Introduction

Hello, welcome back to the podcast. You’re listening to Practically Happy, episode number 274. What happens in Vegas might change your life. This, of course, is a little riff on the slogan, What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas. That was an advertising campaign created by the city of Las Vegas in 2003, which is meant to tell you that whatever is going on your vacation– whether you’re gambling, or going to shows, or meeting up with people, or getting married at the Elvis Chapel–that maybe you don’t want people at home to know about. They’ll keep that little secret tidy for you.

What I’m talking about today is not Las Vegas, the sin city that we know of in central Nevada. Today, I’m talking about the Vegas nerve. This is the longest nerve in your body, and I want to get into why it matters, why I think it’s important for you to know about it, to be conscious of it, and to remember that what’s happening in Vegas inside your body matters a lot. Before I dive into all things Vegas, let’s take a moment to breathe together.

Segment: Mindful Moment

I want to introduce you to a simple kind of breathing called cyclical breathing. In a recent study, it was shown to be even more effective than other types of breathing techniques in slowing your heart rate and calming your nervous system. It’s very simple as well. The way that you cyclically breathe is breathe in through your nose until your lungs are full, and then take a little bit more of a breath through your nose.

Let’s do that now.

And then you slowly breathe out through your mouth all the way until your lungs are empty.

Let’s do that again. Inhale through your nose.

When your lungs are full, breathe in a little bit more. And then breathe out.

One more time.

A little more.

And then release.

You can use this technique anytime that you need to just calm down and take a deep breath. Try a cyclical breath. It will help bring your body back to baseline.

What is the Vagus Nerve?

Being able to bring your body back down to baseline is what happens in vagus. Like I mentioned in the intro, the vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body. The word vagus comes from the Latin word wandering and vagabond, vague, vagrant, they all come from the same root. The vagus nerve is known as the wandering nerve because it is so long and has multiple branches that break away from its stem at different parts of your body.

The nerve originates in the brainstem at the base of your neck, and then it wanders down through your body, innervating or touching, connecting with your heart, most of your major organs, and your digestive system. So, it ends in your bowel. In about 1921, a German physiologist discovered that if you stimulated this nerve, it caused a reduction in your heart rate because it triggered the release of a substance that, at the time, he called “vagus substance”, just this random term.

The vagus substance was later identified as acetylcholine, and that became the first neurotransmitter that was identified by scientists, an actual chemical released through the nervous system that affects and causes changes in our physiology. This vagus stuff, this acetylcholine or the neurotransmitter that is secreted by our vagus nerve is like a literal tranquilizer that you can self-administer by taking some deep breaths with long exhales like the ones that we did earlier in the episode. In this way, you can consciously tap into your vagus nerve to create inner calm almost on demand.

Vagus Nerve is like the Brake Pedal

As I’ve been thinking about and learning about the vagus nerve, the best metaphor that comes to mind for me is that the vagus nerve is like pressing on the brakes when you learn to drive a car, of course, you learn the gas and the brake, and you learn if you want to accelerate.

If you want more power, more drive, more energy in the car, you want to go faster. You press on that accelerator. You press on the gas, and you can build up all that energy and go fast. Imagine if you learned how to press on the gas pedal and no one ever taught you about the brake. Having the power and the ability to speed up and go fast without the ability to slow down with intention would be incredibly dangerous.

I remember listening to a book years ago and I’ve tried to search for it, and I can’t find it. So, if you happen to know what book this is that mentions it, I’m In my head, it’s a Malcolm Gladwell book. I’ve read all his and so it seems like it would fit in with his journalistic style. There was a story about a 911 call where the driver of a car is accelerating in California, I believe, calls 911 and says the brake is not working on the car.

They’re actively driving and like dodging other cars on the highway and can’t Get the break to work and ends up the call ends up ending because of a tragic car accident that happens and the people in the car don’t make it and then it goes into this intense research around how could that be possible for you to be pressing on the break and have it not work and a break going out. I think they looked at the car and said the brake did function. So, what was going on here?

