Hi guys! I hope you find something good in here....
My favorite go-to ones are currently Dr Eva's havening video, and a reiki healer on YouTube (link below, Tip of the Moon), the 5-4-3 exercise (below), and some ideas that help me.
1. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist/overachiever, so it has really helped me to say I'm only going to do something "1%." Like if I'm doing a guided meditation, and the person says to relax my jaw I'll tell myself, "I'm just gonna relax it 1%." Or if I'm tired and I feel like I should rest, but I don't want to, I'll say "I'm just going to relax 1%--I'll still watch tv but I'll glance out the window and look at the breeze in the trees from time to time." Lol
I don't know why it works exactly (and the actual result is probably something more like 30-60%), but it just feels like it lets me off the hook of having to do whatever the thing is *well*! I think setting myself an incredibly low bar makes me feel like, "okay, I can do that much anyway." OR it keeps me from spending the entire meditation trying to relax my jaw 100%, and miss out on relaxing anything else.
2. The second idea is Receiving. It has been calming me RIGHT down to tell myself "I'm receiving support from my bed" or "I'm receiving warmth and comfort from my blankets". "I'm receiving air in my lungs to nourish my body. I'm receiving nutrients from my food." It may not be magical for anyone else, but that has made me feel this huge well of calm and enjoyment.
But there are tons more mainstream exercises and methods! Here are some....
Voo breath
"How to practice Voo breathing? You should be seated or lying down in a comfortable position and your surroundings need to be calm and quiet. Close your eyes and breathe slowly from the nose allowing your lungs to expand fully. Then as you breathe out slowly through your mouth, make a “voo” sound. Feel the vibrations from this sound deeply in your chest and throat. Repeat this process for a few minutes or until you begin feeling more relaxed and grounded again."
A friend of mine was taught to do this lying on her back, and as she vooooo'd, to slowly turn her head and let it gently drop to the side.
--
Gargling stimulates the vagus nerve (so does singing and humming)
Take in a deep breath, then get some water or other liquid in your mouth and do a long, slow breath out while gargling. Do this as many times as feels good to you. (I would say closer to two than ten! Haha)
--
5-4-3 exercise
Name 5 things you can see
4 things you can feel
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste
Repeat a few times, if that feels good to you.
--
Vagus nerve stimulating devices:
There are a lot of these, like alphastim, gamma-core, amofit, touchpoints, etc. Most of them stimulate the vagus nerve in an indirect way. I haven't tried any of them because they're expensive, but some of my friends really like them. I am experimenting with using a TENs machine to stimulate my vagus nerve. That only costs around $50-60. It's important to start really slow, and the keep the intensity super low, at least until you can tell how your body will respond. A therapeutic dose is supposed to be about 15-20 minutes, but you would want to work up to that really slowly. My friend tried it for 5 seconds a day and ended up with a whopper of a migraine after a week! But he said that's really not at all typical. I have been doing one minute a day for the past week and didn't have any problem with that. This week I'll do 2 minutes. I can't tell any difference so far. If you want, I could look for directions on how to set it up and use it safely and share them with you.
There may be a discussion of this here in the forum?
--
Eye movement exercise:
I originally learned this from a Sarah Jackson Panther video, but now all I can find by her are shorts, so here is a different person presenting it. You do not have to be in any particular position to do this exercise, so if lying the way he suggests doesn't work for you, that's totally fine! The only thing that matters is that you keep your head straight with your nose pointing in front of you.
Sarah Jackson Panther vagus nerve shorts
She has some good ones--you can pick what you like! Just do a search for "Vagus nerve". These are SHORT!
Also, anything that you find deeply relaxing is activating your vagus nerve. So I like to massage my own feet, for example. I also love these ASMR videos. If they aren't your cup of tea, you could just experiment and see what makes you feel super relaxed and grounded, and commit to doing it regularly.
My favorite ASMR lady, Relax For a While (she also has a ton of bedtime stories that I use to fall asleep every night!). When I'm super stressed she is my go to! The link takes you to one of her ASMR videos.
But on just a normal day when I want to have some deep relaxation/replenishing time I like this lady, Tip of the Moon. She does reiki healing with beautiful stones. I either close my curtains (for dim, relaxing light) and watch the screen, or I look out the window and mostly just listen, but I can still see her doing her thing in my peripheral vision. I like the company!
I also like this podcast, Calm History. The guy tells us about interesting historical stuff (NOT like a history book! Funny, odd, or intriguing things that happened) in a calm, quiet voice. For me this is great if I'm really exhausted and trying to get up for the day, or getting ready for bed. This is a Spotify link to an episode about some people who visited ancient Egyptian monuments a long time ago. if you use a different app, the title is "calm history ancient Egypt, pyramids, Cairo, and more." Here it is on Apple Podcasts.
