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

by Stanley D. Rosenberg

Stanley’s method confirmed that a metaphor of safety is manifest throughout the body and not merely in the social engagement system via the muscles of the face and head, or in the viscera via ventral vagal pathways. In all aspects of the human anatomy, safety is expressed by the down regulation and the constraint of defense. When safety occurs, the structures can retune themselves to support health, growth, and restoration.

As this book conveys, he has brilliantly integrated features of the Polyvagal Theory with features from craniosacral and other somatic therapies.

he artfully extracted the primary principle of the Polyvagal Theory: the structures of the body become welcoming to touch and manipulation when in a state of safety.

his approach is more consistent with the traditions of a healer. Healers enable the body to heal itself, and Stanley functions in this role.

when states of safety are manifest in the structures of the body, the body is poised to serve as a platform for healing.

At the heart of our adaptability, especially to stress, is the vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve is central to every aspect of our life. It can provide us with deep relaxation as well as offer immediate response to life-and-death situations.

Additionally, the vagus nerve can provide us with the needed deep personal connection to ...

“You learn techniques to understand principles. When you understand the principles, you will create your own techniques.”

Alain Gehin, my craniosacral teacher, said that becoming a skilled body therapist is not so much “knowing about” something intellectually but “learning how to do something with your hands.”

have an image of myself, despite my American roots, as having apprenticed to become an Old-World European craftsman. I have had time to study, to practice, and to develop skills. I have had the luxury to be able to keep reaching for a greater level of finesse, sensitivity, and creativity with my hands.

Before the Polyvagal Theory, there was a widely accepted belief that the autonomic nervous system functioned in two states: stress and relaxation.

craniosacral approach is a hands-on therapy that has proven to be particularly effective in improving the function of the nervous system.

Removing restrictions to this blood supply is at the core of successfully improving the function of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve and the other four cranial nerves necessary to social engagement. Some of the best ways to achieve this are found in the domain of craniosacral osteopathy.

Porges’s Polyvagal Theory brought about a revolutionary advancement in my understanding of the autonomic nervous system. According to this theory, five cranial nerves (CNs) must function adequately in order to attain the desirable state of social engagement. These five nerves are CN V, VII, IX, X, and XI, and they all originate in the brainstem.

Spinal nerves originate in the brain, make up part of the spinal cord, exit the spinal cord between adjacent vertebrae, and then go to various areas throughout the body.

According to the Polyvagal Theory, when a person is feeling safe—not threatened or in danger—and if her body is healthy and functioning well, she can enjoy a physiological state that supports spontaneous social engagement behaviors. Social engagement, neurologically speaking, is a state based on the activity of five cranial nerves: the ventral branch of the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X), and pathways within cranial nerves V, VII, IX, and XI.

When working together properly, the activity of these five nerves supports a state that enables social interaction, communication, and appropriate self-soothing behaviors. When we are socially engaged, we can experience feelings of love and friendship.

these kinds of activities and interactions are neither described nor explained by the old model of the autonomic nervous system.

When we are together with other people who are socially engaged, we feel better. On the other hand, when we do not have enough positive social interactions with others, we can easily become stressed, depressed, asocial, or even antisocial.

Am i hanging out with socially engaged people

All I had to do was to determine whether these five cranial nerves functioned well and, if not, to use a technique to get them to function better.

forward head posture,

This book is an introduction to the theory and practice of Polyvagal healing. After describing basic neurological structures, I will list some of the physical, psychological, and social issues caused by dysfunctions of those five cranial nerves.

According to the Polyvagal Theory, the autonomic nervous system has two other functions in addition to those of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve: the activity of the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve, and sympathetic activity from the spinal chain. This multiple (poly-) nature of the vagus nerve gives the theory its name.

I have written this book to make the benefits of restoring vagal function available to a broad range of people, even if they have no prior experience with craniosacral or other forms of hands-on therapy.

The exercises and techniques restore flexibility to the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. They can help eliminate the general adverse conditions of chronic stress, which arises from the overstimul-ation of the spinal sympathetic chain, and depressive behavior and shut-down, which arise from activity in the dorsal vagal circuit.

The improve-ments in ventral vagus nerve function from doing the exercises help to regulate the visceral organs involved in breathing, digestion, elimination, and sexual function.