Because of this tragic accident, a car company did a study where they had a trained race car driver go full acceleration on a track where they simultaneously were pressing the gas pedal to the metal and pressing the brake. And even in that condition, if the brake was functional, the car would slow to a stop. Even with the acceleration on, the brake could overpower the acceleration in that condition.

Ultimately, what the investigators decided was that this driver must have been accidentally pressing on the acceleration and assuming that it was the brake, and in that moment of panic, didn’t realize that they could take their foot off to test maybe another pedal. In that frantic mode had just slammed down on the accelerator instead of the brake causing this accident. This is so tragic and so sad. It was memorable for me. I was trying to find the book, and it turns out that thousands of car accidents are caused every year by someone accidentally pressing on the acceleration instead of the brake.

Emotional Brake Pedal

Today I want to talk about our emotional brake pedal. Our physiological and emotional brake pedal, which is vagus. It’s our vagus nerve. The vagus nerves primary job is to slow us down. It uses neurotransmitters like the acetylcholine to lower our heart rate and our blood pressure. When we have high anxiety, racing heart, sweaty palms, dry mouth, upset stomach, the shakiness that comes with being nervous or worried, those are all symptoms that happen because of the disengagement of our vagus nerve.

Those are things that happen with our foot on the gas. and no foot on the brake. When we engage with the vagus nerve with intention, when we intentionally press our foot on that brake pedal or engage the vagus nerve through some of the activities that I’m going to share with you later in the episode, we’ll be able to intentionally slow things down.

To get our arms wrapped around them a little bit more, both physically and emotionally. It can be helpful to slow things down when we’re experiencing anxiety or stress because of something physical. For example, I worked out this morning, and in the workout that we did, it was four minutes of work.

Slow Things Down

We were doing gymnastics, toes to bar, and burpee jumps. So, it was like, a lot of jumping, a lot of swinging on the bar, high heart rate. And then we had a minute of rest in between each of our rounds. During that minute of rest, I engaged my vagus nerve because I now am aware of it. I’m conscious of it and I know how to tap into it.

Whenever I need to slow things down, I can do that with my mind and with my breathing and with my body slowing things down in between each of these sets. Now, I wasn’t stressed out because of something emotional or unexpected happening. My body was experiencing the high heart rate of exercise, and it was something I was choosing to do was a positive stress situation and still being able to lower that with intention in between rounds improved my ability to perform.

Whether you’re feeling that it. Stress or acceleration before you’re a job interview, before a big presentation, before one of your kids trying out for something, or whether you experience it unintentionally, uninvited, because of something unexpected that happens, because of a diagnosis, because of being caught in traffic, because of a phone call, because of, finding out bad news, anything, all of the things that can cause us to feel that physiological flush The fight or flight response, that is our sympathetic nervous system saying something’s wrong here, we’ve got to, figure it out.

Being aware of our ability to tap the brakes internally, to engage that vagus nerve, makes all the difference.

Vagal Tone

When your vagus nerve is engaged, it’s called vagal tone. Having a healthy vagal tone shows that you can have your vagus nerve engage and disengage. in a meaningful way with intention.

Healthy vagal tone is indicated when you have a little bit of an increase in your heart rate when you inhale and a decrease when you exhale. If you do a long, slow exhale, that will stimulate your vagus nerve and slow your heart rate and blood pressure. The cyclical breathing that we did today, that, inhale, sip a little bit more of air, and then the long, slow exhale, that is an example of a practice that engages your vagus nerve.

Breathing like that is like pressing on the brakes in your nervous system. A high vagal tone, or a good vagal tone, is linked to physical and psychological well-being. Where, on the other hand, having a low vagal tone, or when your vagus nerve isn’t well engaged, or doesn’t engage, you don’t engage it very often, that’s linked to higher inflammation, negative moods, higher depression, loneliness, heart attacks, all the things that you would assume would happen if you were stressed out all the time and you had your foot on the acceleration, rather than being able to also take a break, recognize there’s a way to slow down.

