


If taking a cold shower is out of the question, you can achieve the same effect with other methods. While your body adjusts to the sudden shift in temperature, activity from your SNS decreases as activity from your PNS (including the vagus nerve) increases. Take a cold showerĮven though it may seem counterintuitive, exposure to cold actually activates your vagus nerve. These “bottom-up” approaches (focusing on the mind-body connection) are some simple ways to stimulate the vagus nerve which, in turn, calms our nervous system and helps us feel less anxious. It can be incredibly empowering to learn that we can control our body’s reactions to stress. Tips to calm the nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve By stimulating our vagus nerve, we can help regulate the body functions that contribute to our feelings of anxiety (increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and more). It helps to regulate many important bodily functions, including breathing and heart rate. The vagus nerve is the main nerve within our PNS. This is the part of our nervous system that calms our body-the part we want to activate when we’re feeling particularly stressed. On the other hand, the PNS is responsible for our body’s “rest and digest” response. It is constantly looking for input to detect danger-real or perceived-in order to keep us safe. Our SNS is mainly responsible for our body’s “flight, fight or freeze” response. Our nervous system has many different roles and functions, but for the sake of this article, we’ll focus on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). You can find additional meditations and mind-body exercises on my Insight Timer page. If you’re looking for a more tailored approach, head to my meditations shop and check out the meditations I’ve created to target several different needs.
#NERVOUS SYSTEM LENS HOW TO#
I’ll also give you my tips for how to calm the nervous system, including exercises you can try today. Here, I’ll touch on the relationship between anxiety and the nervous system. I’m also a yoga and meditation instructor, so I’m a strong believer in the power of the mind-body connection. My name is Robyn Gray, and I’m a somatic therapist, meaning that I use a body-based approach to help people on their healing journey. The good news is that we can control parts of our nervous system, bringing us from a state of anxiety into a place of calm. When we feel this way, people may say something like “My nerves are shot.” While this is likely intended to be a metaphor for feeling stressed or anxious, there is actually a biological connection between our nerves (or nervous system) and our feelings of overwhelm. In these situations, it might seem like we’ll never be able to calm ourselves down. Most of us experience times when we feel completely overwhelmed.
