Vagus Nerve: Voo Power

The Voo breathing method helps regulate the nervous system by vibrating sound on the outbreath soothing the vagus nerve from brain to gut, optimizing our vitality, boosting our immune systems and lowering stress. Peter A Levine PHD, developer of this technique and author of the book Waking the Tiger, suggests that trauma is not just an event but it is held in our nervous system, hence our bodies but our body has an amazing ability to heal. This technique is helpful to release stress or trauma from the body if you are feeling stuck in the stress response, anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, lethargic, or burnout. This track includes music with gentle binaural beats from Music of Wisdom.

Transcript

Welcome.

I invite you to find your way into any comfortable seated position with your feet on the floor.

Adjust yourself for a little more comfort.

Close your eyes if that feels right and take note of your body.

How are you doing on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being super stressed out and 10 being relaxed and happy.

5 is I'm okay.

It's helpful to practice this technique when you feel calm so you have this practice to come back to when you need it.

I invite you to begin breathing deeply now.

We want to open the body to ready ourselves for this practice.

Placing a hand on the belly exhale with me now drawing belly to spine.

Take a big breath into your belly and low ribs then open your mouth exhaling through that open mouth.

Inhaling through your nose filling the body and exhaling through your mouth.

Continue breathing in this manner as I explain this practice.

We will be using the VOO breathing method.

VOO rhymes with you.

This helps regulate the nervous system by vibrating sound on the out breath which soothes the vagus nerve from the brain all the way down to the gut.

This optimizes our vitality,

Boosts our immune systems and lowers stress.

Peter A.

Levine,

Ph.

D.

,

Developer of this technique and author of the book Waking the Tiger suggests that trauma is not just an event but it's held in our nervous system hence stored in our bodies but our bodies have an amazing capacity to heal.

This technique supports the release of stress and trauma from the body.

For example,

Dr.

Levine mentioned a nurse who was working in an ER feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

When this nurse started using the VOO method she was able to continue to do the difficult work but she didn't carry the burden in her body.

This practice can sometimes bring up feelings or discomfort when the body is purging stress or trauma.

We want to allow this to unfold so after this breathing technique I will lead you through a body scan meditation to further anchor calm into your body.

Let's begin.

With your feet planted firmly on the floor adjust yourself for comfort.

Keep your hands on your belly so you remember to inhale easily into your lower body.

We'll be inhaling through our nose and exhaling with a deep guttural VOO sound through our mouths.

Just to model and you can try this with me it's not VOO but it's a deep sound.

Think of a fog horn.

The sound begins in your belly and it vibrates outward.

Try this with me.

Inhale,

Exhale,

And you keep that VOO sound for the full exhalation.

But don't try to keep up with my exhale especially to begin with.

Yours may be shorter so VOO at your own rate and keep your body relaxed.

We'll practice for about three minutes but you only may want to do a few rounds today.

That's okay you can increase your practice for up to five minutes.

If you become overwhelmed just breathe normally and place your hands on your heart.

You will get stronger.

Good.

Now exhale with me.

Inhale comfortably through your nose into your belly.

Pause.

Exhale Good.

No rush.

Inhaling comfortably.

VOO Inhale comfortably,

Pausing at the top.

Inhale,

Staying relaxed.

VOO Inhaling Relaxed shoulders,

Soft face.

Continue.

I'm right here with you.

Good.

Comfortable.

Inhale.

VOO Nice job.

Inhaling at your own rhythm.

VOO On the next two rounds,

We're going to add the WOW sound.

Follow me.

Inhale.

Start with VOO.

WOW Good again.

Good.

Two more VOO breaths.

Inhaling.

VOO Last one.

And when you're complete,

Let go of the breath and simply notice.

Notice how you're feeling.

Welcome the sensations or even emotions.

VOO And to integrate,

Just follow me through this meditation.

Relax your body.

Release your hands.

Become aware of your feet anchored to the earth.

Sensing the bones of the feet.

VOO Moving the attention up to the ankle bones,

Shin bones,

Up to the knees.

Feeling the long femur bones and the thighs.

Inviting the legs and feet to get heavy now.

VOO Bring your awareness to your spinal column.

Noticing the tailbone at the base.

As you move up to the sacral plate,

And sense how the pelvis branches out from the spine,

Wrapping around you.

