Understanding Polyvagal Theory

 Ready to thrive—not just survive? In this episode of Thrive the Podcast, I break down the science of polyvagal theory in a practical, approachable way. 

Learn how your vagus nerve and autonomic nervous system impact your emotions, relationships, and daily stress. Explore core concepts like neuroception, the social engagement system, and the vagal paradox—and learn how understanding these can empower trauma therapists, wellness professionals, and healing humans alike. 

Whether you're curious about nervous system regulation, mental health, or how to find balance in a chaotic world, this episode offers insights and tools you can use right now. 

Discover how working with your biology—not against it—can be the key to lasting transformation. 

Thrive On,

Rebecca

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Are you ready to thrive as a trauma therapist, author, yoga instructor, and healed human? I personally and professionally know what it means to live stuck in survival mode. I've learned a few things in my healing journey and my career that can help you transform into your best self. Join me, Rebecca Case, as I use neuroscience, psychology, spirituality, and personal experience to help you find the tools and techniques to thrive. Hey, hey, you transformation seekers. Welcome back to Thrive the Podcast with Rebecca Case. Today, we're going to be talking about all about polyvagal theory, what polyvagal theory is, and why it matters to you. Why should you give two hoots and hollers about what this model is? So in today's pod, I'll be going over some of the ins and outs of this scientific theoretical model, but I'll break it down so it's not so dense, so it's not so overwhelming that it doesn't make sense to you, I promise. It will be relatable, useful, applicable. And we'll explore a couple of techniques that can be really useful that are inspired by polyvagal theory that can help you just find a bit more regulation in your neurobiology, which that's kind of what we're all after, right? If I could just hit that break inside a little bit more easily when I'm feeling overwhelmed or anxious or shut down. Wow, that just gives you so much more self-efficacy to have in your life. over circumstances so that things don't feel so out of control. So thanks for being here and let's dive in. Are you ready to unlock your body's hidden potential for healing and connection? Discover the power of your nervous system and the incredible role of the vagus nerve in my new book, The Polyvagal Solution, coming May 1st, 2025 from New Harbinger. In The Polyvagal Solution, you'll explore how the vagus nerve, the key player in polyvagal theory, guides your emotional regulation and transforms stress into strength. This isn't just another self-help guide. It's a practical roadmap grounded in cutting-edge science and real-world strategies. Whether you're recovering from trauma or simply seeking balance, this book offers actionable exercises and insights that help you harness the power of your vagus nerve to reclaim your inner calm. Get your copy now wherever you like to buy your books. The Polyvagal Solution, because your body and especially your vagus nerve hold the key to transformation. All right, peeps. So, polyvagal theory. What the heck is this? And maybe if you're a therapist, you've certainly heard of this model before. Maybe you've even taken some training in it. If you're in the wellness industry... know, you've probably come across polyvagal theory. I bet most of you have heard something somewhere on Instagram or someone else talking about it or a book or something pop up on the vagus nerve. So that's essentially what polyvagal theory is talking about and helping us understand is what our vagus nerve is, why it matters, and how it helps us in regulating our autonomic nervous system. So let's geek out on some neurobiology together, y'all, which you know is one of my favorite things to do. So first off, let's bow down to the OG of this theoretical model, Dr. Stephen Borges. Dr. Stephen Borges, a lovely embodied human. Every interaction I've had with him, I'm just like, wow, he walks the walk and talks the talk. He's like the real deal. He is the author, the originator, the developer of this theoretical model. Now, Dr. Porges didn't set out a couple of years ago with like, I have this idea, so I'm going to find research to support it and create some flim flam. Dr. Porges started researching heart rate variability in premature babies. Back in 1969, oh my gosh, 1969, it has been a hot minute that this man has been collecting some data and research, and from that was born this theoretical model. So Dr. Porges, I am simplifying this. If he was on this show, I'm sure that he would tell this story quite differently since it's his own lived experience, but just to give you a little context and a little backstory of where this all came from. So Dr. Porges... had this curiosity around how heart rate influences our physical and emotional health. And he was especially curious about something that he calls the vagal paradox. The