5 Simple Ways to Soothe Anxiety Through The Vagus Nerve
Anxiety does not exist without cause, in fact, the grounds for anxious thoughts are actually rooted in keeping you safe from something your nervous system has determined to be potentially dangerous. But, did you know that there are a few things you can do to release the anxious build up in your body?
The rate of anxiety in the population has risen dramatically, particularly in middle and young adults. In the age range 16-35, reports of anxiety have jumped 33% since 2020 and I am sure I do not have to tell you why. But even before the pandemic, anxiety rates among young adults were rising.
While the reasons for this increase vary between sources and demographics, everyone's anxiety has one thing in common - the Vagus Nerve.
The Vagus Nerve runs from your brain down through your chest and abdomen to make contact with many of your organs. This nerve plays a vital role in digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, mood, speech, taste, and even bladder control. Overall, the Vagus Nerve’s core function is to control “rest- and- digest” which is when your body has disengaged “fight-or-flight”.
When the Vagus Nerve is stimulated, people with anxiety often find that they return to a state closer to normal and can often even end a panic attack. Sounds like magic, right? Here are 5 easy, affordable ways you can stimulate your Vagus Nerve to help reduce your symptoms of anxiety:
Sour Candy
This is not just a TikTok trend; it’s science! When you are feeling anxious or you feel a panic attack coming on, eating sour candy can bring you back to a resting state. This works in two ways: a) when you eat the sour candy, your brain has to divert attention to the taste which drives it away from what it was previously stuck on. b) your Vagus Nerve is tethered to taste which means when you eat the sour candy this nerve is forced to be involved.
This is where I tell you that you may find varying levels of this working in your life. It depends on your tolerance to levels of sour candy and your overall Vagal Tone. Tone is a fancy way of saying how fast your body can respond to stress. Often people with severe anxiety find that they have very low Vagal Tone because their body has learned a pattern of stress and has difficulty coming back down to “rest -and- digest”.
If you find that this works well for you, keeping sour candies in your bag, car or home is a super easy, affordable action plan for anxiety!
2. Icing It Out
The Vagus Nerve runs through your chest and innervates the organs in the area. This means that, indirectly, whatever happens to the outside of your chest or those organs is transmitted to the Vagus Nerve. All of that to say - placing an ice pack on your chest/throat area when you are feeling anxious can drive your Vagus Nerve to activate which will lower your heart rate and potentially end your anxious feelings.
Most households have an ice pack available, but a frozen bag of veggies works just as well! This option also works in tandem with eating sour candies if you were looking for a strong relief of symptoms or have both available.
3. Humming or Gargling
What did she just say…?
Okay, this category is not here to relieve you from anxiety or panic in the moment. This category is about improving Vagal Tone - we have circled back! The tone of your nervous system is flexible and changeable with some work and the right tools. Building up your body's ability to be flexible and shift between states of stress and calm is a valuable survival skill in this life.
So what does that have to do with humming or gargling?
Both of those things require focus on your brain's part, have shown in studies to reduce heart rate, and stimulate the Vagus Nerve! The Vagus nerve innervates the vocal cords which are being used to provide the vibration for both humming and gargling. By humming or gargling for two minutes per day, you can improve your heart rate variability which is fancy science lingo for improving your body’s response to stress. While this is a long term project, it shows great results in improving tone and decreasing anxiety long term.
4. Cold Exposure
I want to preface this by saying - if you are in a very acute state of stress or trauma, this is NOT for you, so skip to number 5!
With that, cold exposure is another thing that shows great long term improvement of tone and decreased anxiety. Cold exposure can occur at different levels and intervals. Starting with small doses like placing your hands in ice water for a couple of minutes or dunking your face in ice water can help people stop anxious thoughts like the sour candies mentioned before. They can also help build tolerance for stress over time.
For some, cold showers are the answer. This could be an entirely cold shower or simply turning the water to cold for the last minute. Again, this exercise is about building tolerance which, in turn, builds your resilience to stressors and improves your ability to return to normal faster by lowering your heart rate and activating your Vagus Nerve.
For others, cold plunges are accessible. That could look like jumping in a cold pool at the gym or investing in a personal cold pod for home if you will be using it often.
In any instance, cold exposure shows great results for improving overall ability to handle stress and to lessen the frequency and duration of anxiety and panic attacks. The reason that I do not recommend this for people who are in very acutely stressed or traumatic environments is because the cold exposure will, at first, increase the body's feeling of panic. You will initially feel like running away or jumping out and that is detrimental in an acute stress situation. If you feel like your anxiety is for the most part well managed and that you are in an overall, safe and secure part of life - work your way up. Start small with your hands in a bucket of ice water a few times a week then move to end bursts of cold in the shower building up to things like cold plunges.
5. Belly Laughing
Anxiety is not funny. It can be a debilitating experience for some. And nothing is stranger to see than someone who is upset laughing for seemingly no reason - see The Joker for reference.
But curiously enough, belly laughter also stimulated the Vagus Nerve. This is because the vocal cords are active in laughter but your lungs and gut are also involved in the motion involved with deep laughter. This is a triple threat to anxiety. If you can find it in yourself to muster up a good laugh about a past experience or a funny cat video - then there is no better time than when you are feeling anxious.
Here is the part of the article where I tell you that I live with someone who has very serious anxiety and we do actually implement many of these things with varying degrees of success depending on the situation. Everyone who visits sees the intensely sour candy basket that lives on our counter and there are videos online of our experience with cold plunging (insert eye roll here), which worked great for me, but not great for the person we actually bought it for.
What is important is that you have a spectrum of tools available that can coordinate with the degree of anxiety you may be feeling at each time. The overall goal here is to provide easy, affordable solutions that can help in the moment and even help long term.
We would love to hear if you try any of these things and how they work for you or your loved ones!
