#parasympathetic

The vagus nerve is not just another nerve, it’s the command centre of safety, connection, and regulation, running from the brain into every major organ, constantly deciding whether the body can relax or needs to stay on guard. When it’s strong and responsive, the body relaxes, breathing deepens, the heart finds rhythm, digestion flows, and a person feels grounded, present, and in control. But when it’s overwhelmed, the entire nervous system shifts, tight chest, busy mind, unsettled gut, and a body that can’t switch off. This is where real change happens. Support the vagus nerve, and you’re not just calming symptoms, you’re rewiring how the body experiences the world, creating a foundation for resilience, regulation, and true internal safety.

+

This is a powerful exercise that hits the vagus nerve through movement, breath, and pressure all at once. Start standing and do 30–45 seconds of strong, rhythmic shaking through the arms and legs (like you’re trying to flick water off your body), then immediately drop down onto your back, hug your knees tightly into your chest and take a deep nasal breath in. As you breathe out slowly, lift your head and curl into a ball, holding gentle pressure for 5 seconds, then fully release and let your body go heavy. Repeat this 5–6 times. Finish by rolling slowly side to side with long, slow exhales, letting your body unwind. This works because you’re first discharging built-up stress, then creating deep compression and release through the trunk sending a powerful signal of safety through the vagus nerve that the threat has passed and the body can finally switch off and relax.

How Does the Body’s Alarm System Keep Us From Healing?

Do you have clients you work on weekly/frequently whose chronic problems don’t resolve?  I have found it’s not possible to force tight muscles to let go when the body’s survival system is saying ‘stay tight’!    One of these challenge spots is the sub-occipital rotator system.  

The body is always trying to follow your orders.  If you established a strong imperative in a time of injury or shock, your survival system will persevere with that strategy, using every ounce of available energy to keep that survival strategy it chose at the time of a threat.  If you succeed in softening a tight tissue using deep tissue or trigger point approaches, it’s likely the body will begin to recreate that strategy as soon as your client is up off the table. 

I posted recently about Achilles Tendonitis and Plantar Fascitis.  The remarks I got showed me that some therapists do not understand the role of the ANS in preserving our current movement and postural strategies.  In that post I mentioned that chronically tight muscles in the back of the body due to hyperactivity of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) would make it hard for the body to ‘heal’ from inflammatory conditions such as inflamed Achilles and Plantaris tendons.  Inflammatory conditions are the result of heavily using a muscle that is inhibited or weak. The current medical approach of ‘resting’ in order to recover do not resolve the source of the problem. They fail to identify that the muscle is weak or to look for the cause of this problem. 

Sympathetic vs Parasympathetic is a fascinating thing to think about in relation to bodywork techniques. Internal conditions such as fear cause a universal release of adreno-corticoids and cause a predictable set of muscles to fire. They put you 'on your toes' and shorten the back of the neck in a cringe, which puts your neck in front of your body for instance. Your Psoas tightens also. All of these things propel you forward, preparing you for action. Because you are now weighted forward on your feet, your calf muscles and plantar muscles activate also.

Because these patterns of tension/contraction are wired to the stress response, in reverse, chronic tension in posterior chain muscles is wired to the same metabolism and can provoke the same underlying feelings that adrenal corticoids did in the original incident. In the emotional energetic body a vague anxiety, restlessness, inability to meditate, concentrate, digest, breathe in the diaphragm, accelerated heart rate inability to heal are all possible symptomatic effects of chronic tension. The body is all one. External stimuli affects body chemistry and muscle contraction and internal circumstances such as chronic muscle contraction will elicit feelings and thoughts.

There is a great deal of literature on the subject of Parasympathetic / Sympathetic expressions of the ANS. I was first exposed to these concepts through Educational Kinesiology, a world wide movement originated to help kids with learning disabilities, kids who have ADHD for instance, and regular kids whose mental processing is slow due to stress effects keeping them in sympathetic hyperactivity and slowing their learning capacity. An NMR student from Australia sent me a video of a young man he works with who is a ‘toe walker’ and has been on this toes as a preference, all his life. Just the little bit of work we did in class with toning down the SNS had this young man walking flat on both feet. In Educational Kinesiology the remedy to help get kids shifted to a more balanced ANS always involved stretching the extensor line of the body.

I studied Educational Kinesiology 40 plus years ago and have incorporated what I learn into my work with my clients' structural problems. The inclusion of approaches to shift clients toward the Parasympathetic side of the nervous system is part of Mod 1 Intro to NeuroMuscular Reprogramming. Actually it's the clients who must do the work. It includes a few breathing practices, and the incorporation of a couple of simple techniques from Educational Kinesiology which have become very popular with Chiropractors in the last decade as they choose to expand their clientele to work with kids who have mental processing problems. NeuroMuscular Reprogramming NMR® incorporates some of the basics and teaches it at a level that can make a big difference to clients progressing toward their goals of reduced structural pain and improved ROM.

In my intake forms I look for signs that this may be a contributing factor. For some people the hindrance is cognitive and for others it's structural/functional and for others it has evolved into metabolic disturbance disrupting digestion and elimination.  

How do you 'measure sympathetic tone'? I look for common clues that indicate problems with the fundamental coordination system such as the inability to rotate the T/L junction with reciprocal ease in both directions, obsession and pre-occupation with one's problems and the tendency to a fast pace and tension in expression of the components of them, fast blinking of the eyes while performing muscle tests, and cognitive delays in response to instructions just to name a few. 

hello hello 💙 ofc how could I not answer this, it's pharmacology (pcol/pharmcol) HAHAHA

DISCLAIMER: I'll only put parasympathetic and sympathetic differences in terms of ANS. it different from parasympathetic agonist and antagonist, sympathetic agonist and antagonist. I could make another post regarding that if you want, sweetie 💊anon chan!

Sympa and para receptors have their distinct difference, mainly they're polar opposites in the effects. shown under the cut. hope it helps. Thanks for asking! 💙

On Pervasive Anxiety and Stimulating the Nervous System For Deep Relaxation

A short burst of fight-or-flight gives you an adrenaline boost and intensifies your mental focus so you can react quickly and effectively in a dangerous situation. Prolonged activation of this state is unproductive and damaging, however. It keeps you looking for danger—even in the most mundane circumstances!—and depletes you greatly, impairing your immune system, cognitive function, digestion, healing, nervous system, and more. It also makes it easier for you to be influenced or controlled.

How do you ease yourself into ease (your natural state) even when things feel scary? It might not be as difficult as it seems.

I like to start by making a clear goal—to shift myself out of anxiety/fight-or-flight into parasympathetic nervous system dominance (rest-and-digest). This state of deep relaxation is how you’d generally feel after an amazing massage, and is how you’re supposed to feel most of the time!

How often do you actually feel this way? Make your goal to go fully into it—stop settling for just okay! Once you find deep ease you will activate a positive feedback loop that makes it far easier to maintain.

There are lots of ways to do it, but I’ll share the two things I use most, then you can test them or do your own research.

The main tool I use repeatedly throughout the day is a simple breathing strategy. A few minutes of deep, full, noisy breaths to bring in more oxygen and stimulate the nervous system directly from within. Experiment with different ways of doing this and listen to your body. Do you feel high, tingly, giddy, or calmed? What feels best?

This strategy could also bring up some negative emotions at first. This is good! Be prepared to embrace and process what comes.

Secondly, I really like to use the system at the beginning of my first book (Create Now) about once a day to get into focus and flow. It also helps you to address underlying negative beliefs/emotions that may surface from the breathing—if you don’t cheat and skip the venting exercise!