vagal paradox. So the vagal paradox essentially speaks to the vagus nerve's ability to regulate our heart rate and in doing so, regulate all of our bodily systems alongside it. Your heart is directly connected to your respiration and your blood pressure, how your digestion is working, your immune system. So all these bodily systems are all linked up, synced up. What happens in one affects the others. So when our vagus nerve is functioning properly, normatively when it's functioning in an optimal way. It regulates our heart rate because it acts as a pacemaker on the heart. It is one of, I believe, two pacemaker mechanisms that are in your body. So your vagus nerve is one of two pacemaker mechanisms. But this vagus nerve can also influence our heart rate to beat really, really fast and change our physiology along with that or to beat really, really slow and actually put us into a really dangerous place known as bradycardia. So bradycardia is something that premature babies are prone to and they have to be monitored for. Bradycardia is when the heart rate slows dangerously, dangerously low and can potentially be a symptom life risk event and situation. And so part of the reasons that babies are susceptible to bradycardia when they're born premature is because their vagus nerve has not been able to fully develop. So we know when we haven't been able to fully cook in the aren't fully developed. They can't fully function because we haven't had enough time in the womb for things to sync up and line up and develop and grow. And so the vagus nerve is one of a very important bodily system that if we don't have enough time in the womb to fully develop, we come out with a not fully myelinated vagus nerve. What is myelinated, Rebecca? What is that term? So myelination is simply, in very simple terms, I'm probably going to get some of this wrong if there's a neuroscientist listening to this, but myelination is a process by which our nerves can develop a protective protein sheath around them. And so kind of like a cord coming out of the wall, if you were to, you know, look at a cord on the wall and it's missing that plastic coating around it and you just see exposed wires, you're probably like, I'm not going to touch that. That doesn't feel safe, right? But cords that we plug into the wall into electrical outlets have this kind of protective coating around them, this plastic sheet. Now, no, your nerves are not one in the same as the electrical cord that comes off of your vacuum and you plug into the outlet. Not at all. But you all know I try and use metaphors for the sake of learning and analogies can help us to form context and understand concepts. So When our vagus nerve, when the part of our vagus nerve that ideally is myelinated is myelinated, it allows that nerve to more efficiently, effectively manage heart rate in a way that promotes our health and wellness. But if we have not had enough time in the womb to develop the part of our vagus nerve that needs to be myelinated, is not fully myelinated, That leads to risk with how the vagus nerve is able to effectively manage our heart rate, which causes danger, danger, danger. So this is the vagal paradox, that when that vagus nerve is myelinated and it's functioning in an optimal way, it supports our health and wellness. But the same nerve can also put us into danger zones. And it can put us into collapsed states. It can put us into bradycardia. And so his curiosity was, what is it? Like, how can one nerve be responsible for kind of these two spans of experience? And he calls that the vagal paradox. And so he started studying this in premature babies in the NICU because they are more likely to have underdeveloped vagus nerves. So that's where we begin, 1969. So as Porges continued his research on heart rate variability and the relationship that heart rate has with the vagus nerve, he uncovered a whole host of things. All these light bulbs went off and eventually he developed what's called the polyvagal theory. And the polyvagal theory is called polyvagal because it describes the functioning of the vagus nerve, but the vagus nerve is not just one nerve. It is a bundle of nerves and it influences your autonomic nervous system, which there are three pathways of your autonomic nervous system. So he calls it polyvagal because there are multiple nerve endings wrapped up in the vagus nerve. It's not just one nerve, it's multiple. And so it's not just a one-lane show, a one-lane hypothesis, okay? So polyvagal theory. Now, polyvagal theory kind of made its debut into the scientific community like around the early 90s, I believe. And like all theoretical models, it's not free of criticisms. Theoretical models are not meant to be dogmatic. They're not meant to be take it or leave it, right? They're meant to be... Models based on lots of peer review research and curiosities in which we form hypotheses and we test those hypotheses and we change our hypotheses and models in line with the research. So yeah, there's criticisms out there about polyvagal theory. I'm appreciative of Dr. Porges because he's He has pretty