Want to Feel Calmer & Recover From Anxiety Quickly? Tone Your Vagus Nerve
I get it – you’re busy! Maybe you’re thinking I’m too slammed at work to even take a lunch break, or I haven’t exercised in a month because I’m so stressed, or maybe you’re like me and sometimes you hold a wee for over an hour because you’re running around at work (side note: does that count as kegels?)
However busyness shows up in your life I’m betting the last thing you have time for is to read a loooong article on time maximization. So let’s get to it
The Key to Calmness
You want to feel relaxed right? Well, what if I told you it’s already within you. Psychotherapist (and friend of Oprah) Ashley Davis Bush says “often people look for circumstances to help achieve a sense of inner peace, In fact, this calm, compassionate, deep awareness is actually within each person. We have a deep reservoir of peacefulness and serenity inside us. What we have to learn to do is tap into it.”
Focusing on things that are not within our control zaps our time and energy (and frankly achieves nothing). Instead, we can choose how we respond to certain triggers.
Personally, I like to use the affirmation ”Everything I need to succeed is already within me”. Try it next time you feel the tendrils of discomfort snaking underneath your door. I find it equally soothing whether I’m going into a hectic meeting, a turbulent flight, or anytime I start thinking “what if…” It’s simple but it works – practice a few affirmations and find one that soothes your soul.
Find Moments of Mindfulness
Just like you take time to eat, shower, and walk the dog, you can build in little moments of peace during your day. When we do this it trains our Vagus Nerve – a key part of our parasympathetic nervous system which controls the body’s ability to relax. Just like having strong arms helps you lift heavy things, having a strong vagal tone means that your body can better manage moments of stress when they arrive and relax faster after these triggers. And just like the muscles in our body, we can tone it by using it every day.
Vagus Nerve Toning activities you can do in a couple of minutes include
Meditation – duh!
Cold Exposure – think a short cold shower
A few minutes of Deep Breathing
Mindful Movement – like yoga, dancing or tai-chi
Laughing – with friends or alone
Take one minute to find the look at something beautiful each day – really drink it in for the full 60 seconds – it might be a blue sky, a flower, a cute pet or the pattern on the back of the sponge. Find it!
So be kind to yourself, stick with it, and trust the process. You wouldn’t expect to run a marathon without working up to it, or speak a new language fluently without practice and care. Remind yourself that each little exercise you do to build and tone your vagus nerve is improving your capacity to handle and recover from stress. each time we care for ourselves we are subconsciously reinforcing to ourselves the message “you are worth it” and offering ourselves love, kindness, and acceptance.
