Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

Product Information

There are many things you can do to activate your vagus nerve and many benefits to a healthy vagal tone. It is your secret weapon to a better you. Stanley Rosenberg is one of the world’s most skilled and creative hands-on therapists. His diagnostic and treatment techniques have immediate application for everyone. Read and enjoy this book, and apply the techniques in your life or in your practice.”—James L. Oschman, PhD, author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis Validity in what the author suggests in the book would be the following: If an individual passes the uvula test, then he/she should not have any of the chronic problems the author lists (e.g., my son’s autism is therefore cured) because the ventral vagus is active. The author Mr. Rosenberg is a highly skilled and experienced massage therapist that started a "school" to teach other massage therapists in Denmark some osteopathic techniques. I did love his focus on using manual therapy to make changes in a person’s physiological state as using an anatomical perspective is obviously a perfect match for me as a manual therapist. And plenty of professional athletes use cold-water immersion to improve short-term feelings of relaxation.

Music can help motivate us, bring us joy and tap into our emotions. When it comes to the vagus nerve, the research is mixed on how music affects it. He also claims to be able to tell whether someone has low or high heart rate variability by palpating a pulse while observing breathing and breath out. This may be true (or not) but how does he quantify the change. He has a training school so why has he not employed proper equipment to do data collection and publish it. VNS has the effect of modifying some of the physiologic responses that are induced by the vagus nerve,” says Dr. Estemalik.I have been trying his method to turn the Vagus Nerve on with most all of my patients (and with my son). After following his precise instructions to perform the Basic Exercise (over the last 4 weeks) I have to say that I am disappointed in the results. I have not seen a big change in the uvula lift in most all of my patients (maybe I didn’t get them to yawn enough times). Yoga can also be helpful for the same reasons. Just make sure you pay attention on your breathing. Exercise Community and belonging help you to feel safe and secure. When you are connected, you are calmer and more positive. But when it comes to your vagus nerve (pronounced like the city of Las Vegas), it carries signals to your brain, heart, lungs and digestive system. It’s the longest cranial nerve in your body, running from your brain all the way to your large intestine.

Turn to this practice to help calm your mind and focus on deep breathing. While doing meditation, try extending your exhales, making them longer than your inhales. This will help slow your heart rate. This author does an excellent job of describing the Polyvagal Theory for manual therapists. If you are not a manual therapist, you may still see some benefit from reading this book. The author describes the polyvagal theory thoroughly and explains some ways of improving your autonomic state from stress or dorsal vagal to social engagement. Christopher Bergland says he uses Cora Harris’s mantra to stimulate his vagus nerve, “The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.” Furthermore, how do we know what Stanley Rosenberg means when he repeatedly states that the client improved after performing the Basic Exercise? He does not quantify the improvement beyond his observation of change. Can the vagus nerve test be quantified? Can the uvula lift be graded like other muscle tests: 0 to 5 out of 5)? Don’t you always feel better when you start to hum or sing? Your worries are swept away by a song. Well, that’s because it’s activating your vagus nerve! Simply sing to feel better or gargle if you prefer.uOttawa says, it’s “clear to researchers that gut bacteria improve brain function by activating the vagus nerve.”

If you want to activate your vagus nerve, a great way to do it is by chanting “OM” over and over again. This is often used in yoga, mantras and different faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether you perceive it as a spiritual practice or just a meditation practice, it helps to calm you and create inner peace. Studies have shown that this creates greater relaxation. Research shows that reflexology (a kind of massage) can increase vagal tone and even decrease blood pressure. In the book he introduced me to the potential of the esophagus tightening up being a cause of the sensation of tightening in the chest that we might call anxiety. Using the technique he described in the book for this condition helped a patient of mine with COPD reduce some of his symptoms. But it was not a cure like the case he mentions in the book. In Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve by Stanley Rosenberg, there are a few exercises you can do to reset your ventral vagus nerve. They include The Basic Exercise, The Half Salamander Exercise and The Full Salamander Exercise: The Basic Exercise

Become a Member

When we speak, shout, sing, the vagus nerve is lit up like a Christmas tree— which is one of the reasons why those activities can be so cathartic and emotional for so many of us.” Stanley Rosenberg has put his encyclopedic clinical knowledge to work through the lens of the Polyvagal Theory, illuminating the path away from the underlying cause of so much of today’s disease: anxiety. A tour de force.”—Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains Exercise lowers your sympathetic nervous activity and controls your parasympathetic response so that you have a good balance when it comes to your cardiovascular and respiratory function,” says Dr. Estemalik. Massage I am skeptical regarding the validity Mr. Rosenberg's assumptions. In physical therapy school we learned that some tests are what my professor called subjectively objective. This means that even though the test seems to qualify as objective, there is a good probability of the introduction of experimenter bias. This produces positive self-talk even when you are feeling afraid. Act in accordance with your affirmations.