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clear search termsThe Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners
Hi!
Although you may already be a savvy practitioner, I am certain you will learn something new in this video about The Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners. You’ll walk away with pages of notes and practical pearls you can use in your practice right away.
Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing:
- The X-factor for sympathetic/parasympathetic balance – and why it’s unfortunately almost always overlooked!
- Why the PNS and Vagus are even More important for practitioners embrace during the pandemic (and its aftermath). This one is key.
- The What and Why of Vagal Tone. Any why you Really need to Know! Plus the fun, simple hacks anyone can do to improve it.
- Parasympathetic good; Sympathetic bad. Right? Not really. You need to remember this important devil-in-the-detail.
- Surprising measures that can shed light on autonomic nervous system health.
- Easy but oh-so effective hacks for improving autonomic balance.
- How and why this area of physiology is intimately tied to digestion, detoxification, and immunity. Do You know the mechanisms?
- The Biggest practitioner mistakes when talking to patients about stress.
Done-for-you patient handouts that can be helpful in encouraging your patients to explore the effects of stress and making tangible steps in reducing its impact can be found here and here.
Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning! Please share your thoughts (please be thorough) in the “Ask a Question” area below about what inspired you in this presentation! Include what type of practitioner you are, so that we can all see your unique perspective.
P.S. If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training programs. Enrollment for our next cohort is now open!
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196 Questions for “The Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners”
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Pamela Calabrese says:
Great Live!! I feel it was a great investment of my time which is not common. It was great to see things from another perspective.
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Rashmi shrivastava says:
Thank you for a wonderful FB live! You are right that most people do not know how to take care of stress and simply telling them – take care of your stress is not enough.
Did not know that singing and gargling can also help the parasympathetic nervous system! -
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Irina stuchinsky says:
Dear Tracy,
You are truly one and only! Thank you for sharing these pearls! I use quite a few of the mentioned techniques in my practice. I loved that you talked about the mindset (i.e. our thoughts/beliefs/attitudes/things we make up. Yes, our thoughts are not separate from our body, they are intimately interconnected through the vagus nerve. I did not know the meaning of the term “vagus nerve” is “wondering.”
I loved how you talked about the importance of exposing yourself to beauty, joy, comfort is soothing and activating parasympathetic response.
Yes, I talk to my patients and inspire and empower them to make small steps to SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE CHOICES instead of making overwhelming, big changes that only last for a short period of time and create feelings of disappointment and failure, self-blame, guilt, shame, negative self talk, ruminating thoughts. -
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Sybil Cooper says:
There were so many pearls, I’m not sure which one to choose. I think it was the skewing of the immune system towards humoral response when in constant sympathetic mode. This promotes humoral responses to environmental antigens and reduces responses to intracellular pathogens such as viruses as well as cancers. The inflammatory break is put on by the vagus nerve. In addition to it’s many benefits, it up regulates T-regs which balances the immune response. One of my favs is box breathing. I was delighted to see that mentioned as well as the 2x breath. I use both often with my clients.
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Cindy says:
Such a valuable topic, especially in today’s craziness worldwide. What a good reminder that our thoughts can actually activate our sympathetic nervous system, but also our parasympathetic nervous system. Being more present observing the stories we tell ourselves could be the key to lower stress and activate that PSN in order to promote healing and health! Many thanks, Tracy!
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Sandra says:
My pearl today was…the importance of actually explaining ways to reduce stress with our clients, not simply telling them to reduce their stress. Also the box breathing technique …so useful! Thank you Tracy and team?
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Edit Zelkind says:
I love knowing that cuddling increases vagal tone! I am going home to hug everyone in my house…though tbh I am pretty sure that is going to put my 14 yo son in a very sympathetic state hee hee…
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Alison Dear says:
Thank you so much for this session – reminded me why I love what I do and gave me great information for my clients. Thanks again
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I’m in the middle of both, The Body Keeps The Score and Breath and everything I’ve read came together and felt reinforced in Tracy’s Live today. For me, it further highlights how much I can empower my clients with foundational concepts that are simple, (not necessarily easy) and often inexpensive or free. They already possess many of the tools that can have a powerful affect on their lives, livelihoods and ability to heal themselves. I feel so encouraged and grateful for my last 6 months at SAFM!
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I love the focus on activating the parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve using the following tools:
Box breathing techniques
Dancing , singing, chanting
gargling
gratitude journaling
nature grounding
petting our pets
yoga
heart math
This truly brings us into our body/mind consciousness and this is the key to changing our nervous system tone in a sustainable way! -
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Carmencita Slabinski says:
As always, so many pearls in this video. Loved when you talked about having clients take an honest inventory of their stresses. That is really difficult because people tend to gloss things over or say, “that doesn’t stress me out.” And yet, we (practitioners) see that is does because of their chronic state(s) of dis-ease. Helping others learn that they have a choice in their RESPONSE to a circumstance is so important because it can impact their overall health.
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Tamara says:
Excellent presentation as always! Love everything I am learning at SAFM. I love that simple things such as taking 5 minutes to do deep breathing or gratitude journaling can do wonders for our health! Thanks Tracy for all the valuable information!
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Katrin says:
Thank you Tracy, as always such a content packed, informative and inspirational session! It is so great to be reminded of easy to do (but also easy to forget!) practices, which do not cost anything and can be done by anyone. Gratitude, gargling, humming, singing, slow breathing, snuggling etc. Simple but profoundly effective.
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Jill Garst says:
I thoroughly enjoyed the tips on how to stimulate the Parasympathetic Nervous System and will be practicing them myself. Thank you for offering these FB lives!
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Tim says:
So much wonderful information provided in just one hour! I appreciated gaining a better understanding of the vagus nerve’s connection (no pun intended!) to the parasympathetic system. I found the discussion regarding various approaches to provoke parasympathetic response especially valuable. I now have many more options in my toolbox for consideration should a client need additional support/education in this area!
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Johnna says:
After having some serious bouts with anxiety this past year, I was interested in what Tracy would have to say today. As she mentioned making physiological changes to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, it dawned on me that that was exactly what I had been doing! I was just never able to put into words! Thank you so much for getting this message
out! Also, this has been the first time that I’ve ever heard gratitude journaling actually explained. Love it! Thanks again, Tracy! -
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I love, love, love the idea of returning to the foundation. Breathing. I know it is important and that I find relief from it, but knowing on a clinical level that it stimulates the vagus nerve makes it even more appealing and pushes me to more strongly recommend/follow up. Like meditation lengthening telomers. For us that love the why, this helps to see the importance that much more…this whole class was great. Thank you!
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Trine Sundal says:
Thank you so much for covering this topic, the education, inspiration and empowerment you facilitate is such a golden gift! Being a yoga, breath work and qigong teacher as well has a FM Health Coach, I am extremely passionate about this topic. However, I realise now that I did these practices for years, but only saw the big changes and shift happen in my health when I shifted my MINDSET, and reframed my beliefs that caused emotional distress. Your talk about this made even more grateful for the peaceful place/state I am in now.
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Heidi Tobey says:
In talking about how our thoughts are one the biggest contributors to stress, I loved how Tracy referred to it as “the sock puppet in our head” . Made me laugh, which is great for stress-relief! Thank you for the tips on stimulating the vagus nerve too. 🙂
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There is so much information on the parasympathetic nervous system and stress, this is an amazing program