Self-Care

Strengthen Your Vagal Tone

By Heath and Nicole Reed
Autumn 2026

To quickly clear your mind, soothe your heart, or liberate your body, consider strengthening your vagus nerve. Through mindful breathing, movement, or touch techniques, you increase or strengthen your vagal tone and generate a state of calm alertness. Not only does relaxation abound but studies also demonstrate vagal tone exercises have a profound impact on overall well-being by calming anxiety, helping you sleep better, recovering your body from stress quicker, reducing chronic inflammation, improving digestion, and calming your heart.1 

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Wandering from the brain stem down through the throat, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, kidneys, and digestive organs, the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) is the primary coordinator of the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system and the catalyst for the “rest and digest” response. When healthy, the vagus complements and optimally balances the sympathetic nervous system, or fight-or-flight response, by putting the brakes on excess stress. 

Breathe, Move, Navigate

Try this technique and notice how quickly you can use your body awareness to grow your vagal tone.2

  1. The quickest and most documented way to tone your vagus nerve is through breath. As slowly as possible, begin exhaling all your air out of your mouth and then inhale slowly through your nose. Repeat several times until you feel calm, each time noticing if you can breathe slower, especially on the outbreath.3 
  2. Use open palms and gently brush down the sides and front of your neck from behind your ears to your shoulders. When you trace the vagus nerve, you can start to change and boost your mood, easing pain and reducing stress.4 
  3. Because the vagus nerve comes into contact with our visual system, side-eye movements send a signal to the nerve that helps shift the body into a calmer state.5 Center your head and stretch your eyes to the right. Hold the eye stretch for about 30 seconds or until you feel your body take a deep breath, yawn, or your eyes tear up. Relax and then repeat, stretching your eyes to the other side.6 

Notes

  1. Sigrid Breit et al., “Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain-Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders,” Frontiers in Psychiatry 9, no 44 (March 2018).
  2. Stephen W. Porges, The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton & Company, 2017).
  3. James Nestor, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (Penguin Random House, 2020).
  4. Maria Meier et al., “Standardized Massage Interventions as Protocols for the Induction of Psychophysiological Relaxation in the Laboratory: A Block Randomized, Controlled Trial,” Scientific Reports 10, no. 1 (September 2020): 14774.
  5. Marlysa B. Sullivan et al., “Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory: The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 12 (February 2018): 67.
  6. Stanley Rosenberg, Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism (North Atlantic Books, 2017).
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