Vagus Nerve - Look it up!

Meditation and yoga will help you manage symptoms of various different mental and physical ailments including anxiety, depression, chronic back or neck pain, digestive issues, among many other things. You don’t believe me, do you?

No matter, the terrors persist and so do I. Your vagus nerve runs from your cranium down to just about the base of your spine, and this single nerve is responsible for more than you probably care to understand. For example, when you start working out, your vagus nerve is the information highway between your brain and other organs that tells your body to start pumping. It cranks up your heartbeat to get more blood flowing, your stomach backs off a little bit to allow more blood to flow to your muscles - the vagus nerve is basically the body’s operator directing the flow of signals. Your spinal column also gathers information and sends it back. “We are currently…still on our phone.”

Now, how does this relate to yoga? If I asked you to sit up straight, you probably would do your best to straighten your back. My guess is, your bend to “get straight” starts about midway up your lower back, whichever vertebrae is in that area. If you have proper posture and muscular structure, your hinge to sit up straight would be felt and focused on bending at your hips. Healthy Spinal Column » L Unhealthy spinal column» C.

This is the crazy part, after meditating and stretching, I have “unlocked” the nerves in my lower back, hips, and simultaneously “awakened” neurons for muscles that have either been dormant or slightly used over the course of my life. I can bend at whichever vertebrae I need to, I can move my hips like Shakira, and we know you can trust those.

If this sounds unrealistic, I encourage you to try bending your fingers. That worked, right? Easy peasy. Imagine if you just couldn’t move your finger, over time that might cause some mental stress, no? There’s no injury, it looks fine. Your other fingers move, but no matter how much you FOCUS that finger will not budge.

Now how come you don’t care that you can’t move your back anymore? Your neck is all messed up, you should be able to see almost 360 degrees around you. Don’t lie to yourself and pretend this doesn’t apply to you.

Back to the vagus nerve, but if this information “wire” is all bent out of shape, imagine the consequences! Your processor has no idea if your body is ACTUALLY crippled over in fear or if you’ve just been watching Tik Toks for three hours. Especially if you’re just reading stressful anxiety-inducing news everyday.

It has always been normal to lose flexibility as we age, when in fact the “aging” is directly linked to inflexibility. Don’t believe me? Are the older people you know more “flexible” mentally, or are they a bit more stubborn? Do you know anyone that has bipolar disorder? Anger issues? ADHD? Crippling anxiety? Next time you’re around these people, take note of how flexible these people are with just about anything. Alternate example, just google abused dogs. I think I finally understand why they all end up looking like Quasimodo.

Isn’t it easier to dust yourself off and move on as a kid? Life seemed so much simpler back then.

Kids are also much better at learning new things like instruments and languages. I wonder if that’s because they aren’t full of anxiety and other bullshit yet. If you can restore your body to be as flexible as you were when you were a child, I bet your “muscle memory” would be much more open to new experiences. Your nerves are relaxed, your body isn’t worried about its surroundings, and it is much easier for your body to fall into “flow state.”

Your central nervous system (essentially your brain and spine) is literally the alarm system and the memory bank at the same time, all thanks to the vagus nerve. Your hard drive and processor need to be powered down, cleared out and given a hard reset. You will feel younger, stronger, and refreshed. Who can promise something like that?!

We’ve all been through HELL since yesterday, and every day it only seems to be getting more difficult to relax. We are ALL living in fear, fight or flight mode is activated across America.

Go outside, take a deep breath, and be still. 

“Be still of the mind, and body, but let your soul be the voice that guides you.”