You don’t only have to speed up. You don’t only have to move forward quickly. You can also slow down, literally slow down your breathing, slow down your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, bring things back to a lower baseline where your body gets a little bit of that break.

Mindfulness and Meditation

One of the best and most simple and accessible ways to press on your break to stimulate vagal nerve activity and engagement is through mindfulness and meditation.

Both mindfulness and meditation, they can be used interchangeably here, are practices that emphasize relaxation and deep breathing. They’re generally practices of slowing down, of finding stillness, and of course, then you have the ability then to Get in touch with this part of yourself that is your literal brake pedal, your, physiological brake pedal inside your body.

What happens in the body during meditation?

Here are some of the things that happen in your body when you slow down and breathe deeply and relax through mindfulness and meditation.

Reduced Heart Rate I’ve mentioned a couple times how the activation of your vagus nerve slows down your heart rate. That dampening of what would be the opposite or the fight or flight response, when you are able to put the brakes on that, it presents to your body from the inside out a sense of calm and wellbeing.

Inner Calm Sometimes we start the calm in our head, and sometimes we start it in our body. And when you slow down your breathing, you’re engaging your brain to say, Okay, I’m going to take some deep breaths now. And your brain activates that vagus nerve down to your heart, slows down your heart rate, and then your slower heart rate transmits back up to your brain the sense That you’re okay, that things are going to be okay.

So, this cycle of intentionally engaging your vagus nerve then creates positive feedback for your emotional regulation. The vagus nerve connects both your brain and your body. And so, you start with the intention, goes down, it presses down on that break, which then, innervates all these different sections of your body, and as you reach those, they then transmit positive mood, less stress, being able to process things a little bit better, back up to your brain.

Increased Immune Function In addition to the instant physiological changes that stimulation of the vagus nerve creates, there’s also a longer-term enhancement of your immune function. The activation of the vagus nerve during mindfulness and meditation Can create this relaxation that supports immune system function leading to better immunity and because of the way the vagus nerve interacts with our digestive system.

Improved Digestion It can improve our digestion and also help us feel calm in our tummies So sometimes when things feel off for me, they start like the feeling of not okay starts in my belly and that’s my gut telling me which then feeds up to my brain oh, I don’t feel great about this if I can use that sense to put a brake on slow down and start to feel things a little bit More deeply within my own body and trust that my brain and my body is connected and the messages go both ways.

My body can tell my brain things that it didn’t know, just the way that my brain can communicate down to my body that it’s time to calm down.

Sponsor: Factor Meals

After a break from today’s sponsor, we’re going to go into a little bit more detail about mindfulness and how you can begin a practice if you don’t have one already.

But first, let’s talk about food.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Factor Meals. Have you seen these? I’ve talked about several different types of meal planning and meal kits over the years on this show and Factor Meals is so unique and so wonderful because it doesn’t only send you food to prepare yourself, it sends you food already prepared.

Chefs created ready to eat meals that you keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to pop them in the microwave. and enjoy restaurant quality meals ready to eat whenever you are. I just tried Factor Meals for the first time. I’ve been curious for a long time. I love food. I’m super interested in food.

I even like cooking, but sometimes, particularly at lunchtime, I want to eat something hearty and nutritious, and protein packed, and I just can’t figure out the right rhythm. I’ve got my dinners down well, but Factor Meals is the perfect solution for delicious, nutritious, healthy meals. And very quick meals at lunchtime factor meals are super flexible.

You can order as few as six or as many as 18 or more meals per week. For our family, it worked perfectly to get about 12, keep them in the fridge. And then whether it’s me, my husband, my teenager, or someone else needing a delicious, nutritious protein packed meal at lunchtime, we can heat it up and eat it.

In the moment. There’s no prep needed, no cooking, no chopping, no cleaning. I’ve tried several different ones. I’ve loved all of them. My favorite was this pepper jack infused chicken that had a cauliflower rice next to it. It was 44 grams of protein, 650 calories, and delicious. It felt like I was eating at a restaurant quality meal in the convenience of my kitchen at 1pm in the afternoon for a fraction of the cost.

