Welcome to the Half Salamander practice for stimulating and releasing the vagus nerve.
This is from Stanley Rosenberg and his book,
Accessing the Healing Powers of the Vagus Nerve.
This practice gives you more mobility in the thoracic spine and increases your ability to breathe deeply,
Which helps reduce anxiety and stress.
It also improves the alignment of the cervical spine,
Reducing forward head posture,
Which is so prevalent from rounding forward,
Texting,
Computing,
Driving,
Or even sitting on the sofa.
In this practice,
We align the head with the rest of the spine,
Much like a salamander,
Which does not have a neck.
Begin our practice seated or stand in a comfortable position.
If you are seated,
Move forward toward the front edge of your chair.
Bring your awareness to sitting tall.
Lean back slightly and focus on lengthening up through the back of the head.
You will feel the chin tuck in slightly.
Now lift your shoulders up by your ears,
And as you release them,
Draw them down and back.
Feel the shoulder blades move in toward the spine and the chest lift.
Hold this lift of the chest,
But make sure you are lengthening up from the back of the head as if you are being pulled up by the ears.
Place your head in alignment with your spine.
Now keep the face straight forward and look to the right as far as you can see.
Your head is not moving,
Just your eyes moving to the right.
Continue to face forward,
But tilt your right ear toward your right shoulder.
Stay relaxed with that right shoulder downward.
Breathe and focus on holding the eyes to the right.
This may seem a little strained,
But we are engaging the muscles behind the eyes so that they will release.
This stimulates the vagus nerve,
Signaling the nervous system into rest and digest.
We hold here from 30 to 60 seconds.
Begin to notice signals that your nervous system is releasing,
Such as saliva in your mouth,
Swallowing,
Or taking a deeper breath.
Now lift your head to center,
Stay relaxed,
And focus your eyes on a spot in front of you.
This stays lifted,
Bring your chin in slightly,
Lifting up through the crown of the head to keep that alignment of the spine.
Next,
Without moving your head,
Allow your eyes to gaze to the left as far as they can see.
Keep your nose pointed forward,
But move your left ear toward your left shoulder.
The left shoulder stays relaxed downward.
Attention remains on keeping the eyes focused to the left.
Remember we are engaging the muscles of the eyes to create a release of the nervous system.
By doing this practice,
We are improving the pattern of our breathing,
Which signals the brain that we are safe.
Begin to look for those signals in your body that your nervous system is moving away from the stress response,
Like swallowing,
More saliva in your mouth,
A sigh,
Or a deeper breath,
Or even a yawn.
Very good.
Now return your head to center.
Relax and take a deep breath and release all the stale air from your body by toning your belly inward.
Take another deep inhale and look up.
Lift your chest,
Elbows back,
Feeling the shoulder blades squeeze.
Exhale slowly,
Lower the chin to chest,
And move hands forward toward your knees,
Rounding the upper back.
Inhaling,
Look up,
Lifting the chest,
Squeeze the elbows back,
Noticing the mobility of the spine.
Exhale,
Round chin to chest,
Moving hands forward.
And one more round just like that,
Feeling the freedom of the movement of the spine.
Great.
Return to center and just begin to breathe deeply,
Taking a moment to notice how easy it is to take a deep breath.
The vagus nerve practices have a cumulative effect on calming your nervous system,
So I suggest you do this practice often as a rest break from the computer or perhaps as a daily practice.
Wishing you deep peace,
My friends.
Namaste.