openly responded to those criticisms. He has a lot of books. He's written a lot of books. That man writes just nonstop. He's got a lot of articles. You can go to his website, Stephen Porges. I think it's stephenporges.com. Check out all of his publications. He has a whole chapter in one of his books in which he responds to some of the critiques about polyvagal theory. So he's very much open to discussion and curiosity. And he said himself, I did not develop this model to be dogmatic. I developed it to spark conversations. So that is the historical lineage of polyvagal theory, I will say. So here are some of the core principles of this model. So first, polyvagal theory describes the functioning of the autonomic nervous system and how the vagus nerve influences that. It also describes a concept that Porges calls neuroception. which is a passive unconscious process through which your body, your brain rather, is constantly scanning your environment for signals of danger, checking if you're safe. And as it assesses stimuli in your environment, it will move you into defensive protective states to keep you safe. This model also talks about the social engagement system. So the social engagement system is what makes us relational creatures. It is why relationships can be the best thing or worst thing for us because we are hardwired to connect. So we're going to talk about all of these concepts and break them down a bit so that you can actually use some of this information like today. So let's start with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system, I sometimes refer to as your automatic nervous system. It functions mostly automatically. Meaning it's not a part of your nervous system that you have to tell to respond in a certain way for it to do certain things. It is automatic and therefore it is directly connected to our survival responses because our tactics for surviving in response to danger, which are fight, flight, freeze, and collapse are hardwired, right? And so when we come into contact with something that could be imminent life, danger, threat, ding, ding, ding, all the bells are going off, those survival responses hopefully take over pretty quickly because thinking time is surviving time. And if you were all of a sudden being chased by a rabid animal in the woods, you don't want to necessarily stand there and use logic and reasoning to go through a flow chart in your mind of certain potential outcomes and how you're going to respond and then choose A. And if A doesn't work, then choose B because by the time you go through all of that, that rabid animal is probably already gnawing on your ankle. So you want your survival responses to be pretty quick and instinctual. So all of those survival responses come from your autonomic nervous system, your automatic nervous system. Your autonomic nervous system has three pathways to it. So there's three components that make up that whole nervous system. So if you can start creating a diagram in your head. So at the top, you're going to put autonomic nervous system. And then below that are going to be two branches called the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. So we go from one autonomic nervous system to parasympathetic and sympathetic. So those parts of your nervous system are both branches of your autonomic nervous system, okay? So your sympathetic nervous system is a mobilizing part of your neurobiology. So it's energizing. It moves you forward. It moves you away from danger or from things that feel scary and uncomfortable. It's what allows you to be alert. But when it's on overdrive, you're hypervigilant. You're like too alert. Like you're ruminating, you're worrying. You can't stop feeling anxious and panicky. You can think of your sympathetic nervous system as like the gas pedal, right? And just like when you're driving down the road, you want to find the right speed, right? If you're driving on like a 50 mile an hour road and you're going like 45 to 55 miles an hour, you're like, I'm in the Goldilocks zone. This feels like a good speed. But right, you get up to going like 70 or 80 and that kind of traffic and all of a sudden things feel kind of out of control or somebody speeding by you going that fast and you're like, wow, what a jerk, that doesn't feel safe, right? So that sympathetic nervous system mobilizes us and we need that. Like we need mobilization to find motivation to do things, to push ourselves to try new things, to run a marathon, to go to the gym, to go for a walk, to get out of bed in the morning, right? But that part of our nervous system is also responsible for fight or flight. So fight or flight is kind of that sympathetic nervous system. Somebody hits the gas pedal really hard, right? It's like too much mobilization, too much energy. And then fight or flight, we tend to get a flood of energy. Our mind is racing. We're really distracted. We can't think clearly. We get a flood of energy to our arms and to our legs to fight or to flee, to run away. You actually get the capacity and increased capacity to blood clot here because your body is