Although I’m in love with the lunches, they also have snacks and smoothies, dinners, all sorts of meals that you can try, and you can mix and match for your boxes each week. They also offer veggie, calorie smart, vegan, and keto meals. I have a great offer for you. You can go online and explore what might work best for you and give it a try.

Head to factormeals.com/practically50 and use the code practically50 to get 50 percent off. That’s code practically50 at factor meals. com slash practically50 to get 50 percent off. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Why Meditation?

Meditation and mindfulness are one of those ideas that keeps coming up for me. I started meditating myself regularly. Probably three or four years ago, and I’ve mentioned on the podcast before that I love the headspace app to get started because of their guided meditations and ease of use, I noticed in my graduate school program last year, how often we talked about mindfulness as one of the impactful keys to overall well-being over the lifespan.

Train our bodies to have a better baseline 

And it continues to be an idea that pops up in my everyday life. In fact, I was talking to a coaching client recently about the way that meditation and mindfulness as a practice can help reset our nervous systems down to a place where our natural speed isn’t a hundred miles an hour, but that we can learn to slow it down and, tap on that break to have our regular pace of our life meet a healthier and well-balanced pace.

Myths about Meditation

There are some myths and misconceptions about meditation that I think prevent people from trying it. In fact, this client was saying, I don’t really get it. I don’t really know how to completely empty my head. So, I’m going to share a few of these myths with you today.

Meditation is about emptying your mind completely

That’s not true. While some forms of meditation might involve clearing your mind of thoughts, not all of them do, and most meditation practices, at least the ones that I prefer, focus on observing your thoughts with non-judgment, or simply redirecting your attention to a particular point of focus, like you’re breathing.

In this show, in my Mindful Moments segment, I’m often giving you cues as to what to pay attention to, whether it’s the airflow coming in and out of your lungs, whether it’s imagining a light in your chest, in a loving kindness meditation, you’re guided to think about particular people or communities, and send your love out to them.

It’s less of an empty your mind completely, and often more of a direct your mind with intention. One of the things that I love about that, about trying to quiet my mind and then noticing thoughts that come up, is when I’m focused on my breathing and I’m slowing everything down in the background, all the chatter, my regular to do list, and what’s going on, and maybe things that are at the top of my mind, settle down.

And new things that have maybe been a little bit in the background or that a little quieter have space to bubble up to the surface. And so, I’m happy that my mind isn’t completely clear or empty, but that it’s quiet enough for things that don’t normally have a place. To weasel their way up into my consciousness can arise that way.

You need to sit in a specific posture

That you just need to sit cross legged on a mat with chimes in the background and be wearing all white. While it is helpful to be comfortable and an upright posture can be helpful so you don’t fall asleep, you can meditate sitting in a chair, lying down, standing, walking.

I often find myself meditating with intention in the car if I’m driving. I love a walking meditation, so there are lots of different ways to find a comfortable position for the mindfulness practice itself.

Meditation is strictly religious

Meditation has roots in a lot of different religious traditions, and it’s called different things in different cultures and different religious homes. It can be called pondering, it can be called contemplation, it can be called meditation or mindfulness specifically. There are lots of different secular forms of meditation that exist focusing solely on the mental and physical benefits of the stillness.

Meditation is only for certain types of people

The truth is, this is a practice that benefits everyone. Regardless of age, gender, or cultural background. There are some personality types that are probably more likely to find it comfortable to sit still for a long period of time. But all different types of people can benefit from meditation. And in fact, it’s something that is helpful to teach, particularly to younger kiddos, to help them learn to regulate their emotions through this way.

You need a lot of time to meditate

If you don’t sit still for 30 minutes, eyes closed in a dark room, then it’s not worthwhile. There are benefits to longer meditation sessions for sure, and even just 30 seconds of conscious breathing can stimulate your vagus nerve. Pressing on that brake, you don’t have to slam it on and hold it down for a long time. Just tapping it will help you slow down.

Adding meditation or mindfulness into your regular routine with consistency will help. continually bring your nervous system down to a baseline where you receive the physiological benefits of engaging with that nerve. Here’s another myth on the opposite side of the coin that meditation is a quick fix for all your problems.