VOO Sense your entire body heavy in the chair.

Grounded.

Relaxed.

As you move from the lower spine upward to you feel the ribcage wrapping around from the spine.

VOO Sensing the sternum or breastbone plate and finding the collarbones.

Open like a big smile across the top of your chest.

Torso soft and relaxed.

Noting the bones of the shoulders as you spill down the bones of the arms.

All the way to the wrists and hands and the bones of the fingers.

Relax as you bring your awareness now back to the upper back,

Shoulder blades,

And up the spine into the neck.

Locate the base of the skull and move up to the plates of the skull.

Coming over the top of the head to the plate in the forehead.

Softening the face as you sweep your attention into the bones of the eye sockets,

The cheeks,

And the jaw.

VOO Bring a gentle smile to your lips as you sense the bones of the body.

The whole body anchored.

Allow your attention to spill downward into your heart.

Perhaps moving both hands to your heart.

Giving your body a nice hug or a rock.

Filling yourself with so much love and gratitude.

Take a deep breath in.

Rating yourself on that scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being stressed and 10 being super relaxed.

Note the changes you may have experienced with gratitude.

I strongly suggest you come back and try this practice again,

Even if it was difficult the first time.

I sincerely wish you the best on your healing journey,

My friends.

Deep peace to you.

Reviews

That was a wonderful experience! Thank you! I’m interested in checking out DrLevines book. I felt really good and had a lot of Yawning which I know is a good thing. Is it ok to do the voo practice daily?
Looking forward to checking out your other tracks. Thanks again, Nancy

Boo breathing really help me to relax.
I will do this breathe work over and over again.

A wonderfully calming and grounding practice! I will return to this again and again! Thank you!

A very helpful technique for slowing down breathing

I loved the way my belly felt when I was breathing.

I assume this medication also helps to activate vagus nerve activation.

Interesting sense of sound mind and body connection here- definitely worth exploring further from a five vibrational frequency perspective

First time trying this breathing technique. I had a nice experience and will return to it again. Already requested the book, Waking the Tiger, from my library app. Thank you

I rated myself a 3-4 before this meditation and then 6-7 after, seemingly this meditation works as advertised. The moment I felt something immediately change was when asked to smile. Normally when asked to smile in a meditation I don’t really feel anything but this time I felt slightly warmer and lighter as soon as the smile hit my lips.

Wow✨ Thank you for this incredibly effective experience.

That waz truly transformative for me today-without exaggeration . I am amazed and so grateful. I was at 1-2 on the hight stress end & after doing these exercises & your guided meditation feel im at a 10. I so appreciate your thoughtful instructions & your little giggles too with the funny mouth sounds 😊. It didn’t reduce the effects at all.
I may need to practice this ever day for the next 4 years & am grateful for this. Namaste 🙏

Excellent! Thanks for the practical technique. My neck pain is gone.

Thanks so much for this. I was glad to find it from having done another track.

Thank for this wonderful lesson & meditation. Your pleasant voice & great guidance made this easy to do! I look forward to doing this meditation again!
🙏💚🕊️

Another fantastic vagus nerve session! Your somatic exercises have been the most effective at reducing my physical anxiety symptoms and bringing my body back to a state of calm. I do your bee’s breath meditation daily, but this is an interesting complement to that. Thank you so much!

So interesting and different. Really opened me up. Thanks 🙏🏻

Thank you so much! This exercise and the relaxation afterwards was a soothing tonic for my stress and overwhelm. Excellent and highly recommend.

Thank you very much Christie. I found this meditation at exactly the right time. Watched a video once from Peter Levine about this. Your version is very accessible and comforting. I shared your vagal nerve reset meditation with several people, it works so well! I even translated it into Dutch and recorded it to share it, I refered to your recording here on IT. I hope that's okay with you.
The name of your meditation I'm referring to here is Vagus Nerve Basic Practice if I'm correct. 💚🙏

Thanks again, i love your exercises. They realy help! 🩷

This is great! I could feel/hear my heart beating in the center of my chest like a metronome on the voo breath. The vibration of the breath in harmony with the sound of my heart was very comforting and felt like it was balancing my body,mind and spirit. The grounding at the end was perfect and very satisfying. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. This is one for weekly rotation. Namaste my friend 🙏🏻🪷🧘🏼‍♂️🕉️🌺