'Take a Vagus Voyage with Jill Miller as she demonstrates three zones to stimulate the vagus nerve and access areas of the body to aid in increased downregulation through breath and myofascial self-massage. Wouldn\'t it be great to get chill without having to take a pill? I\'m going to take you on a Vagus Voyage. The vagus nerve is your chief parasympathetic nerve. It\'s a nerve that, when stimulated, helps you to relax, feel calm, balanced, and centered. And it innervates three primary zones of your body. Zone 1, Supraclavicular Zone The first zone is above the collarbone, it\'s the supraclavicular zone. You can use a Coregeous Ball — place it against [the side] of your throat with light pressure and then you\'ll twist the ball as you rotate your head in the opposite direction. As you cross across your throat lighten the pressure a bit, but those are the tissues, tubes and hyoid — those are the structures that can actually move. With each pass you get a little deeper as your comfort level increases and after several of those passes you\'ll remove the ball and you should feel there is a considerable difference in a sense of tone and the muscles deep to the face, your neck, and even the quality of your voice may change because all of these areas are innervated by the vagus. Zone 2, Thoracic Zone Then, we\'ll go into Zone 2, which is thoracic region, or the ribcage region, it\'s the stuff above your diaphragm, your big breathing muscle. You\'ll lay down on your side (you can lay down directly on your chest) and bring your hand on top of your rib. You\'ll breathe into the ball, which is supporting your ribs, and into your hand which is on top. Take a big breath in [Jill deeply inhales], hold your breath, contract your muscles within your rib cage — and then exhale all of the air out. You\'ll do that for about 8 - 10 rounds on one side and then switch to the other side. So this ribcage region is innervated by the vagus. There are sprays of it that link into your diaphragm, there are also different sprays of it that sense the movement of your actual lungs. So when you get these areas moving with breath, it helps to flip that switch and relax you. Also, the vagus nerve innervates the heart — it\'s actually the component that slows down your heartbeat. So if you tend to find yourself racing, and full of anxiety this is a great place to go. The 3rd Zone is below the diaphragm, this is the subdiaphragmatic region on our voyage. You bring the ball anywhere in your gut area, and if you\'re a little sensitive to that pressure you can be up a little higher — or depending on your comfort level you can go lower. We can make it more comfortable by breathing. So, you\'ll breathe into the ball, hold your breath. Contract the muscles of the core. And then exhale and release [the abdominal muscles]. Repeat that again and again and increase the compliance, the receptivity of your core. The reason we\'re in this gut area is that all of your organs are innervated by the vagus. It\'s a surveyer, it tells the body about the balance in your organs, so when we massage our organs we also help to stimulate that nerve and induce a sense of calm in our body. I hope you\'ll set sail on this voyage frequently and let it be a mechanical way of inducing the relaxation response rather than reaching for the bottle . . . or the pill. Interested in learning more about anatomy and physiology of stress-relief and new science of the vagus nerve? Explore your primary breathing muscle, the diaphragm, and learn new breathing practices to implement downregulation techniques for yourself and your clients during our Breath and Bliss Immersion. Learn more here: http://tuneup.fit/SFxcwl Learn more at TuneUpFitness.com'
Tags: stress , anxiety , stress relief , massage therapy , myofascial release , Breathwork , myofascial massage , vagus nerve , coregeous , YogaTuneUp , downregulation , rollmodelmethod
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