Unfortunately, that’s also not true. It’s not a magic solution that instantly solves all your problems. It’s a skill that takes time and patience and practice to develop some proficiency in. Also, just beginning at whatever point you are, wherever you are, whoever you are, with as much or little time as you have, can benefit you in little degrees.

So, while it might not fix your whole problem, your whole life, it will instantly engage with your physiology in a way that helps you slow things down and feel a little bit better.

Meditation is like trying to escape from reality or avoid dealing with your difficult emotions

When in truth, mindfulness is about developing awareness and non-judgment so that you can accept the present moment however it is. Whether it includes pleasant emotions, unpleasant emotions, disappointments. Surprises, joys, getting quiet, getting still, taking some deep breaths, and simply being aware of what is going on is a step not out of the moment but rather deeper into the moment.

How Meditation Changes Your Body

Now that I’ve shared and cleared up some myths and misconceptions, I’d like to share a few specific ways that meditation and its resulting engagement of the vagus nerve can physiologically change your body.

The first is reduced stress response. This is a direct relationship of meditation activating the vagus nerve, which is responsible for the body’s relaxation response. This is decreased production of stress hormones, lower heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and decreased muscle tension.

Number two is improved immune function. I talked about this a little bit. Some studies have suggested that regular mindfulness practices can enhance immune function by increasing the activity of immune cells and reducing markers of inflammation. This can lead to a stronger immune system and a better ability to fight off infections or diseases.

Number three is more balanced brain activity. Meditation has been found to influence brain wave patterns, promoting this state of relaxation and mental clarity. One thing that I loved, a study that I read, showed that our regular everyday thoughts tend to Beyond the surface of our brain.

And when we meditate, the same level of activity is present, but it shifts from being on the outside corner of thinking processing part of our brain to the inside, which is more related to our attention, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. It also reduces the areas of the brain, the activity in the areas of the brain that are associated with stress and anxiety. All those things can be seen on an MRI of someone meditating. That activity shifts from these peripheral thoughts and ideas to more of a centered self-awareness, attention, and emotional regulation.

Of course, then this leads to number four, which is that meditation and mindfulness can lead to enhanced emotional well-being.

Lots of studies show the relationship between mindfulness and a decreased depression and anxiety because of that regulation of our emotions and promoting a positive outlook on life. Some studies have even shown that through mindfulness and meditation the actual physical structure of the brain changes where the regions of your brain associated with emotional regulation and self-awareness grow. They get bigger because of the practice.

Number five, this is a big one for me. Meditation and mindfulness can improve your sleep. There are huge correlations between better sleep quality and reduced insomnia. symptoms with regular mindfulness and meditation. You can fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and have more restful sleep overall with a regular mindfulness practice and engaging with that vagus nerve.

The last two are also helpful for me. Number six is lowered pain perception. Meditation can modulate your perception of pain. It alters how the brain processes pain signals, so you have a higher tolerance for difficulty, emotional and physical pain.

And then seven is improved cardiovascular health, which would make sense because of how direct the correlation is between your vagus nerve stimulation and your heart. 

Intentional engagement of Vagus

Mindfulness is the pressing on the break of the vagus nerve, which then directly engages to your heart, lowering your blood pressure, lowering your heart rate, reducing your risk of heart disease, and helping your heart rate variability where your heart rate can go high and then come down quickly. Like I was talking about with my exercise today, I could see my heart rate change with the intentional breathing that I was doing in between rounds of exercise.

My heart rate would be up, 175-185, and then in that one minute of deep breathing I could bring it down to about 100, before I got going on the next round. So clearly huge, profound effects on our physiology, our relaxation, our stress reduction, and emotional wellbeing. This is what happens in Vegas.

All these incredible physiological, emotional, and mental benefits come from the direct and intentional practice of engaging our vagus nerve through mindfulness, meditation, breathing practices, relaxation, it starts with the decision the cognition of, okay, I’m going to slow this down. I’m going to take some deep breaths.

