FAQ On The Vagus Nerve Meditation

The vagus nerve meditation has been active for over three years now, with so many listens to it, thank you! In looking at people's feedback to this meditation, I seek in this track to answer two of the main questions people have had, as well as to provide a bit more of the science around the meditation.

Transcript

So I've had the Vegas Nerve Meditation on Insight Timer for a while and I, In looking at the reviews of the meditation, Have had two key points of feedback that have come to me that I wanted to take a little bit of time to address. So one key point of feedback has been around the question of how the VU impacts the body and just wanting a little bit more education around how to manage the inhale-exhale process with the VU. So I'm going to talk first about what the VU does in the body. So this meditation is coming out of science that we have around our nervous systems and the thing that this meditation is seeking to do is to help us feel grounded in what we call the safe and social side of our nervous system. This is the side of the nervous system that we get to feel connected to those around us. We get to feel more calm and more engaged with our world and a lot of times, Especially in the modern world, We aren't fully in this zone. So practicing the VU is something that allows our body to drop closer into this zone. The way that it does this is that there is one long huge nerve that takes place in our body called the vagus nerve and this nerve is present with all of our major organs. It affects our heart rate, Digestion, The way we breathe, All of these different components and one of the things that we know is that by making this sound with our mouth we are working to strengthen what's called our vagal tone or the strength of this nerve inside of us overall. So by doing this vibration we may experience a deeper sense of calm or just being able to come out of some of the aspects that have impacted us through just living in the world today. The other thing that I want to talk about is there was a few times that people asked questions regarding the exhale that's associated with this VU and I think it's useful to just spend a moment talking about that. So when you're doing this exercise it's really useful for obviously taking that really nice deep inhale, Doing the VU all the way out, Pausing at the bottom and then waiting for your body to ask for the next inhale. Now the other quality that's important with this that I don't necessarily talk about in this meditation is that the VU is going to sound a little bit different for everyone. Someone it might sound a little bit higher, Others it might sound deeper, For some it might go longer, For others it might go shorter. There's so many reasons why this happens but the thing that's really important when we are doing the VU is to feel the vibration in our chest to the best of our ability and so you might in just doing this exercise give yourself permission to just put your hand on your chest and feel the VU. Experiment with that, See if it's useful. I just want to thank you all for the feedback that you've given me in doing this meditation and I look forward to hearing more feedback as we continue to evolve on this journey together.