In the Flow with Healing Waters


What is the Vagus Nerve?

Stress….everyone gets it.   Ever see someone be really stressed but then come right out of it?  Or someone else may be stressed and look like an energized, stressed out bunny for a long time?  

What makes us snap out of stress mode?  That would be our 10th cranial nerve called the vagus nerve. 

The word “vagus” means wandering in Latin. This is a very appropriate name, as the vagus nerve wanders all the way from the brain stem to all the organs-  lungs, heart, diaphragm, stomach/spleen, pancreas, liver/GB, kidneys, and to both colons.  It starts deep in the brain and goes through a hole behind the ear at the jugular foramen.   Within this opening (foramen) 2 others nerves go through it as well.  One nerve called the glossopharyngeal which goes to the face and other nerve is the accessory nerve and that moves down the spine.  

The vagus nerve sends information to our body, then our body sends information back to the brain.  It’s a two way street. We typically know or have heard this nerve to be related to the gut because it branches off into the stomach which then has a direct link back to our brains.  So that feeling we get when we have a “pit in our stomachs” that makes us turn the other way?   That gut intuition?  The vagus nerve is what sends that signal back to the brain and tells us NO- it’s not safe! 

When that vagus nerve doesn’t work right, we can have lots of problems moving from the feeling of stress to calm, or in other words from sympathetic response to parasympathetic response.  

When researching the vagus nerve a client gave me a video to watch from Elinor Silverstein which was very helpful in explaining all that this amazing nerve does for our systems.  

Vagal tone is a term she discusses as having good heart rate variability.  The heart is designed to fluctuate.  When we get excited or stressed, our heart rate goes up.  When we feel relaxed the heart rate returns to normal.   In reality we should be able to do that easily and with ease.   But if the vagus nerve doesn’t have enough vagal tone, we get stuck longer in stress.  

When we get stuck in stress for long periods of time this will:

  • increase inflammation
  • affect short term and long term memory
  • affect breathing
  • affect gut health  

If you have been an AcuEnergetics® student within the last year, you are aware that we teach how to relax this nerve in our first level 1 class.  We know it is extremely helpful for the vagus nerve to be properly working for the body in order to heal.  

If you haven’t taken a class, well you are in luck because this month’s special is the vagus nerve.    Most clients/students who have had this done typically don’t want to get off the table at the end of the session.   It really relaxes the system quickly and effectively.  

Want more information?  Here is the link to the video I referenced earlier from Elinor Silverstein

Want to experience it?  Let Lisa introduce you to this magical nerve!   Monthly Special 

Or interested in learning how to find it, feel it, and relax it for others?  Next AcuEnergetics® Level 1 class is June 5-6, 2021. AcuEnergetics® Level 1

-In the Flow 

Written by Susan Schultz, AcuEnergetics® practitioner and teacher, Stillwater, MN 


