What Happens in Vagus Doesn’t Stay in Vagus: The Nerve That Calms the Chaos

Imagine your body is a bustling city and your nervous system is the intricate highway system that keeps it all connected. Running quietly through this network, like an old but reliable backroad with secret shortcuts, is the vagus nerve—a deeply underrated, behind-the-scenes worker that plays a powerful role in how we feel, function, and even how we heal. Though its name sounds a bit like a trip to Nevada, the vagus nerve has nothing to do with slot machines and everything to do with emotional regulation, trauma recovery, and mental well-being.

The vagus nerve—vagus meaning “wandering” in Latin—earns its name by traveling from your brainstem all the way down to your stomach, winding through your throat, heart, lungs, and digestive tract. It's the longest cranial nerve in the body, and it acts like a gentle communicator between your brain and your internal organs. Think of it as your body’s internal diplomat, delivering messages of peace or panic, calm or chaos, depending on how well it's functioning.

🌿 The Peacekeeper of the Nervous System

The vagus nerve is a core part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which functions as the body’s “rest and digest” system. To truly understand the vagus nerve’s job, we need to look at its counterpart: the sympathetic nervous system, which handles “fight or flight.”

Picture these two systems like an internal thermostat with two settings:

• The sympathetic system is the “fire alarm.” It activates when danger is near. Your heart pounds, your breathing quickens, digestion halts, and your muscles tense—all preparing you to fight or flee. This response is automatic and lifesaving in real emergencies.

• The parasympathetic system, with the vagus nerve as its star player, is the “cool-down mode.” It restores balance after the storm passes—slowing the heart, deepening breaths, restarting digestion, and promoting calm.

Together, these two systems make up your autonomic nervous system, which runs automatically without you needing to think about it—like cruise control for your body’s basic survival functions.

In a healthy body, these systems toggle back and forth with fluidity. If stress is a match, the sympathetic system lights it. The parasympathetic system, through the vagus nerve, is the hand that puts the flame out once the danger is gone. But if you’ve lived through chronic stress or trauma, that match keeps getting lit—and the hand to extinguish it is nowhere to be found.

🧠 Mental Health’s Quiet Architect

The vagus nerve influences areas critical to emotional health, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex—the brain’s emotional fire department, memory bank, and logic center, respectively. When functioning well, the vagus nerve helps these areas work together in harmony, like musicians in an orchestra. But if vagal tone is low, the instruments are out of tune. You may feel anxious without cause, depressed without reason, or emotionally stuck in patterns of hyperarousal or shutdown.

In trauma survivors, for example, the vagus nerve often gets caught in a loop of false alarms. Even when danger is gone, the body still “feels” threatened. This can present as panic attacks, dissociation, digestive problems, or chronic fatigue. It's like the nerve forgot how to say, “You’re safe now.”

💡 Signs of Poor Vagal Tone

Just like any muscle or system in the body, the vagus nerve can weaken over time. Low vagal tone might show up as:

• Rapid heartbeat even when resting

• Digestive issues like IBS

• Anxiety or panic that feels “in the body”

• Depression with fatigue or flat affect

• Poor emotional resilience

• Shallow breathing or breath-holding

🌬️ Tuning the Nerve: Strengthening Your Inner Calm

Here’s the good news—unlike some roads in the body that require surgical fixes, the vagus nerve responds incredibly well to training. Think of it like learning to play a wind instrument—you start small, and with practice, you get stronger and smoother.

Some evidence-based strategies to stimulate and strengthen the vagus nerve include:

• Deep, slow breathing: Especially diaphragmatic or belly breathing. Try inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4, and exhaling for 8. This helps signal safety to the body.

• Humming, chanting, or singing: Vibrations from your vocal cords directly stimulate the vagus nerve, like tuning a stringed instrument.

• Cold exposure: Splashing your face with cold water or ending a shower with cool water triggers a vagal response and activates the parasympathetic system.

• Gargling or chewing slowly: These activate the muscles that the vagus nerve innervates, boosting its tone like a gentle workout.

• Connection and safety: Feeling emotionally safe in the presence of another—through eye contact, co-regulated breathing, or affectionate touch—strengthens vagal responses and emotional regulation.

• Laughter and crying: Both release tension and stimulate vagal activity, often leading to that peaceful, calm state that follows.

🌀 The Vagus Nerve and Trauma Recovery

For those navigating trauma, learning how to engage the vagus nerve is not just a relaxation technique—it’s a survival upgrade. Instead of being stuck in a body that constantly yells “fire!” when there’s none, trauma work that incorporates vagus nerve stimulation helps the body learn how to whisper “safe” again. This is often done through somatic therapies, EMDR, polyvagal-informed therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches.

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, offers a deeper framework for understanding how the vagus nerve plays a central role in our emotional safety system. It explains why some people shut down (freeze/collapse) instead of fight or flee, and how healing is possible when we gently rewire these ancient pathways of safety.

🌱 Reclaiming Your Inner Signal

When you build a relationship with your vagus nerve, you're not just calming your body—you’re rewriting old stories of fear and isolation into new stories of connection and trust. You’re giving your nervous system the chance to live in a world where safety is not just an idea, but a felt experience.

Understanding and caring for the vagus nerve is one of the most empowering things you can do for your mental health. It may not have a catchy slogan or a superhero cape, but make no mistake—this humble nerve is one of the most influential peacekeepers in your entire body. And like any good peacekeeper, all it wants is for you to feel safe, connected, and at home in your own skin.