Adjust Posture for a Stress-Free Life

This episode explores the significant connection between posture and stress levels, revealing how our alignment impacts mental and emotional well-being. We discuss the anatomical position, the function of the vagus nerve, and provide practical techniques to improve posture and reduce stress in daily life.

• Discusses the link between posture and emotional health 
• Explains the importance of the anatomical position 
• Describes how the vagus nerve affects stress 
• Highlights the issues from forward head posture 
• Offers practical exercises for better posture 
• Shares stretches to relieve neck tension 
• Emphasizes the benefits of good posture on confidence 
• Encourages daily mindfulness in body alignment 

Grab my free Vegas Nerve Reset video in the show notes. It's a quick and easy way to start feeling better today!

Transcript

Emily: 0:01

Hello, hello. In today's episode we are going to be talking about how your posture is affecting your stress levels. We're going to do a little more science-y today. It's going to be more interactive, so if you're out driving around, go ahead and take a listen, but also to re-listen or pause, where you can kind of do these motions with me so that it's easier to understand. Welcome to it

Emily: 0:31

Starts at Vagus, the podcast where holistic health meets modern living. I'm Emily, your guide to unlocking the power of the vagus nerve, which is your body's ultimate key to calm, connection and overall well-being. Together, we'll explore simple ways to nourish your mind and body with natural remedies, actionable tips and empowering stories. Whether you're here to reduce stress, restore balance or take charge of your health, you're in the right place, because wellness doesn't just happen. It starts at Vagus. Let's dive in.

Emily: 1:05

First off, why are we even talking about posture when it comes to the vagus nerve? The vagus nerve doesn't have a direct effect to our posture. It does have have an effect on how we feel emotionally, but there's no direct link like. This equals that. But when we look at the whole body, just like the holistic realm, we start thinking of what is affecting something else, and that's where posture comes in. We're going to talk about anatomical position. Anatomical position is how our body is lined up correctly with the most ease to our body. Now, our body is supposed to be able to move all different kinds of ways, but when we have it in the easiest form for all of our muscles and all of our joints to line up, that is what we talk about anatomically correct position. So, with our head held up, straight, back feels straight. Our back does have a neck, has the correct curvature, but we're also just feeling like our chest is lifted, shoulders are back, and then our shoulders, hips, knees and feet are lined up. So if we're standing or laying down, we can line up those joints almost as if there was a straight line holding them like a rod. So with the vagus nerve, as you know, the vagus nerve does come down at the base of our skull and then goes all different areas to our bodies, such as our heart, our lungs, digestive organs, and then it does replay and affect our emotional well-being. How much stress do we have? And if you've been listening to this show, you'll know that the vagus nerve does have a direct effect on how clearly we're able to think and how we're able to process our emotions, and that is why it's such a staple for overall well-being.

Emily: 3:20

We need the vagus nerve to work correctly, to be able to bounce into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve that's our fight or flight or the rest and digest state of our body, and we need to work with ease. So when it comes to our posture, when we are in that anatomically correct position, everything flows smoothly, the muscles work better, you aren't having compensation patterns for movement, the nerves don't get trapped. So when we think about like an easy example would be the piriformis, and that is a muscle in your glute, your buttock area and our sciatic nerve, and so when you hear about like sciatica or sciatic pain, that is where the piriformis muscle is so tight that it causes pain to that nerve, which then creates pain in other places in our body, places in our body. But that is just one example. When we we have a nerve too tight or that's being surrounded by a tight muscle, uh, or fascia, then it creates problems for the rest of the body, because now the message isn't relaying that's what nerves are, they're just like really, really fast messenger and it lets the brain know what's going on in the rest of the body.

Emily: 4:46

So when it comes to the vagus nerve, when we have a forward head position this is going to be probably the most common that I see throughout day to day we have that forward head, then it's going to create tension on the back of your neck and that's where it comes out of. And so we want to be able to bring our head back up to where we had, that anatomically correct position, where everything starts being stacked correctly and we're not leading one way or the other. That's going to ease up on your vagus nerve. So now that the messages can get relayed faster, because when that head is forward it's going to create that tension on that nerve and it's just going to slow things down a bit. And the more and more forward your head gets, the more of a strain that nerve is going to have and your muscles. And that's where we start feeling icky, just like in general. We just have that overall feeling and you start getting pain, your shoulders ache, your neck aches, everything starts to hurt.

Emily: 6:00

And now that we have that those tight muscles in the neck area, now your digestive system isn't working as well because again that vagus nerve is being pressed or stressed and now it's going to put stress on the rest of your body and that is one reason why having correct posture is so helpful to your overall well-being. It's going to help you be able to move easier and feel better emotionally, and that is going to lift up everything. It's going to create that mental fog. It's going to help lift it up because now there's not that tension of okay, which message needs to get to the brain first? Because it has to pick and choose. Your brain is all about survival. So if it has to pick between getting a message about your safety or getting a message about your digestion, it's going to pick the safety one. It wants to make sure you're okay physically before it starts using its energy to keep your body going in a healthy way.