It may translate into some specific, I would love to have a regular practice where my body gets good at the regulation. When you start driving and you’re like jerky on the speed up fast and they slow down fast and that kind of back and forth. I am like sitting in my seat doing this movement.

Learning to drive

I remember I learned to drive a stick shift as well, which was a little trickier. And so, I was just driving around jerky for a long time before I practiced. And as I practiced, I could get in the rhythm of having smooth transitions of Speeding up and slowing down, speeding up and slowing down and being able to move in and out of what was needed for the situation I was in.

Imagine being able to do that emotionally, having the ability because of practice to move into a higher stress situation and out of it with ease and with smoothness in those transitions. Imagine if when you felt yourself Amping up you, we all know that feeling right of you can feel your face start to get red and like your muscles start to clench a little bit and it could be anger.

It could be sadness. It could be frustration. It’s anything that’s like causing that feeling if you could recognize that and say, I need to press on the brakes here and knowing that there is a break, there’s a break for your emotions. That break is your biggest nerve. And one of the best ways to engage with it is through some deep breaths and some intentional mindfulness and meditation.

Seven Ways to Start Meditating

I’m going to finish out today’s episode with seven different specific ways that you can get started. Learning to tap on your brakes.

Mindful Meditation

To get started is a simple mindfulness meditation. This simply involves focusing your attention on the present moment. Typically, you start with observing your breath. your bodily sensations. I like to use my senses and think to myself, what do I see? What can I hear? What do I smell, taste, and feel in my environment? That’s a grounding technique that just brings your mind and your attention to the present moment. This is one of the most studied forms of meditation and it’s been shown to have numerous benefits.

We can all do this, right? Just, allow our attention to come into right this moment and what we are experiencing now. My therapist and I talk about often how in the moment things are rarely wrong. When we, again, let’s use a driving metaphor of when we get, when we allow our thoughts to be in a car that gets up onto the freeway and starts going faster down the track of the future and what’s going to happen in the dominoes and all the things, the outcomes that we don’t know, but we can project all the things that may go wrong.

Then we lose it all. A lot of things feel like they’re wrong out there. Right now, in the moment when we bring it back and we press on that brake and we, slow everything down, things are rarely as wrong as they seem.

Guided Meditation

The second is a guided meditation, and this is where apps can be helpful or going to a meditation, a sound bath, a class. Most yoga studios or wellness centers have guided meditations that you can attend. Apps are so great. The Headspace app, I think, is about 70 a year. And it has an endless I like to start with two to five minutes of a guided meditation and then you can choose different programs. I loved an appreciation meditation series that I did last year.

There’s lots of different options and I know some people also like the Calm app. A guided meditation involves following the instructions of the teacher or the audio recording. What we did earlier in the episode and the meditations that I share here on the podcast are guided meditations. It’s instructors guiding you through a meditation giving you cues of what to think about what to do how to focus your attention and This can be a helpful place to begin.

Body Scan Meditation

Another option is a body scan meditation. In a body scan, you systematically focus your attention on different parts of your body. Often you start with your feet, with your toes, and you think about the awareness of your toes, move them around a little bit, and then you move up to maybe your feet and do ankle circles and then move up, maybe shake your knees a little bit.

You move your attention through your body from your toes all the way up to the top of your head. And this is more of a practice on focusing your attention on a specific way rather than letting your mind just go wherever it wants. You’re giving it something to think about a mindful practice of bringing your attention to something that you’re in charge of.

Loving Kindness Meditation

The fourth type is a loving kindness meditation. And I shared a loving kindness meditation on the podcast a few weeks ago. This type of meditation is beautiful. It involves cultivating Feelings of compassion and kindness toward yourself and others.

Generally, it involves repeating a phrase or a mantra that evokes feelings of love and wellbeing, and loving kindness meditations have been researched and have evidence of showing that they can enhance your overall mood, your social connection, and your positive emotions.

