With all the chaos that 2020 has brought, I figured it was time to put up a little guide on how to work with your nervous system, and more specifically the Vagus nerve. This is a meditation I’ve been trying to do everyday, although there are definitely days that I’ve missed!

WHAT IS THE VAGUS NERVE?

The Vagus nerves, or cranial nerve X leaves the base of our skull and wanders down into the abdomen supplying mostly parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) innervation to many of our organs. In latin, “vagus” translates to “wandering”, because of the path that it takes through our body. Along the course of the nerve it supplies innervation to many structures including our lungs, heart, esophagus, stomach, kidneys, liver, spleen and intestines. So…some pretty important stuff.

HOW TO DO THE MEDITATION

This meditation takes place in two parts, and you will need a stopwatch. If you use your cell phone as a timer you may want to put it on airplane mode so that you aren’t interrupted for the meditation.

STEP 1

Find a comfortable position, either seated or lying down. You can lie down in bed. You can sit on a chair or on the ground. It’s more important to be comfortable then it is to look like you’re in a “classical” meditation position. If your hips are on fire just trying to sit cross-legged it’s going to be tough to move the body more towards parasympathetic activation!

Once you’re in your position, breathe normally and start your timer. Count the number of breaths you take in a normal minute. Step one complete. You’re crushing this!

STEP 2

Take the number of breaths you counted in step one, and cut that number in half. Yes, you read that right, cut the number in two. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. It’s only oxygen.

Restart your timer, and for five minutes focus on your new breathing rate (half the normal rate). This will force you to slow down your breath, controlling both the inhales and exhales. Bonus points if you are able to do the breathing through your nose instead of your mouth, but if you have a stuffy nose or a deviated septum that might be tricky.

See how you feel each minute as the body slows down and shifts further towards parasympathetic firing. How did it feel?