Emily: 7:11

So this is where we are going to transition into the. I want you to practice with me. We are going to transition into the. I want you to practice with me. I'm going to show you how you can help yourself keep your head from going forward. So our head goes forward for lots of different reasons. Computer, when we look down at our phone all the time, even reading books for an extended period of time, and our head is always down. That is going to create that forward head position. Also, if we're at the computer now, our shoulders shrug forward also and now we're creating this whole force in the front of our body that keeps getting tighter and tighter, like a knot. It gets cozy, like hugging your pillow at night. It just kind of falls forward and we're going to try bringing it back out and open. And I do want to make a little note here I do have this podcast also on YouTube. So if you want to see what I'm doing and not just here and you want to visually see it, it will be there also, because sometimes visualization does help.

Emily: 8:22

So let's talk about how to open up this front area. So let's do a little role play. So go ahead and just bring your head forward and just hold it there for a second. And just hold it there for a second, do you see how it starts putting a little strain on the back of your neck and even probably like that C7, which is like the bump, the base of your neck you start feeling that tension. So first we're just going to raise up. Now what I tell some of my clients is pretend that you have a, like a string and somebody's pulling you up, so where they physically just lift your string, lift your spine, your head up, and now you're automatically going to stand or sit straighter.

Emily: 9:13

Now this next one is how I like to open up the front of my neck because again, it gets tight when it goes forward. We need to open it back up. So what we do is go ahead and put your hand underneath your collarbone and, when your hand can grip your skin, go ahead and press down towards your feet. You're not pressing in towards your chest or back. You're grabbing your skin underneath the collarbone, bringing it down towards your feet, and then you slowly bring your head back and and then just hold you should feel it all on the front of your neck Just going to open that up, and after a few seconds you're going to use your fingers, keep them underneath your collarbone, and right now I am bringing my fingers to my left side, my left side of the collarbone, and I'm going to bring my head. I'm gonna bring it back to the right shoulder and we're gonna let it go fall backwards Again. This will probably be easier to see on YouTube. It's just YouTube. It starts on Vegas same thing, and then we're going to bring it back. We're going to be back in our neutral position. If you'd like, you can now switch hands, put your fingers underneath your collarbone, press down and then bring your head to the opposite side and, while you're feeling the stretch, go ahead and move your neck and head slowly in different ways. You're going to feel where that tight spot is. You're going to feel where you're like, ooh, like that feels good in that spot and that's going to change fairly often because you might sleep differently one day. You might be driving more one day. So that part is where you make it personable to you, is where you hold and the different angles that you do. That is where it's going to really open up your neck and it's going to take pressure off the base of your skull. Now we can always do you know, shoulders, the rolls back. That's a good one to bring the shoulders back, but that next stretch that I just did, that's really going to help open up the front part of your neck and that's going to give you more relief when it comes to the vagus nerve Long term.

Emily: 11:58

This is just something that you can do every day. You can do it once a day, twice a day. I do it in my car. Sometimes Nobody is paying attention, and when I say in the car, I mean like at a stoplight, where you know most people check their phone at a stoplight. This is a good time for you to use your hand and just put it underneath your collarbone and stretch your neck a little bit and, yeah, red light turns green, you stop, you keep driving. It's safer for you not to check your phone and just stretch your neck instead. It's silly, but it really does work. And again, nobody's paying attention. Nobody's going to be like what are you doing? Like they're probably doing something else. So it's just one little thing that you can do easily throughout your day, doesn't take up any time away from doing other daily tasks, it's just something easy to incorporate.

Emily: 12:53

And as you do this, you'll notice that your head will go back easier. You'll notice that you're not going forward as much and that is going to take one less stress away from your body so that the vagus nerve is open and it can move freely, and then you'll be able to focus easier. You'll feel that physical relief also and it'll feel so, so nice. You'll realize that slouching after a while starts to ache, but when you get used to being in that anatomically correct position. You realize, oh, I really do like sitting up straight. And at the beginning it's going to be a little hard because your muscles aren't used to that. But after you get into the habit of things you're like, wow, I can breathe better, I can take a better deep breath in, and it feels wonderful. It really does get addicting to get that little stretch that you can do to yourself and this in turn lets you be mindful of the rest of your body. Then you're like okay, now my shoulders, let's get my shoulders back, let's make sure that they don't roll forward. And again, that makes you breathe easier.

Emily: 14:10

And these are just things to check when, if you're in a stressful situation and you just need a break, go ahead, do a few little stretches. Your body likes those little bitty support throughout the day because every day it's taking in all the stress and this is one way to just ease that. It's. Just adjusting your posture can be a simple and effective way to reduce stress and, bonus, it helps with confidence when you walk into a room and you're standing up straight, your neck isn't forward and you're not schlumpy or kind of just closed off, even when you walk into a room and your posture is better. You feel better, and everybody else can see that too. So it does affect your posture, does affect your physical and mental well-being, and it does do that by either hindering or helping the vagus nerve, and so this is just one of those things that you can do to support Simple, easy, done.

Emily: 15:20

I encourage you to practice this so that it does become second nature, and to keep on breathing and enjoy doing the things that you make you that, things that make you happy. This is one of them. That makes me happy is to teach people how to take care of their bodies in simple, easy ways that help their body, physically and mentally, to enjoy their life. And that's what it is. It's there to a life, is there to enjoy, and I hope that this is one little thing to make it easier.

Emily: 15:52

Thanks for listening to It Starts at Vagus. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you're ready to take the next step toward calm, grab my free Vagus Nerve Reset video in the show notes. It's quick and easy way to start feeling better today and until next time, remember, wellness starts at Vagus.