preparing you to potentially sustain injury. Your digestion tends to slow because blood isn't flowing so much to your digestive organs. It's going to the other parts of your body that you need to fight or flee. You get a lot of tension. It's hard to sleep, right? All these things. So that's one part of your autonomic nervous system that is influenced by the vagus nerve. The other part of your autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, and polyvagal theory is described as also having two parts to it. So we got autonomic nervous system up top, then we have sympathetic, parasympathetic, and below parasympathetic, we're gonna even have two other branches in the parasympathetic nervous system. And this is the ventral vagal pathway and the dorsal vagal pathway. So your parasympathetic nervous system is made up of these two pathways of your vagus nerve. Your parasympathetic nervous system, sometimes referred to as the rest and digest part of your neurobiology. So when this part of our nervous system is activated, it's what allows us to feel calm and grounded and regulated If you fall asleep in a massage, you're really grooving in your parasympathetic nervous system. When you're able to, you know, get a good night's sleep, your parasympathetic nervous system is supporting that. When you're able to sit still on the couch and watch a movie and snuggle with someone, parasympathetic nervous system, thank you. So it's an immobilizing part of our neurobiology. Immobilizing. But just like that sympathetic nervous system, somebody can hit the gas and we're going too fast. The parasympathetic nervous system, we can pull the e-brake and all of a sudden take out all the energy, all the motivation, all the livelihood in our neurobiology, which is part of our dorsal vagal pathway. So when we're in kind of that right optimal zone of our ventral vagal pathway, which is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, so the ventral vagal pathway, That is what we sometimes refer to in the counseling world as the window of tolerance. So you can almost think of ventral, ventana in Spanish. So ventral stands for window, window of tolerance. In that ventral vagal pathway, we are truly in our just right zone. We are balanced. We're alert, but we're not hyper alert. We're calm, but we're not like sedated, right? That ventral pathway allows us to focus. We can learn. It allows us to get good rest. It allows us our heart rate to beat at just an optimal zone. We can take a deep breath. Our digestion is working. Again, it's the Goldilocks zone. It's the optimal zone of arousal where we're able to manage stress. We're handling things. We're not numbed out, but we're not you know, flooded and levitating and about to spontaneously explode because we have such intense, uncomfortable emotions. Now that dorsal pathway of our parasympathetic nervous system. Again, I sometimes think of it like pulling the e-brake. And when that part of our nervous system takes over, it moves us into freeze and collapse. So here we lose motivation. We lose energy. Our mind gets blank and really sluggish. It's hard to, you know, wake up in the morning. It's hard to put one foot in front of the other. We tend to feel really alone and just shut down and collapsed inside. When you kind of want to go pull up in your room and not see or talk to anyone and just disappear, that dorsal pathway is what is taken over. So these are three pathways of our autonomic nervous system. And they're all influenced by how the vagus nerve is functioning. Now let's bring in the concept of neuroception to this conversation. Neuroception stands for perception or detection without awareness. So it is a process through which your nervous system is constantly scanning your environment, the environment outside of you and your internal bodily environment for potential cues of danger or for cues of safety. Neuroception has been doing this this whole time you've been listening to me on this podcast. It's been keeping tabs on everyone and everything happening around you without you having to consciously do that yourself. Neuroception is partly what drives our startle response. So when something startles us and we get that quick flood of energy, it's because neuroception quickly noticed, what is that? And it moves you into getting ready to take action and protect yourself before your conscious logical brain can be like, wait, what is that? Let me appraise the situation. Oh, nevermind. It was just my cat making noise in the other room. There's no intruder, right? And then you can calm that response inside. Hopefully, if your vagus nerve is working optimally, you can calm that response. When we have... mental health issues, unresolved trauma, that vagus nerve cannot work so effectively at responding to neuroception's cues and engaging a startle response or engaging a survival response when we need it. And likewise, it has a hard time dampening those responses once we've assessed that, hey, we're safe. So for example, for somebody who has unresolved trauma, and struggling with symptoms of PTSD, their vagus nerve