Vagus Nerve Reset To Release Stress/Trauma Stored In The Body

Trauma is often more about how your nervous system processed the experience than the event itself (for this reason, sometimes the same kind of event can affect different people very differently). The resultant rewiring can then perpetuate or even strengthen itself over time, the effects of which are often not fabulous.

However, it is possible to do a sort of neurological reset, which won’t completely overwrite what was there before, but will soften it and allow cumulative progress the more the practice is undertaken:

What happens in vagus…

…doesn’t have to stay there. The vagus nerve, as regular 10almonds readers may remember, is one of the main links between your brain and gut, and, being the “wandering” nerve (“vagus” literally means “wandering”), it’s accessible at quite a few places, in quite a few ways. This means that while a lot of information is travelling up the vagus nerve into the brain, it’s possible to modify its signal slightly and engage the parasympathetic nervous system, triggering a neurological “letting go” response.

Here’s a good one:

1. Check your neck mobility before you start (notice how stiff or supple it is).
2. Lie on your back (knees bent or legs straight, per your comfort and preference).
3. Interlace your fingers and cradle the back of your head.
4. Keep your head centered and move your eyes to the right for about 30 seconds (if you are in a room with a ticking clock, this is idea, to save you needing a visual cue).
5. Return your eyes to rest at the center, then repeat on the left side.
6. Notice any signs like sighs, deeper breaths, yawns, or swallowing—these indicate vagus nerve activation.
7. Afterward, check neck mobility again to notice any changes.
8. If no nervous system response occurs in 30 seconds, hold the eye position longer (60+ seconds).

For more on all of this plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like:

The Vagus Nerve (And How You Can Make Use Of It)

Take care!