Okay,
So I'll speak on the vagus nerve.
And vagus means wandering in Latin.
And it's the wandering nerve because it just has these multiple branches that diverge from two thick stems that are rooted in the cerebellum and the brain stem.
And then they wander down to innervate through the torso and the upper sky organs,
The heart and the lungs,
And then even into the viscera of the abdomen.
So it touches heart,
Touches most of the major organs along the way,
All the way into the deep belly space.
There are 12 cranial nerves.
So vagus nerve is one of 12 cranial nerves.
Nerves that move from the cranium through the brain stem.
And the vagus nerve is the 10th of the 12 nerves.
Because it's the only one that extends all the way through the viscera to the low belly,
It's the longest and the most wandering of the cranial nerves.
Because it has that trajectory,
That pathway,
It governs general sensory skills,
Motor skills.
And it also transmits sensory signals.
So it touches upon wisdom regions through the torso into the belly,
Picks up on subtle body language and sends it back up through the brain stem to the island of the insula,
Which registers what's happening internally now.
We call that interoception.
An awareness of the incoming and the dissolving of stimulus through the interiority of the body.
And the vagus nerve is the major pathway for that.
It's the longest and the most complex of the 12 cranial nerves.
Because all of the other 11 cranial nerves just supply the head and the neck with information.
But this one is all the way down the brain stem through the chest,
The abdomen.
It's like this vagrant wandering goes all the way down into the stomach.
Also connects into throat and to facial muscles.
So we're able to kind of show emotion through the face.
The vagus nerve is partially responsible for that.
So you can have an emotion in the belly and then the face can transmit that.
The magic piece to vagus nerve,
One of the magic pieces is that it innervates or it branches and creates a pathway through the diaphragm.
And this is the crux of why the vagus nerve is essential to trauma and to the spirit body and the awakening and the suffering of the subtle body.
Because breath is a function of diaphragm activity.
And breath is also a vehicle to move prana.
We often conflate the two.
We talk about pranayama as breath work.
Prana is vibrational energy.
Yama is the manipulation or the distribution of that life force.
So pranayama is actually manipulating the vehicle,
The breath as the vehicle that delivers prana to different regions of the subtle body.
So breathing uses the diaphragm.
And so anytime we use the diaphragm,
We're stimulating the vagus nerve because the vagus nerve runs through the diaphragm.
So I would say that when the diaphragm is used or utilized in a specific way,
It will have a specific impact on the information,
The bio-intelligence that travels through the vagus nerve.
So short,
Sharp,
Shallow,
Rapid breath will trigger a particular type of message through the vagus nerve up into the brain stem to the insula,
Which is triggered fight or flight.
That's one wing of the nervous system.
Sympathetic nervous system,
Right,
The SNS.
Deep long,
Slow breath will have an inhibitor influence on SNS.
So it stimulates the vagus nerve in such a way where the heart rate slows,
There's a calming effect,
And there's chemicals that will deliver us into either wing,
The parasympathetic,
The calming,
Or the sympathetic nervous system,
The fight or flight.
So adrenaline and cortisol,
I mentioned earlier as being the elixirs of the sympathetic nervous system that recruit the circuitry and the secretion of these chemicals to gear us into defense or protection,
Fuels the body,
Fuels the brain to take action.
But the parasympathetic nervous system works with a different elixir.
It's acetylcholine,
Which is alkalizing,
And it regulates basic body functions like digestion,
Sleep,
Dream cycles,
Healing,
Immune response,
Acetylcholine.
A-C-E-T-Y-L-C-H-O-L-I-N-E,
Acetylcholine,
Is the chemical that the parasympathetic,
The rest and digest wing of the nervous system uses.
And I read recently that acetylcholine increases lubrication in the body and body secretion,
So it's like a natural moisturizer,
And it's alkalizing.
So the acidic aspects,
The toxic aspects of the blood can be alkalized,
Cleansed,
Purified by the wing of the nervous system,
Which governs the restful state,
Which again is connected to diaphragmatic breath.
A deeper diaphragmatic breath,
Every breath uses the diaphragm,
Whether it's short and sharp or deep and robust.
But stoking the breath in particular ways,
Like Ujjayi breath,
Which we'll practice this afternoon,
Will have an inhibitor influence on the SNS,
On the fight or flight.
So it actually stimulates the vagus nerve towards parasympathetic wing,
And we secrete acetylcholine,
And the heart rate slows,
And we balance towards the optimal state of engaging with the environment outside of threat.
Okay,
So that's the vagus nerve.
Questions or comments on that?
