The vagus nerve is playing an important role in de-stress through regulating our emotions. When we consult about calming down, we often hear about taking deep breaths. Deep breaths not only help you to get relax but also forces you to enjoy slowing down. But most of us are not aware of the inner causes of this relaxation through deep breaths. Here we have tried to investigate the causes.
We can continue the deep breathing process with meditation and yoga. But if we want to understand the inner cause of deep breathing, we have to find impacts of the vagus nerve. It is the main factor that halts stress and helps us to get it in tip-top shape. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve among the cranial nerves.
A clinical psychologist Kelly Vincent explained about the vagus nerve, “It connects your throat, ear, and facial muscles and travels down both sides of the neck to the heart and lungs, through the stomach and intestines, touching almost every organ on its way down.”
The vagus nerve helps you to stay in the parasympathetic mode of your brain. It is the situation when your body functions settle into neutral. However, it may not help you to switch from chronic stress situations. It is such a dysfunction when you remain stuck on overdrive. It may increase the risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. It also may cause depression and anxiety.
A fellow at the American Institute of Stress, Cynthia Ackrill said, “There are sensory receptors in the lungs that connect to the vagus nerve and trigger the parasympathetic nervous system.”