Vagal Toning in Yoga: A Journey Home to the Self

Many of us have been taught that our spirituality is something that exists outside of us and that it is disconnected from our bodies. What if those teachings had it backwards? What if your connection to your soul, to your wisest self, lives right here, under your skin, inside of your heart, your belly, your hips. Vagal toning is a way to tap into your body’s intelligence, one breath at a time.

The idea that we must seek our source of wisdom from outside of us disconnects us from our intuition. As a result it can become more difficult to make decisions, navigate our relationships, and feel connected to the world around us. 

Embodied spirituality resides at the intersection between science, soma, and your soul. Through a process of listening to your body, you realign your life so that all of your choices, relationships, and actions become a form of soulful living. From the ground up, you can reclaim your embodied spiritual self. 

The Science of Vagal Toning

Science looks at the research about why and how breath, movement, and awareness practices work. A key player in the mind-body relationship is your vagus nerve. This 10th cranial nerve functions as a superhighway of communication that connects your brain to your gut, heart, lungs, as well as the small key muscles within and around your throat, face, eyes, and ears. In short, your vagus nerve helps your body do its job, helping you respond to stress and return to restful states of ease.

The vagus nerve connects your mind and body and allows you to sense your innermost self. More specifically, your vagus nerve connects to your stomach and intestines which have been termed your enteric nervous system or belly brain. Your digestive system is profoundly intelligent in helping you navigate the world and it helps you to discern nourishing experiences from those that are unhealthy. This is true in relation to food as your digestive system can distinguish nutrients from waste, and in the case of food poisoning, will wisely reject that which is toxic. 

Gut Wisdom: Your Belly Brain

Your belly brain also helps you to digest all of the life experiences that you take in from your relationships, your family, and your environment. You instinctively have a gut reaction to experiences that feel good or nourishing as distinct from those that feel frightening or dangerous.

Unfortunately, some of us had to disconnect from our gut wisdom for the sake of survival. For example, if you grew up in an unsafe home you may have had to override your inner wisdom for the sake of attachment and relationships. This is because we all need relationships to survive and we will make even the unsafe ones good enough if that is all that we have got.

There is hope, and vagal toning is a key to reclaiming your birthright of safety, clarity, and inner calm. 

Soma and Embodied Awareness

Soma is Greek for “body.” The integration of body awareness invites you to deepen your relationship to your felt self. What does it mean to become embodied? Sometimes this comes naturally. And for some of us, we have disconnected from our soma because living in this human world is challenging. Many of us have coped by learning to disconnect from our sensations.

With practice, you can learn to turn toward your experience of discomfort. However, reclaiming a relationship to your body needs to happen slowly, at a pace that you can tolerate. Slowly you can begin to develop trust again, in yourself, in your somatic experience, and in your inner voice.

The felt sense of contraction, when held wisely, can become the foundation for your deepest healing and growth. If this is new, you might feel the urge to push away the discomfort. You also learn to turn toward sensations of ease or pleasure. Engaging in vagal toning practices invites you into a felt-sense of safety that helps you to reclaim a relationship to your body.

Soul: Your Wisest Self

Soul invites you to listen deeply to the voice of your intuition, your wisest self, that is always accessible when you turn your attention inward with curiosity and compassion. Soul can be thought of as the deepest center of our identity that houses your sense of meaning and purpose. This helps us bridge the gap between our tangible, measurable physical world and the subtle, phenomenological qualities of our internal experience.

Soulwork is an invitation to discover the quiet, still, and unchanging Self that resides in the depths of your being. Spirituality can be thought of as a sense of belonging or connection to something beyond yourself, an interconnectedness with all of nature and life

When you have a history of trauma or chronic health conditions it is valuable to attend not only to your psychological and physical symptoms but also to your spiritual wellbeing. Chronic conditions can dramatically impact your sense of self. Many psychological and medical interventions tend to focus on reducing or eliminating distress without recognizing that many of us are also seeking experiences, connection, contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment, joy, and optimism for the future.

Vagal Toning for Mind-Body Health

Being human involves inevitable exposure to stress, and research suggests that most of us will be exposed to at least one traumatic event in our lifetimes. These challenging life events tend to take a toll on your physical and mental wellbeing. You might feel keyed up in anxiety or shut down by fatigue and depression. It is also common to experience health challenges such as migraines, digestive imbalances, or inflammation of your joints. 

When we look at the root cause of these symptoms, we recognize that they all come from a common source which is a dysregulation of your autonomic nervous system or your body’s innate stress response system. This is regulated by the vagus nerve. 

So, what is vagal toning? Simply put, vagal toning means you are adding gentle stimulation to this nerve pathway through breath, sound, eye movements, self-applied touch, and gentle movements that help your body optimize your wellbeing. Bodywork, time in nature, meditation, and mindful movement such as yoga, tai chi, or qigong all engage the vagus nerve to nourish your nervous system. 

As a result of vagal toning practices, many people immediately feel a shift. This might be a subtle sense of calm, an urge to yawn, or a spontaneous sigh. Sometimes these practices increase your access to emotions or sensations. If this is new, you might feel a little bit uncomfortable at first. Some people even feel a little nauseated or dizzy the first few times. But overtime and with repeated practice most people begin to notice a greater feeling of ease, connection, and inner peace.

Vagal Toning: A Journey Home to Self

Have you ever had difficulty making decisions? Do you sometimes feel disconnected from your intuition? Vagal toning practices lay down a pathway that brings you home to your true self.

Remember, your vagus nerve connects your mind and body and allows you to sense your innermost self. However, ongoing stress or trauma can lead you to feel disconnected from your body. This can lead to a profound sense of confusion or you might feel cut off from your emotions and sensations. 

By toning the vagus nerve you reawaken yourself to your instinctual wisest self that says “yes” I like this, or “no” that is not good for me. You clarify your boundaries and you reorient your life based upon this inner compass that is always with you. It becomes easier to make decisions, to know who to trust, and to listen to the inner voice or your true self.