The Nervus Vagus

The other day I watched a half hour vid by Donna Eden on the nervus vagus and I learnt a few new things about it!
This nerve causes me trouble at times, I know this from my osteopath.
A little on the nerve and why it's important: it's the longest nerve in the human body. It really is ridiculously long and it goes everywhere, to each and every organ. Which means if this nerve is upset it can affect a lot in your body.
It's related to the fight or flight or freeze reflex, which used to have great importance in the old days to keep us safe and to make sure we as a species survived.
Nowadays that reflex isn't so needed anymore. We're not surrounded by wild animals or enemy tribes etc. that could attack and harm us.
Of course there are situations where we do need it, that's why we got it, right!

The thing is, it should only become active during those moments and then go back to normal. Like when an antelope gets attacked, it's fight or flight reflex is triggered and it runs for dear life! But... when the threat is gone the antelope let's go and simply goes back to normal life, grazing likely.
If we could do that -as it was intended to work- it wouldn't be a problem. Every organism can handle short moments of stress.
The problem is that we people tend to be in fight or flight 24/7. And at some point it becomes the new normal, but this does cause damage to the body and our well-being.
And since this has to do with the nervus vagus, which goes to each organ including the heart, brain and so on, the damage can be anything and everything.

That is why it is so important to know ways to calm this nerve yourself, and of course it would also be good to learn to chill and let go and not hold on to stress, anger, fear and so on.
Donna came up with a few techniques to do this.
One is using your breath.
Because... they discovered another thing the nervus vagus does: it helps you relax, chill, calm down!!
Isn't that amazing? The same nerve that gets in a frenzy when you're upset and stressed and anxious is also the one that can do the opposite and sooth you!!
You do that by meditating or deep belly breaths.

It's too complex to describe the other techniques, and I don't know if this class is still available online. But at least you know a bit more about this now. And by all means read up on it online. There's so much to this nerve, it is truly amazing!
For instance, people passing out when they see blood... this is the 'freeze' reflex, part of the nervus vagus.
Passing out could sometimes also save your life in the old days if there was a wild animal that could attack and eat you as when you've passed out your heart rate and breathing slows down, and you produce less scents, certainly not the scent of fear. That alone could save your life!!

Anyhow, I hope this is helpful, and if you got ailments it could help to work with this. Seek an alternative therapist that knows about this if need be!