Breathing Exercises 

The fifth type are simple breathing exercises. On the podcast, I’ve shared a few different ones. Today, we did cyclical breathing at the beginning. There’s also box breathing, where you breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of four, you breathe out for a count of four, and then you hold for a count of four. That’s a type of breathing you imagine it’s a box, because you’ve got the same counts, at the up, the hold, the down, and the hold. There’s also a staggered box breathing where you breathe in for a count of four and hold, but then you breathe out for longer, a count of five, six, or seven. And that extended exhale in research shows that will stimulate the vagus nerve even further than a. regular count of four.

So, you can, if it’s easier to just think about box breathing and counting the same number each time, but you can also intentionally breathe out a little bit longer than you breathe in. And that’s like tapping on that break.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

The sixth type of meditation or mindfulness that’s easy and accessible to start with is a progressive muscle relaxation. This is one that I love to use before I go to bed. The Headspace app. has some guided muscle relaxation preps that it does in some of the sleep casts. And it’s like the body scan, except for in this case, you’re tightening your muscles and then releasing them area of the body by area of the body.

So, you start with your toes and your feet, and you flex, really extend your feet and then you relax them. And then you move on to your calf muscles. You isolate really tightening those calf muscles and then releasing them. And then really tightening up your thighs, your quads, and then releasing them.

And then really tightening your glutes and releasing. And you go throughout your body flexing and contracting and then releasing your muscles. When I do this, I really notice how often parts of my body are contracted without me realizing it, particularly in my face and my shoulders. Oftentimes we’ll naturally assume contracted position when we’re concentrating or when we’re thinking hard or when we’re worried about something and when you get to that part of your body and you realize, oh, it’s already contracted.

All I must do now is relax who it feels so good. It’s a really great way to prepare for a good night’s sleep.

Yoga

And finally. Yoga, which is not a strict form of meditation, mindfulness, breathing awareness, and physical postures that can promote relaxation and mental focus, practicing yoga regularly can really help prepare the mind and body for other types of meditation and in and of itself can be a vagus nerve.

So, starting with short sessions of any of these types of mindfulness will teach you to start recognizing the brake pedal. And you can gradually increase the duration as you become more comfortable with the practices. And just like anything, when you’re practicing, consistency is key. So, aim to meditate daily or a few times a week, even just for a few minutes in the beginning. So, you begin to have a natural pattern of tapping that break.

As you start to become more aware of your body, of your breath, of your mind, you’ll be able to start sensing when the accelerator is on inside your body and you’ll know right where to go to hit that vagus nerve to tap on that break to slow everything down back to a place where you’re able to make more conscious and deliberate and intentional decisions and also feel better and healthier.

All along the way. How is that for what happens in Vegas might change your life? I hope that you’ve enjoyed learning about the Vegas Nerve. Had you heard of it before? Is it something that you were familiar with? Did you know how easy it is to learn to tap on the brakes in your own body to achieve relaxation, calm, and the peace that we’re all hoping for in our lives?

I would love to invite you again to practice one of these forms of mindfulness or meditation and to tell me about it. I’d love to hear about it. Also, I’m available and taking new clients right now for my Clarity Coaching program. If you feel like you could use someone riding alongside you for a little while in this journey of life to help you establish some new routines.

To discover what your values and strengths are to help you make some better decisions and just tweak things in small ways for big impact. That’s something I would love to help you with. You can find all the information about my coaching packages at livefreecreative.co, and even sign up for a free 30 minute.

Introduction call where we can see if it’s a good fit. You can get a feel for what coaching is about and have a conversation with me and it’s a great time even if you have one or two questions to just hop on and chat about them. This is also a good time for me to remind you that if you’re interested in joining me in Istanbul and Cappadocia, Turkey this summer.

July 18th through 25th, there are still a handful of spots available for this incredible women’s trip. Join a group of other like-minded, adventurous women to explore a new place and to learn a little bit more about yourself in the process. The link to learn more about the turkey trip is in the show notes, and you can also find it at LiveFreeCreative.co. I hope that you have a wonderful week and that learning about Your vagus nerve will help you be a little bit more practically happy. Chat with you next time. Bye.