--
Another vagus nerve/nervous system tip is: Slow down. Move more slowly than you normally would, talk slowly, and my favorite thing is to adjust the playback speed on videos or bedtime stories. I like half speed (0.5), but that might be too slow for other people. For me that is TREMENDOUSLY calming. You can do that on YouTube using the gear icon at the bottom right of the screen, and on Spotify at the bottom left of the progress bar. I have even started watching Dr Eva's havening video on 3/4 speed (0.75). The more stressed I feel, the slower I go. But that video can be kind of annoying at half speed.
--
Get tips by email:
Sometimes I get great (free!) tips from some mailing lists by people who give courses on nervous and limbic system healing, polyvagal theory (big pronponents of improving vagus nerve function), etc. some of them also have podcasts. For example the Primal Trust AcAdemy gave me this tip:
And also Sarah Baldwin, who is a real expert in Polyvagal Theory ("vagal" as in vagus nerve--that's her jam!) now has a really good podcast! I have only watched a few epsiode so far, but she's giving away a ton of free information, which is amazing because her courses are normally over $1200. She also has a great Instagram page with tons of little videos explaining polyvagal theory. However, with her you're delving more into psychology and past trauma, not so much directly working on calming the nervous system only. However, people I know who do DNRS or Gupta or whatever, tend to eventually end up working on healing childhood stuff, because it's all kind of interrelated! But Sarah may be too much of a deep dive for this thread. Still, free stuff! Sarah's excellent podcast, You Make Sense. Sarah's Instagram, SarahBCoaching.
That's probably enough for now! Haha but you can search on YouTube for vagus nerve exercises (I reject a lot of them because they're things like taking a cold shower, which would be taxing for my body, or some kind of vigorous exercise), or "somatic experiencing" exercises, which are similar. Also you could check out short Feldenkrais Method exercises! All of those things involve relaxing the mind and focusing on something that feels good.
Also, I don't know if you already know this but there are people who do very, very gentle yoga (like just lying in bed and maybe moving an arm) for people with ME/CFS or similar illnesses. Here is a free video done lying down. I haven't watched it, and would probably just do the first five minutes or something. The teacher has ME herself, so really gets people's needs.
This one is by Jeannie DiBon, who teaches for people with EDS, so it's also highly modified/modifable. I did part of this class lying in bed and just mostly imagined doing the movement, which I found helpful!
Both of the above teachers teach specifically for nervous system regulation and vagal tone, but yoga does that anyway.
Hope something here is helpful!
Hugs
Koli
My favorite go-to ones are currently Dr Eva's havening video, and a reiki healer on YouTube (link below, Tip of the Moon), the 5-4-3 exercise (below), and some ideas that help me.
1. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist/overachiever, so it has really helped me to say I'm only going to do something "1%." Like if I'm doing a guided meditation, and the person says to relax my jaw I'll tell myself, "I'm just gonna relax it 1%." Or if I'm tired and I feel like I should rest, but I don't want to, I'll say "I'm just going to relax 1%--I'll still watch tv but I'll glance out the window and look at the breeze in the trees from time to time." Lol
I don't know why it works exactly (and the actual result is probably something more like 30-60%), but it just feels like it lets me off the hook of having to do whatever the thing is *well*! I think setting myself an incredibly low bar makes me feel like, "okay, I can do that much anyway." OR it keeps me from spending the entire meditation trying to relax my jaw 100%, and miss out on relaxing anything else.
2. The second idea is Receiving. It has been calming me RIGHT down to tell myself "I'm receiving support from my bed" or "I'm receiving warmth and comfort from my blankets". "I'm receiving air in my lungs to nourish my body. I'm receiving nutrients from my food." It may not be magical for anyone else, but that has made me feel this huge well of calm and enjoyment.
But there are tons more mainstream exercises and methods! Here are some....
Voo breath
"How to practice Voo breathing? You should be seated or lying down in a comfortable position and your surroundings need to be calm and quiet. Close your eyes and breathe slowly from the nose allowing your lungs to expand fully. Then as you breathe out slowly through your mouth, make a “voo” sound. Feel the vibrations from this sound deeply in your chest and throat. Repeat this process for a few minutes or until you begin feeling more relaxed and grounded again."
A friend of mine was taught to do this lying on her back, and as she vooooo'd, to slowly turn her head and let it gently drop to the side.
--
Gargling stimulates the vagus nerve (so does singing and humming)
Take in a deep breath, then get some water or other liquid in your mouth and do a long, slow breath out while gargling. Do this as many times as feels good to you.
(I would say closer to two than ten! Haha)--
5-4-3 exercise
Name 5 things you can see
4 things you can feel
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste
Repeat a few times, if that feels good to you.
--
Vagus nerve stimulating devices:
There are a lot of these, like alphastim, gamma-core, amofit, touchpoints, etc. Most of them stimulate the vagus nerve in an indirect way. I haven't tried any of them because they're expensive, but some of my friends really like them. I am experimenting with using a TENs machine to stimulate my vagus nerve. That only costs around $50-60. It's important to start really slow, and the keep the intensity super low, at least until you can tell how your body will respond. A therapeutic dose is supposed to be about 15-20 minutes, but you would want to work up to that really slowly. My friend tried it for 5 seconds a day and ended up with a whopper of a migraine after a week! But he said that's really not at all typical. I have been doing one minute a day for the past week and didn't have any problem with that. This week I'll do 2 minutes. I can't tell any difference so far. If you want, I could look for directions on how to set it up and use it safely and share them with you.