isn't able to be as flexible and fluid in their life as would be optimally desired. So maybe you hear a noise in the other room and that startle response goes off because the vagus, you know, your nervous system is like danger, danger. The vagus nerve moves you into potential fight or flight. You identify, that was just my cat knocking something off the dresser. I'm okay. but it's like your nervous system didn't get the message. And it takes you minutes to hours to maybe days to calm that response. It can also go the opposite way. And that's something that should startle you. Like there is something scary in your environment, doesn't. And you don't have a reaction. Not in a way of I'm able to stay regulated and calm and think through this, but in a way that is, I can't, engage in a way that is going to keep myself safe, right? So it's really hard to find that mobilizing energy for fight or flight or to, I mean, just to move out of that collapse state essentially. So neuroception is, again, this process through which your nervous system is constantly scanning your environment. And so we can get curious about what our individual neuroception perceives as safe and dangerous because it can vary amongst all of us. For example, I've worked with a lot of combat veterans in my time in clinical practice. And a lot of combat vets I've experienced find the 4th of July in the United States to be very dysregulating and triggering or just being around loud fire Well, they're quiet fireworks. I guess there are actually. But being around fireworks that go boom or just being around startling noises like a car engine or a muffler backfiring, right? So their neuroception takes that sound to be, oh, this is a reminder like, oh gosh, I'm back in combat. In the past, this is what this sound has meant. I'm not safe. move me into a protective response. And even though their brain can say it's the 4th of July, those are just fireworks, their nervous system doesn't get the message, right? The vagus nerve isn't able to work in a way that is going to promote them down-regulating that danger response. Now, sometimes when we hear these words of cues of danger and cues of safety, we can think of like ultimatums, like ultimate like safety, ultimate like life or death, imminent danger, danger, right? And these two terms are not meant to be so extreme necessarily. They're actually meant to be a bit more encompassing. So cues of safety can be anything that feel comfortable or pleasant, or I would say even neutral to you, right? So you might be in a room where, you know, the color of the painting on the wall doesn't necessarily like, it's not like, oh my gosh, I love that color, right? You're like, I just feel kind of neutral about it. So your nervous system isn't going to have a response from that. But if you've ever been in a room where you're like, I can't stand this wallpaper. I can't stand this color. It's overwhelming. It's chaotic. Maybe just the organization of the room. Even though that paint color is not about to jump off the wall and attack you and cause you imminent bodily danger, your nervous system is still... making assumptions about it and it's telling you how it feels, right? So you walk in a room and it's really messy and it feels overwhelming and you're a nervous system like, oh my gosh, I can't concentrate. So this happens to me sometimes with my husband. He has ADHD. He has clutter blindness. And so we have very different styles when it comes to what is acceptable for each of us in regards to how much organization or clutter we can stand. And so my office is my office. His office is his office. And sometimes I go into his office and he's talking to me. I'm like, I cannot listen to you here because there is so much clutter. And for him, he's like, it's organized clutter. These are my piles of clutter. I know exactly where everything is. I'm like, that's fine for you. That's your nervous system. Those piles of clutter are not a cue of danger to you. But for my nervous system, while they're not a cue of danger, it's like something imminently dangerous is going to happen here. They're enough for my nervous system. I'm like, I cannot I cannot focus. I cannot listen. I cannot track you because this cue of danger is activating my autonomic nervous system in a way that's moving me away from being present, right? Now, yes, cues of danger are absolutely also like extreme imminent things like a rabid animal, like somebody approaching you in a dark alley and it just doesn't feel safe. You know, the smell of smoke when there shouldn't be the smell of smoke, somebody up in your personal space, somebody approaching your car in a way that causes you to feel dangerous. worried and defensive, right? These are ways that our neuroception is always trying to keep us safe. That is what your nervous system is trying to do. Keep you safe, keep you alive. So neuroception is constantly keeping tabs on things. And the way it gets your attention is by changing your autonomic state. And it does so by influencing your vagus nerve. So your vagus nerve does some certain things, changes