How to Reset Your Vagus Nerve for Anxiety Relief and Stress Management

Simple Practices to Rewire Your Body’s Calm Response

In our fast-paced world, stress, anxiety, and trauma can feel like constant companions. Yet, nestled within our bodies lies a powerful ally—the vagus nerve. Often referred to as the body’s “information superhighway,” the vagus nerve plays a pivotal role in regulating our emotional and physical well-being. By understanding and retraining this nerve, we can tap into a natural pathway to resilience and healing.​

Understanding the Vagus Nerve: A Recap

The Body’s Communication Superhighway

The vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve, extends from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, and abdomen. It connects the brain to major organs, including the heart, lungs, and digestive tract, facilitating a two-way communication system. This nerve is integral to the parasympathetic nervous system, which governs our “rest and digest” responses, counterbalancing the “fight or flight” reactions of the sympathetic nervous system. When the vagus nerve functions optimally, it promotes calmness, reduces inflammation, and supports digestion and emotional regulation.​

Impact on Mental and Physical Health

A well-toned vagus nerve can mitigate symptoms of anxiety, depression, and trauma by enhancing our ability to return to a state of calm after stress. Conversely, a poorly functioning vagus nerve may contribute to chronic stress responses, leading to issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), mood disorders, and heightened inflammation. Strengthening this nerve can thus be a cornerstone in psychotherapy, aiding in anxiety management, altering trauma responses, and building resilience.​

Learn more about the role of the vagus nerve in healing.

It’s not about doing more — it’s about doing small things often. Tiny signals of safety retrain your nervous system over time.

Top 10 At-Home Exercises to Strengthen the Vagus Nerve

These simple, science-backed practices can be woven into daily life — creating small, consistent signals of safety for the nervous system to receive and respond to.

1. Deep Breathing Techniques

Breathing is one of the most direct ways to engage the vagus nerve. Slow, diaphragmatic breathing helps send a message of calm to the body.

Try this: Place one hand on your belly and breathe in for 4 seconds, letting your belly rise. Hold for 7 seconds. Exhale slowly for 8 seconds. Repeat for a few minutes. This type of breathing helps counteract the stress response and improve vagal tone.

2. Humming or Gentle Vocal Sounds

Sound vibrations through the throat and vocal cords naturally stimulate the vagus nerve. While singing works for some, even quiet humming or chanting softly to yourself has a similar effect.

Consider this: You can hum during a walk, while driving, or even as part of your bedtime routine to help relax your body.

3. Cold Exposure

Brief exposure to cold activates the vagus nerve and supports resilience to stress. This doesn’t have to mean plunging into icy water — a simple splash of cold water on the face or a cool shower rinse is enough to activate this pathway.

Tip: Focus on areas like your face, neck, or upper chest where vagal pathways run close to the skin.

4. The Salamander Exercise

This gentle, neurosomatic therapy movement focuses on subtle spinal rotation and neck movement to calm the nervous system.

Give it go: Lying on your back with knees bent, slowly and gently rotate your knees to one side while turning your head to the opposite side. Breathe deeply and allow your spine to soften and twist naturally. This simple exercise helps to “unstick” areas of tension and supports vagus nerve activation.

5. Walking Barefoot in Nature (Earthing)

Grounding practices like walking barefoot on grass, soil, or sand can help discharge built-up stress and re-attune the body to natural rhythms.

Make it count: Aim for 20-30 minutes of barefoot walking in a safe outdoor space. Focus on the sensation of the earth beneath your feet and allow your breath to slow as you walk.

6. Meditation and Mindfulness

Mindfulness practices bring us into the present moment — a powerful antidote to chronic stress loops in the mind.

A few samples: Simple body scans, mindful walking, or guided meditations that focus on breath, body, or sound can create the internal environment for vagal regulation.

7. Yoga or Tai Chi

Both yoga and Tai Chi involve slow, intentional movements combined with breath awareness. These practices stimulate the vagus nerve by promoting relaxation, body awareness, and grounding.

Tip: Focus on slower styles such as Yin Yoga or restorative sequences that prioritize relaxation over effort.

8. Laughter

Authentic laughter is not just good for the soul — it’s medicine for your nervous system. Laughing increases endorphins, improves mood, and stimulates the vagus nerve.

