is one incredible nerve that connects all of your major organs and your brain together… the vagus nerve! It is two way information highway, sending a massive amount of data back and forth from your body to the brain and back again. All of this huge array of information is distilled down so that our nervous system can make optimal decisions given the moment to moment state of our external and internal environments. Sensory cues in the environment such as light levels, sounds, smells, social and verbal cues, temperature, etc., travel down the vagus nerve to tell our heart, lungs, stomach, and other organs how to shift their functioning in response. Is this a good time to digest food? Should our rate pick up a little? The reverse is true as well: the state of the microbiome in our gut, the rate of our breathing, levels of oxygen circulating in our blood, etc., informs our brain how it is in this moment best to engage with ourself, other people, and the world. Should we connect with this person? Should we be wary? Our major organs can give us so many clues as to the current state of our nervous system, and over time can help us track the patterns of our calmness and activation- our ability to relax and our tendencies for tension. The minute modulations of our heart rate, the speed of our breath, how fast our food digests in our gut- all gives us incredible information about how our bodies and brains are experiencing the world, and what we need to shift to navigate it in the most optimal way we can. None of this is random. If we can tune in, our body just by existing gives us a vast array of wisdom grow awareness to and learn from. #vagusnerve #bodywisdom #bodyawareness #nervoussystemhealth #brainbodyconnection #mindbodyconnection #mentalhealthawareness #somaticawareness #mentalhealththerapist #mentalhealthtips