21/10/2025
The vagus nerve, is the main nerve of your parasympathetic nervous system. This system controls specific body functions such as your digestion, heart rate and immune system. These functions are involuntary, meaning you can't consciously control them.
The vagus nerve also affects our mental health and stimulating it has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and even PTSD symptoms.
Using Breathing to Reduce Pain
You can learn to use breathing exercises to shift your focus away from pain. The human mind processes one thing at a time. If you focus on the rhythm of your breathing, you're not focused on the pain. So the moment we anticipate pain, most of us tend to stop breathing and hold our breath.
Breath holding activates the fight/flight/freeze response, it tends to increase the sensation of pain,
stiffness, anxiety, or fear.