The techniques and exercises in Part Two help to improve movement of the head, neck, and shoulders, and to correct some of the postural and functional issues that we attribute to aging: forward head posture, kyphosis, dowager’s hump, flat lower back, reduced breathing capacity, etc.

For achieving lasting health, by contrast, there is a largely untapped potential in understanding how the nervous system works and approaching difficult health issues in a new way. Simply stated: if the ventral branch of the vagus nerve is not functioning, make it functional. Since the autonomic nervous system regulates important functions of the body such as circulation, respiration, digestion, and reproduction, a wide range of consequences can ensue if the vagus and other cranial nerves are not working properly.

The common thread may be a fairly simple one: All of the problems in this list occur at least partly from dorsal vagal activity or activation of the spinal sympathetic nervous system, and can be addressed by reinstating normal function of the ventral vagus nerve branch and other nerves required for social engagement.

The human nervous system has one primary function: to ensure the survival of our physical body.

The nervous system is composed of the brain, the brainstem, the cranial nerves, the spinal cord, the spinal nerves, and the enteric nerves.

The focus of our attention here is the autonomic nervous system, which is made up of elements of the brainstem, some of the cranial nerves, and ...

The brainstem extends from the brain; it lies on the underside of the brain and is the beginning of the spinal cord.

One of the cranial nerves “wanders” through the body, coursing from the brainstem into the chest and abdomen to regulate many of the visceral organs. It innervates the muscles of the throat (pharynx and larynx), and the organs of respiration (lungs), circulation (heart), digestion (stomach, liver, pancreas, duodenum, small intestine, and the ascending and transverse sections of the large intestine), and elimination (kidneys). Because this nerve is so long and has so many branches, it was named the “vagus” nerve, from the Latin word vagus, meaning “vagrant, wanderer.”

The vagus nerve helps to regulate a vast array of bodily functions necessary for maintaining homeostasis. Whereas the sympathetic chain extends from the spinal nerves and supports the state of stress and mobilization for survival, several of the cranial nerves support non-stress states. One of the primary functions of the cranial nerves is to facilitate rest and restitution. They also enable the senses of sight, smell, taste, and hearing, as well as the sense of touch on the skin of the face. In mam-mals, some of the cranial nerves work together to facilitate and promote social behavior.

Note that although the nerves are paired, the singular term is usually used, so that “CN

The cranial nerves are numbered based on their location. They extend from a half-circle on each side of the brain;

all twelve cranial nerves have one thing in common: they are all involved in helping us to find food; chew, swallow, and digest; and eliminate undigested food as waste.

We will start this discussion of the individual cranial nerves by noting how each one contributes to the digestive process. Then we will look at some additional functions of the cranial nerves that are not related to food, such as regulation of the kidneys and bladder, the heart and respi-ration, and sex and reproduction.

The olfactory nerve, or CN I, enables our sense of smell. In terms of evolution, CN I was the first of the cranial nerves to develop. The sense of smell is vital to human beings and all other mammals; it is crucial in first finding food and then determining whether a morsel is edible. Smells create an immediate response of attraction or repulsion—does

The olfactory nerve is thus the only cranial nerve that transmits infor-mation (smell) directly to the cerebral cortex without relaying it through another part of the central nervous system. Interestingly, this part of our “old brain” is instrumental in the formation of memory,

CN II, the optic nerve, also origi-nates in the forebrain.

Moving our eyeballs in different directions expands our field of vision. The small muscles that move the eyeballs are controlled by three other cranial nerves: CN III (oculomotor), IV (trochlear), and VI (abducens).

We can extend our field of vision even further if we use the neck muscles to move our head. CN XI, the spinal accessory nerve, controls the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles.

However, sight and smell alone do not tell us for sure that something is edible. We take the next step and put it into our mouth: does it taste all right? In order to taste properly, we need to mix the food with saliva. The secretion of saliva is controlled by the CN V (trigeminal), CN VII (facial), and CN IX (glossopharyngeal) nerves that innervate the salivary glands.

To mix the food with saliva, we use CN V (the trigeminal nerve) to innervate the muscles of mastication, opening and closing the jaw and grinding the food with a side-to-side movement.

We use CN XII (the hypoglossal nerve) to move our tongue to shift the food around in the mouth, and on and off the surfaces of our teeth.

We use CN VII (the facial nerve) to relax and tighten the mus...

We also help move the food around with the muscles of the lips, which are also innervated by CN VII.