What is the vagus nerve and why does everyone keep talking about it?
If you spend any time in the world of nervous system healing, somatic work or holistic health, you will keep coming across the same term: the vagus nerve. It shows up in conversations about anxiety, burnout, breathwork, digestion, trauma, sleep. It has become something of a wellness buzzword, which means it is often mentioned without much explanation of what it actually is or why it matters.
So here is a straightforward guide.
What is the vagus nerve?
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs from the brainstem all the way down through the neck, chest and into the abdomen, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs, gut and many other organs along the way. Its name comes from the Latin word for wandering, which gives you a sense of just how far it travels.
It is the main highway of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the branch responsible for rest, recovery and digestion. When the vagus nerve is working well, it helps the body shift smoothly between states of activation when you need to respond to something challenging, and states of calm once the challenge has passed. This flexibility is sometimes called vagal tone, and people with higher vagal tone tend to be more resilient to stress and recover from it more quickly.
When vagal tone is low, the nervous system struggles to shift gears. You might find it hard to come down from stress, difficult to feel genuinely relaxed, or prone to being easily overwhelmed. Many of the symptoms people associate with anxiety or burnout are closely connected to low vagal tone.
Why does it matter for healing?
The vagus nerve is bidirectional, which means it carries information both ways. It sends signals from the brain to the body, but it also carries a huge amount of information from the body back up to the brain. Around eighty per cent of the fibres in the vagus nerve are actually travelling upwards, telling the brain what is happening in the organs and tissues below.
This is significant because it means the body has a direct line to the brain that bypasses conscious thought entirely. When the body feels safe, that information travels up through the vagus nerve and the brain registers safety. When the body is tense, constricted or braced, the brain registers threat, even if there is nothing obviously dangerous happening in the environment.
This is one of the reasons why body-based approaches to healing are so effective. Working with the body directly sends signals up through the vagus nerve that change what the brain perceives. You cannot always think your way to feeling safe. But you can breathe, move and settle your way there.
How does trauma affect it?
When we experience something overwhelming, the vagus nerve plays a central role in the body's response. In a healthy nervous system, the vagus nerve helps the body complete its stress response and return to baseline. But when difficult experiences are not fully processed, or when stress becomes chronic, the vagus nerve's ability to do this job is compromised.
The result is a nervous system that gets stuck. Either in a state of high alert, where the body behaves as if the threat is still present, or in a kind of shutdown, where everything feels flat and distant. Both of these are vagal responses to an overwhelmed system trying to protect itself.
This is why trauma healing is not just about processing memories or changing thought patterns. It is also about gradually restoring the vagus nerve's capacity to do what it is designed to do: help the body feel safe.
What actually helps
The good news is that the vagus nerve responds to relatively simple, accessible practices. You do not need anything complicated or expensive. Some of the most effective things include:
Slow, extended breathing. Particularly a longer exhale than inhale. This directly activates the parasympathetic nervous system through the vagus nerve, which is why a few slow breaths can shift how you feel more quickly than almost anything else.
Humming, singing or chanting. The vagus nerve runs through the throat and is stimulated by vibration. Even humming quietly to yourself or sighing out loud has a measurable effect on vagal tone.
Cold water on the face. Splashing cold water on your face or dipping your face briefly in cold water activates the dive reflex, which is mediated by the vagus nerve and triggers a rapid slowing of the heart rate.
Slow, gentle movement. Practices like Qigong and therapeutic yoga combine breath, movement and focused awareness in a way that consistently supports vagal tone over time. The slowness is the point; fast or intense movement tends to activate the sympathetic nervous system rather than the parasympathetic.
Conscious Connected Breathwork. This goes further than simple breathing exercises, using an extended circular breathing pattern to shift the state of the nervous system more significantly. It is one of the most direct ways to work with the vagus nerve in a therapeutic context.
Somatic healing work. Body-based therapeutic approaches work with the nervous system directly, helping it complete responses that have been held and gradually restoring its natural flexibility.
Why this matters for your healing
Understanding the vagus nerve helps make sense of why healing sometimes feels slow or non-linear. The nervous system changes through repetition and felt experience, not through insight alone. Each time you do something that supports your vagal tone, you are building a little more capacity in your system. Over time, that adds up.
It also helps explain why talking about something, on its own, does not always shift how you feel in your body. The vagus nerve is not a cognitive structure. It does not respond to understanding. It responds to breath, movement, safety and connection.
Which is, in a way, a very reassuring thing to know.
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If you would like to explore body-based support for your nervous system, you can find out more about 1:1 sessions at Make Soul Space, available in person across Richmond, Teddington and Kingston, and online.
Make Soul Space offers trauma-informed healing sessions in Richmond, Teddington and Kingston, and online. Sessions include Reiki, breathwork, Qigong, therapeutic yoga and somatic release.
