You know that feeling you get when you discover something new that you have never even imagined before—and all of a sudden, it’s everywhere? Like the world is FULL of (that something) when, before this moment, it was invisible to you?
It’s not that it didn’t exist. It was right there in front of you all the time—close enough to touch—and yet you never had a clue.
So what’s changed?
Oh. Yeah. It’s you who’s changed—and the world has changed with you.
This week’s Playbook is short. It’s not that I don’t have a ton of insights to share with you about my continuing discoveries about The Vagus Nerve that continue to blow my mind—daily. It’s just that there’s so MUCH to learn that I’m simply in the middle of it all. I don’t even have the words to share it with you.
No worries though. I have complete confidence that these new discoveries will continue to inform my Everyday Communication Sorcery for the rest of my life. So let me leave you with…
The Top 3 Things
- There are two schools of thought on the whole notion of The Vagus Nerve that are worth pointing out right up front.
- From the point of view of Western Medicine, the vagus nerve appears to be incidental at best—any heart problems you’re having are a simply failure in the heart on the physical level; they need to be rigorously addressed by a cardiologist and pharmaceuticals. Lots of wonderful people on the planet ascribe to this school of thought.
- From the point of view of Eastern Medicine, The Vagus Nerve is Command Central of our body. Any physical symptoms you’re having with your heart can be directly connected to an issue in the Vagus Nerve. This is how you remedy your heart problem at its root, using practical modalities based in plant medicine and physical practices that have been proven for over 2500 years around the world. Our Vagus Nerve is sensitive to physical, emotional and spiritual assaults—all three will cause symptoms in the body. I count myself among the wonderful people on the planet who ascribe to this school of thought.
- From the point of view of Western Medicine, the vagus nerve appears to be incidental at best—any heart problems you’re having are a simply failure in the heart on the physical level; they need to be rigorously addressed by a cardiologist and pharmaceuticals. Lots of wonderful people on the planet ascribe to this school of thought.
- Our Vagus Nerve helps us to make two crucial distinctions for our survival: a) are we safe? and b) are we connected? THAT’S IT.
- Safety: Our whole lives are built around our experience of being/feeling safe—and The Vagus Nerve is directly responsible for the biological reasons we feel “YAH! I’m invincible!” or NOT. Think of all the ways we defend ourselves when we don’t feel safe. That’s just the world we live in: so often, our constant media input is danger and fear. All of that affects us on a physical level through our Vagus Nerve. One of the places it shows up is our heart.
- Connection: When we feel connected to those who matter the most to us: YAH! We feel invincible! When we feel alone, isolated, un-connected—or rejected—that’s when our Vagus Nerve signals us to protect ourselves by any means necessary. One of the signals it sends to us comes directly through our heart.
- Safety: Our whole lives are built around our experience of being/feeling safe—and The Vagus Nerve is directly responsible for the biological reasons we feel “YAH! I’m invincible!” or NOT. Think of all the ways we defend ourselves when we don’t feel safe. That’s just the world we live in: so often, our constant media input is danger and fear. All of that affects us on a physical level through our Vagus Nerve. One of the places it shows up is our heart.
- The intelligence of this huge network of nerves that connects our brain to our heart to our gut and regulates every bodily function—while operating outside of our consciousness—is extraordinary. The more I learn about it, the more I can see that I’m not the only one who’s been left with the deepest visceral experience of the Hand of The Divine in our creation.
Play of the week: This week, I invite you to consider the possibility that you can increase your health and well-being when you befriend your Vagus Nerve. Here are three steps I have found to be useful:
- The very first place to begin is with curiosity. Do an internet search for The Vagus Nerve and see what you find, so you can decide for yourself.
- If you find some information that intrigues you, take one action that makes sense to you. See what happens.
- No matter what you decide about your Vagus Nerve, you can always be gentler with your body, your spirit and your emotions. Simply by being kinder to yourself, you are increasing your own relaxation response and decreasing your “fight or flight” response—and that is nourishing for your heart. (What totally blows my mind here is that I’ve been doing that exact work for over 40 years—without any knowledge of The Vagus Nerve! So, you don’t have to believe anything or accept anything you don’t want to and still take excellent care of yourself.)
Try out these three steps and see what happens. The Big Win here is to consider the possibility that these steps have merit—something you can only prove one way or the other by trying them out.
Important Note: All you’re doing this week
is PLAYING & EXPLORING.
is PLAYING & EXPLORING.
There’s NOTHING to SOLVE—and EVERYTHING TO DISCOVER.