 Hello earth citizens. In this video, I will show you a 10 minute routine to activate your vagus nerve. First off, let's talk about what the vagus nerve is. The vagus nerve is a nerve that starts from your brain and it wanders down your body like a net and it encompasses all of the major organs down, down, down like a blanket. In Latin, vagus means wandering. So this nerve goes down like a net over all of your major organs and it has two main functions. One is to first check to make sure all of your organs are functioning properly. It sends signals from the brain, let's say, to your heart saying, hey, heart, are you doing okay? And then through that nerve, the heart responds back, yes, I'm doing fine. And the other function of the vagus nerve is to kickstart the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your anti-stress rest and digest response. In other words, if you somehow activate and stimulate the vagus nerve, you can turn on your anti-stress response in your body. Now, remember I said your vagus nerve goes over your major organs in your body, but the problem is your major organs are blocked by bone or fat or different things. So it's hard to activate that vagus nerve. However, there's one point where the threshold between the outside of your body and the inside of your body is the lowest and thinnest. Can you guess where that place is? Your belly button. So in this routine, I'm going to show you how to activate the vagus nerve that is surrounding your intestine. Are you ready? First, sit in a chair comfortably, place your feet flat on the floor parallel, never crossing like this or toes pointed out this way. Feet flat on the floor, spine straight, tuck your chin slightly inward, relax your shoulders, and first, tap your abdomen. So tap your lower belly underneath your belly button first. So tap here, tapping here. Well, first, open up, open up that area so that we can stimulate the vagus nerve. Alright, let's count to 30. One, two, three, five, relax everything in your body, even your gut. Seven, eight, nine, 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20. Last 10, two, six, seven, eight, nine, 30. Now, place your right hand on your belly button and left hand above. So the upper half of your stomach in between your stomach and liver, right in the middle of your diaphragm, like this. So you're tapping your belly button and then also above your belly button in your diaphragm. So here too, you might feel some pain, especially in your solar plexus right here in the middle of your diaphragm. It's okay. If you feel pain, just exhale out. Exhale here, keep relaxing your gut. Don't make your body tight, keep relaxing your gut. Let's tap here 50 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. If you want to, you can close your eyes to relax your body a little bit more. One, two, eight, nine, 20. One, two, six, seven, eight, massage your abdomen. And now this time, bring your hands like this, fists facing each other. And now gently twist your waist. Twist your waist, like this side to side. So you're essentially opening the midsection here. So you're twisting the muscles to open the midsection. Okay? So twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist. You can feel your spine here too. Let's twist here 30 times. One, two, three, four, five. Feel the twisting around your belly. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20. Last 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and stop. Great. Now that was the warm up to warm up this area to activate the vagus nerve in your belly button. Okay. So how you do that is very simple. Stack your hands on top of each other and whichever one is the dominant hand for you, have the dominant hand underneath. So if you're left-handed, have your left hand underneath. If you're right-handed, have the right hand underneath. And now with your dominant hand, stick out your thumb and push it into your belly button. And then from here, make little pumps, like you're assisting your palm to push with your thumb into your belly button. So we'll do this 30 times and then we're going to use both thumbs. Okay? So one thumb first. Relax your gut. Don't tense up and tense your shoulders like this. Keep your shoulders loose. Keep your gut loose and absorb the motion of the thumb into your belly button. You can feel a rippling wave-like motion inside of your stomach that is activating your vagus nerve. Your vagus nerve that travels all the way to your brain that when you stimulate one point, it creates a ripple to your brain to turn on your antistress response. Okay? All right. Using your thumb, try to push deeply. If you push lightly like this, you won't have much benefit. You see, it doesn't even look like I'm moving anything. Push in. 30 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 30. Now, both thumbs in here and you'll feel a stronger movement. Both thumbs in and use them as kind of like a stick to push into your belly button 30 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 30. Great job. Now a little bit stronger. Get your two fingers like a peace sign and then together and then now curve them in so you make a stick to and then push it on your belly button like this. Now you'll feel even deeper inside, even deeper. So push in here and feel your body. If you feel saliva in your mouth, that means you're doing a great job. If you feel hot, sweaty, your hands, palms feel warmer, feet feel warmer. Any or all of the above means you're doing a great job. Okay. Now let's pump here 30 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 30. Great. Now rest your hands on your knees. Close your eyes. Feel your body. Feel the changes in your body now compared to before, especially if you feel warmer, if you feel tingling in your hands, if maybe you feel warmer in your hands too. Do you feel saliva in your mouth? And also, do you feel even a slight sense of calmness and centeredness in your brain? Notice any changes that you feel inside now compared to when you first started. Okay, breathe in. Exhale through your mouth. Again, breathe in. Exhale through your mouth. Open your eyes. Did you notice any changes in your body? Now I want to note a few things. Some people have a lot of tension in their gut. So if you have a lot of tension in your gut, which may cause a lot of digestive issues or brain fog, these are all symptoms that have to do with tension in your gut. If your gut is tense, then doing this just 60 times altogether isn't going to do you much. You have to continue loosening up your intestine for you to be able to trigger deeper, deeper into the vagus nerve to kickstart the antistress response. So if you feel like you're still stiff and you didn't really get much inside, don't worry. It's okay. Just with practice, with repetition, as your gut gets looser, then you'll be able to stimulate deeper into the vagus nerve to turn on your antistress response. And on the other side, if you're already able to feel the benefits because you're able to relax and feel deeply, you're doing great. This is a great technique to use wherever you are to quickly turn on chemically, biologically, your body's antistress response. This is based on science. Everybody has a vagus nerve, no matter what your background is, gender, religion, race, none of that matters. Everyone has a vagus nerve and everyone's vagus nerve works the same way. It helps to kickstart your antistress response. You did a great job. To experience a full one-hour brain education-based class, please visit a local Barney and Brain Yoga Studio near you.