Vagus Nerve System
(This is an excerpt from my full blog post on the Vagus Nerve. You can check it out here)
https://beyondhomosapien.com/vagus-nerve/
What is the Vagus Nerve System and why is it so important? What is Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) and what does it do? How do we active our Vagus Nerve?
These are questions appearing more often in the collective conversation…
The Vagus Nerve System is the longest nerve in our body. It is the part of the central nervous system responsible for connecting all of our organs together. Similar to a tree trunk, the Vagus Nerve System wraps around organs and builds a complex root structure that connects the entire body together physiologically. Our emotions and visceral feelings are processed by the Vagus Nerve and these connective structures feed our brains with information.
The Vagus Nerve system is important to understand for people on the autism spectrum.
As an individual on the spectrum, I began learning all about the vagus nerve system roughly two years ago. At the time, I was suffering from almost daily panic attacks. When I understand how the autism spectrum works, I began to realize how I was allowing my self to enter into a “fight or flight” mode that kept me in a constant state of overwhelm. Instead of staying in that place, I dedicated myself to understanding the autism spectrum. At the time, this meant wrapping my head around the vagus nerve system and how it was affecting my body.
Here’s what I learned in my own life:
The Vagus Nerve system is what connects all of the pathways in our body together in order to process our emotions.
Emotions are processed in different parts of the body, depending on the particular emotion.
For example, anxiety is usually felt inside a person’s stomach. Normally, if a person’s Vagus Nerve is healthy, the anxiety will be interpreted and felt by the brain. Why does this happen? Because the Vagus Nerve connected the neurotransmitters in the stomach up to the neurotransmitters inside of your brain. Through this connective pathway, the human mind is able to experience and interpret our complex emotions.
For a person like me on the autism spectrum, our Vagus Nerve can be damaged.
What does a damaged Vagus Nerve do to a person? What are the symptoms?
All of this and more on this show with Sterling Cooper! In addition to the vagus nerve, we also get into discussing the law of attraction, the evolution of human consciousness, and the importance of frequency. It is an essential part of the human experience to have an optimized vagal nerve system…
As we progress in our understanding of science and human behavior, we are waking up to the realization that the Vagus Nerve system is extremely important. Instead of neglecting our nervous system as we have done in the past, it is paramount that we take a stand for real health and understand how to really take care of our bodies. By doing so, we will expand the species into a brighter future that revolves around ideal self-care from a place of self-love and healing.