Something new: Watch a funny show, or practice “laughter yoga” where laughter is intentionally used as a somatic exercise.

9. Healthy Food Intake & Gut Health

The gut and vagus nerve are deeply connected. Eating a diet rich in whole foods, fiber, fermented foods, and healthy fats supports gut bacteria that positively influence vagal tone.

Consider this: Collaborate with a naturopathic doctor. They can offer valuable long-term support by addressing underlying factors like nutritional deficiencies, gut health, and inflammation — all of which play an essential role in vagus nerve function and the body’s capacity to regulate stress and restore balance.

10. Social Connection

Social safety is a biological need. Positive social connection — feeling seen, heard, and supported — helps regulate the nervous system and improve vagus nerve activity.

Back to the basics: This might look like calling a friend, joining a community group, or simply spending intentional time in safe, nourishing relationships.

What your mind forgets, your body remembers. Targeted therapy helps your vagus nerve let go!

Top 5 Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Enhance Vagal Tone

Working with a psychotherapist doesn’t just involve talking about challenges — it can also include body-based practices designed to calm the nervous system, shift stuck trauma responses, and rewire the way the body processes stress.

The vagus nerve responds especially well to bottom up therapies that integrate both body awareness and emotional processing. These approaches are designed to help clients access safety in their body, regulate overwhelming emotions, and build resilience over time.

Here are five of the most supportive psychotherapy tools for strengthening vagal tone:

1. Somatic Therapy

Somatic Therapy is a body-centered approach that goes beyond talk therapy. It recognizes that trauma and stress don’t just live in the mind — they live in the body.

In these sessions, therapists help clients tune into subtle body sensations (like tightness, heat, or trembling) and notice how emotions show up physically. Through techniques like grounding, orienting, body scans, and gentle movement (including sensorimotor sequencing), clients can release stored hyper-activation and restore their nervous system’s natural ability to settle.

This work directly supports vagus nerve health by teaching the body what safety feels like — not just conceptually, but physically.

2. Breathwork Integration

Breathwork is one of the most effective and accessible tools for engaging the vagus nerve.

Within therapy, breathwork may be used to help clients down-regulate from states of anxiety, overwhelm, or dissociation. Different breathing patterns (such as slow belly breathing, extended exhales, breath holds) can help signal to the body that it is safe to relax.

These practices can be woven into sessions to create immediate relief — and clients often learn to use them independently between sessions as part of their emotional regulation toolkit.

3. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is an approach that helps the brain and body reprocess traumatic memories in a way that feels safe and contained.

By using bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements or tapping), EMDR supports the integration of distressing memories without becoming overwhelmed by them.

This process reduces the chronic activation of stress responses — giving the vagus nerve a chance to re-engage and support regulation after difficult experiences. EMDR also helps restore a client’s felt sense of agency, which is deeply protective for nervous system health.

4. Expressive Arts Therapy

Expressive Arts Therapy uses creativity — like drawing, movement, music, or writing — to help clients process emotions in a non-verbal, embodied way.

Many stress patterns live below conscious awareness or words. Creative expression allows the nervous system to move emotion, rhythm, and energy through the body, supporting vagal tone and regulation.

In therapy, this might look like:

• Using visual art to externalize inner experiences

• Engaging in rhythmic movement to calm the body

Expressive Arts Therapy honors the truth that healing doesn’t always happen through words — sometimes, it’s created through movement, sound, and play.

5. Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping):

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), often called “tapping,” is a simple but powerful self-regulation practice that involves gently tapping on specific acupressure points on the face, upper body, and hands.

This method engages both the body (through physical touch) and the mind (through intentional phrases and affirmations) to help release distress and calm emotional intensity.

In therapy, tapping can help regulate vagal tone by creating soothing sensory input while addressing stuck patterns of thought or fear. It is a portable, practical tool that clients can use on their own during moments of anxiety, overwhelm, or activation.

Embracing the Path to Healing

Retraining the vagus nerve is a journey toward reclaiming balance and resilience. By integrating these practices into daily life and therapeutic settings, individuals can harness the body’s innate capacity for healing. Whether through at-home exercises or guided therapy sessions, enhancing vagal tone offers a pathway to improved mental and emotional health.​ Reach out if you’d like to learn more about how we help out clients take their health to the next level.