There may be a discussion of this here in the forum?
--
Eye movement exercise:
I originally learned this from a Sarah Jackson Panther video, but now all I can find by her are shorts, so here is a different person presenting it. You do not have to be in any particular position to do this exercise, so if lying the way he suggests doesn't work for you, that's totally fine! The only thing that matters is that you keep your head straight with your nose pointing in front of you.
Sarah Jackson Panther vagus nerve shorts
She has some good ones--you can pick what you like! Just do a search for "Vagus nerve". These are SHORT!
Also, anything that you find deeply relaxing is activating your vagus nerve. So I like to massage my own feet, for example. I also love these ASMR videos. If they aren't your cup of tea, you could just experiment and see what makes you feel super relaxed and grounded, and commit to doing it regularly.
My favorite ASMR lady, Relax For a While (she also has a ton of bedtime stories that I use to fall asleep every night!). When I'm super stressed she is my go to! The link takes you to one of her ASMR videos.
But on just a normal day when I want to have some deep relaxation/replenishing time I like this lady, Tip of the Moon. She does reiki healing with beautiful stones. I either close my curtains (for dim, relaxing light) and watch the screen, or I look out the window and mostly just listen, but I can still see her doing her thing in my peripheral vision. I like the company!
I also like this podcast, Calm History. The guy tells us about interesting historical stuff (NOT like a history book! Funny, odd, or intriguing things that happened) in a calm, quiet voice. For me this is great if I'm really exhausted and trying to get up for the day, or getting ready for bed. This is a Spotify link to an episode about some people who visited ancient Egyptian monuments a long time ago. if you use a different app, the title is "calm history ancient Egypt, pyramids, Cairo, and more." Here it is on Apple Podcasts.
--
Another vagus nerve/nervous system tip is: Slow down. Move more slowly than you normally would, talk slowly, and my favorite thing is to adjust the playback speed on videos or bedtime stories. I like half speed (0.5), but that might be too slow for other people. For me that is TREMENDOUSLY calming. You can do that on YouTube using the gear icon at the bottom right of the screen, and on Spotify at the bottom left of the progress bar. I have even started watching Dr Eva's havening video on 3/4 speed (0.75). The more stressed I feel, the slower I go. But that video can be kind of annoying at half speed.
--
Get tips by email:
Sometimes I get great (free!) tips from some mailing lists by people who give courses on nervous and limbic system healing, polyvagal theory (big pronponents of improving vagus nerve function), etc. some of them also have podcasts. For example the Primal Trust AcAdemy gave me this tip:
- 3 Small Shifts to Begin Calming the Overachiever’s Stress Loop:
- Pause before responding. Especially to texts, emails, or decisions.
- Practice micro-presence. Spend 30 seconds noticing your breath or body several times a day.
- Redirect looping thoughts. Use a simple pattern interrupt (like naming five things you see) to come back to now.
And also Sarah Baldwin, who is a real expert in Polyvagal Theory ("vagal" as in vagus nerve--that's her jam!) now has a really good podcast! I have only watched a few epsiode so far, but she's giving away a ton of free information, which is amazing because her courses are normally over $1200. She also has a great Instagram page with tons of little videos explaining polyvagal theory. However, with her you're delving more into psychology and past trauma, not so much directly working on calming the nervous system only. However, people I know who do DNRS or Gupta or whatever, tend to eventually end up working on healing childhood stuff, because it's all kind of interrelated! But Sarah may be too much of a deep dive for this thread. Still, free stuff! Sarah's excellent podcast, You Make Sense. Sarah's Instagram, SarahBCoaching.
That's probably enough for now! Haha but you can search on YouTube for vagus nerve exercises (I reject a lot of them because they're things like taking a cold shower, which would be taxing for my body, or some kind of vigorous exercise), or "somatic experiencing" exercises, which are similar. Also you could check out short Feldenkrais Method exercises! All of those things involve relaxing the mind and focusing on something that feels good.
Also, I don't know if you already know this but there are people who do very, very gentle yoga (like just lying in bed and maybe moving an arm) for people with ME/CFS or similar illnesses. Here is a free video done lying down. I haven't watched it, and would probably just do the first five minutes or something. The teacher has ME herself, so really gets people's needs.
This one is by Jeannie DiBon, who teaches for people with EDS, so it's also highly modified/modifable. I did part of this class lying in bed and just mostly imagined doing the movement, which I found helpful!
Both of the above teachers teach specifically for nervous system regulation and vagal tone, but yoga does that anyway.
Hope something here is helpful!
Hugs
Koli