your autonomic state. And all of a sudden, there's this stranger approaching your car in a dark parking lot. They feel a little... don't feel safe to you. And so you start getting some like fight or flight kind of energy, right? Like, let me lock the door. Let me check my mirrors. Let me like turn on the car and get out of here, whatever that may be, right? So neuroception is this unconscious process through which our nervous system is always trying to keep tabs on safety and danger. Now, you might think about neuroception next time you're in a situation and you're like, I am not feeling regulated right now and I'm not really sure what it is. The way we feel in certain stores and environments around people. If you've ever been around somebody and you're like, this person hasn't said anything rude or offensive, but I'm just getting some real uncomfortable vibes. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of paying attention to that. But that is in fact, you noticing your autonomic nervous system shifting gears because neuroception perceives something. So neuroception can perceive things and we haven't necessarily gotten the message. Like it hasn't told us, this is what I'm reading, here's my full report, right? It gets our attention because it changes our autonomic state. And when our autonomic state shifts and we're like, why? I don't know what's going on. Get curious about what is my nervous system perceiving? Really check out your environment, look around, check inside your body and just notice, is there anything that neuroception is saying, danger, danger? This is something to keep an eye on. Now, the final component of polyvagal theory I'll describe a little bit here today is the social engagement system. So the social engagement system is a term that speaks to human beings' natural capacity to form bonds. We were not... built to live in isolation. We know that isolation is one of the worst things that you can do to a human being. It's considered cruel and unusual punishment because we are social creatures by design. Your biology was designed to attach to other people around you because we didn't have that innate desire and need to attach. We would be less likely to survive our childhood because when we're babies, when we're infants, when we're toddlers, I mean, gosh, old was it until you feel like you could really do this thing on your own cold life. We need somebody to attach to us and to think that we're the cutest, most adorable thing ever. Even when we've been crying, you know, nonstop in the middle of the night and mom isn't getting any sleep. If we were not born to attach to each other, it would be so much easier to just leave each other. And when your child is crying and you can't get sleep and has peed on you for the umpteenth time, you're like, nevermind, I don't wanna do this. But we have this strong primal desire to protect and care for our children, ideally, most people, right? I'm sorry if you're listening to this and you're like, my mom didn't, my dad didn't, yeah. Unfortunately, generational trauma can really jack up our neurobiology sometimes. And so if you didn't get that, I'm sure that you know somewhere deep inside, that wasn't normal, this is what I was supposed to get. And the reason you know you were supposed to get that is because you're wired for it. And you probably experience in other ways yourself, maybe with your children or with people that you really love, right? So that social engagement system is born out of our biological predisposition to form bonds and form social connections. That's what allows society to develop in a productive way. Although in these days, I feel like we could argue that. But... Our social engagement system is what makes you go back after you got your heart broke that first time when you were a teenager. I'm sure you can all remember that. Oh, what a visceral, terrible experience to have your heart broken. And if it wasn't for your biological predisposition to rewire and to form bonds, you'd have your heart broken and be like, what is this? This is terrible. This hurts so bad. I'm never going to do this again. But we go back because love is such an insatiable thirst that we have. And it's because of our social engagements. system. So our social engagement system is partially influenced by our vagus nerve. It's not the only nerve that makes us social creatures, but it's one of the nerves. Because that social engagement system, when we're in that ventral ventana window of tolerance, we can be our best selves to ourselves, to other people, and to the world. When we're in sympathetic fight or flight mode, we can't listen. It's hard to be relational. It's hard to track people. It's hard to give them your total attention. And then when we move into freeze or collapse states, it's hard to make eye contact. It's hard to relate to people. You kind of don't want to have conversations with people you want to isolate. So when that vagus nerve is allowing us connection to our ventral window of tolerance, that ideal zone, we're able to be the best in our relationships. And so this is why the social engagement system is also described in polyvagal theory because the vagus nerve has such an important role on it. So when our mental health is suffering, I would say all, if not virtually all, mental health symptoms have a vagus nerve related component underlying them or really driving them. Anxiety, for example, while it's not like this is all your vagus nerve, it's a lot of things that cause anxiety and add up from neurotransmitters in certain areas of your brain to even your digestive system. But your vagus nerve has a big role in that. And so when we're feeling anxious, our vagus nerve is not allowing us to move out of that sympathetic overdrive state of fight or flight, right? And when we're in that state, we just can't be good humans to other people. You neurologically cannot, like you lose your capacity to be a good person to other people. I'm not saying you're a terrible bad person, but think about those three pathways of your nervous system, sympathetic, ventral, and dorsal, where you feel like you're your best, where you're showing up your best to the world. It's probably in ventral. So when we are struggling with mental health symptoms, our relationships tend to suffer in some way, whether that's we don't want to engage with them, we don't want to follow up, we're not a very good listener, you know, we're not able to track We have a lot of tension and turmoil in our relationships. We don't know how to set boundaries. We can't hold boundaries, things like that, right? It's why there's such a correlation between mental health and our relationships. I don't know of pretty much any mental health diagnosis that isn't also going to have some influence on your relationships in some way, shape or form, even if it's just with yourself, right? Which is the most important relationship, honestly. So when we learn polyvagal theory, we can better understand how our nervous system functions. And when we understand how our nervous system functions, we can work with it instead of feeling like it is working us. Now, we're going to talk a lot more on this podcast and upcoming episodes about polyvagal theory, how you can use it to live your best life and thrive, and some specific techniques. In the meantime, a specific technique that you can use to help stimulate your vagus nerve. And when we stimulate our vagus nerve, we're helping our nervous system find balance. So stimulating your vagus nerve does not mean like, I'm gonna feel zen and calm and grounded. Not necessarily. If you were feeling like really shut down, and you're feeling like too calm, like too much e-break, it's going to move you more into a state of alertness. But if you're more in that state of I'm too alert, I'm too overwhelmed, hopefully it's moving you more towards that parasympathetic. So when we stimulate our vagus nerve, we're trying to balance our nervous system, balance our autonomic nervous system. So we're not too alert, we're the right amount of alert, and we're not too calm or the right amount of calm, the just right zone. So... One way that you can stimulate your vagus nerve is with cold water therapy. I know you're like, well, I don't want to do that. Nobody wants to do cold water therapy. I mean, maybe eventually after you've been doing it for a while, but nobody in the beginning is like, oh my gosh, I still want to do cold water therapy. That sounds amazing. So you can just do it in the shower for like 30 seconds. It doesn't really matter how cold. It doesn't have to be like an ice bath cold. It just needs to be cold. And you need to have that reaction of... feel your heart rate speed up, kind of take a quick gasp of air. You're going to get an adrenaline and cortisol dump when that happens. And then the goal here is then to work with that level of arousal, ride that adrenaline wave and help to calm your physiology. So doing that exercises that vagus nerve because when you feel that hit of cold water, your vagus nerve moves you towards that sympathetic fight or flight. Hopefully it doesn't take you in a full fight or flight when you're in the shower, right? But you feel some of that mobilizing energy. Then you're trying to work with your breath, with your mindset, with tolerating it to get back to a state of calm, right? That is... a way to stimulate your vagus nerve and to exercise that vagus nerve. So I personally do cold water therapy every morning in the shower. And some days I really want to do it. And some days I don't want to do it at all. And the days that I don't want to do it tend to be the days that I'm feeling sick or I'm feeling kind of dysregulated. And those are the days I especially need to do it. So on today's episode of Thrive the Podcast, we dove a bit into polyvagal theory, what it is. We are going to take a deeper dive into our upcoming episodes and actually get into some techniques. In the meantime, get in that shower, turn it to cold, and just see if you can do 30 seconds. 30 seconds, that's it. All right, my friends, thrive on. Bye. Thank you for joining us Until next time, this is Rebecca Case signing off. Thrive on!