- Massage is a great way to
stimulate your vagus nerve for stress and anxiety relief. So today I'm going to show you a simple vagus nerve massage technique that you can do anytime
you're feeling stressed to calm your nervous system quickly. (upbeat music) Hi beautiful humans. I'm Sukie Baxter, Founder of Whole Body Revolution, where I help you to rewire yourself for greater health,
happiness, and success. If you're new here, make sure
you click the subscribe button and hit the bell to get notified so you never miss a video update. Anything that I mention in this video you can find linked in
the description box below. Let's get into it. The vagus nerve is the
main parasympathetic nerve of the body. And it's also quite long. Today we're gonna focus specifically on the branches of the vagus
nerve that go to your ear, which are called the auricular branches. Now, just before we begin, remember to check with your
doctor or healthcare provider before doing any new exercises, to make sure they're appropriate for you. One interesting thing to assess
before we do this practice, is to check on your ears and notice if there's more
tension on one side or the other, or if your ears are just tight in general. You probably don't think
about your ears being tight, but they actually can get kind of stuck. So, what we're gonna do is just gently reach up and kind of pull your
ear away from your skull. And just feel how soft or
how firm your ear feels. If you can move it much, you can wiggle it up and down a little bit and just see what that feels like. And then compare that with the other side. So, pulling this ear away from the skull and just noticing is one side a little
bit tighter, more stiff? Or do they feel about the same? Okay, and then we can check that again after we do this vagus
nerve massage technique. So, the first place that we're going to access
your vagus nerve in your ear is in the little hollow that is above the ridge that
is just above your ear canal. So, go ahead and find the little hollow. So, you're gonna come
towards the ear canal, there's the little ridge above it. And then just gently slide
your finger into the hollow that is above that ridge. And what we're gonna do is just make gentle circles there. You can also go back and forth
if that's a little easier, but we're just gently massaging
this little area here. And really you want to
think about moving the skin of your ear in little circles. You're not pressing really hard, grinding away on it. You don't actually need
much pressure at all. We're just sliding the
skin around in circles. And as you're doing this, you may notice some physiological
changes or you might not. So, things you may notice might be changes in your breathing, maybe a sigh or a swallow. You might just feel a sense of calm. And if you don't, that's okay too. Okay, and then we're
gonna do the same thing on the other side. So find the little hollow that's above the ridge,
above your ear canal. And we're just gonna make little circles. And again, you may notice
those physiological changes, or you may not. You may have a reaction on one side and not the other side. That's quite common. And really you can spend as
much time as you like here. So if this is feeling productive for you, feel free to pause the video and stay with it for a little bit longer. Okay, now we're gonna move
on to the second place where we can access the
vagus nerve in your ear. And that's at the back of your ear canal. So, what you're gonna do
is find your ear canal, and you're just gonna
press towards the backside. So, towards the back of your head. And again, we're just
gonna make little circles to massage this area. Remembering that really we're
just focusing on the skin more than any of the
deeper structures here. There's no need to press really
hard or use a lot of force. We're just giving sensory information to your nervous system. So extra force is not
actually more productive. Okay, now we're gonna do the same thing on the other side again. So, finding your ear canal pressing towards the
back of your ear canal, and then just making small little circles. And as you're doing this, you might notice that one side is easier
to massage than the other. You might find that
one side feels stiffer, or they might not. They might feel the same. But just pay attention and notice what you're finding. Again, be gentle with yourself. There's no need to force this. And again, you can stay with
that as long as you like. So, if that's feeling
really productive for you feel free to pause the video and continue with that. From this place, we can actually just check and see have our ears changed any? Can they move a little bit more easily? So, you can kind of
reach up and just check comparing to what you
noticed at the beginning and see if one side moves
a little bit better. So, my left side actually
feels a little bit looser. Now, the reality is that while
these are the primary places in your ear, where you can contact and stimulate your vagus
nerve manually with massage, there are many branches of the vagus nerve that run through your neck. It's a cranial nerve. And so they are impacted by tension that is in the tissue around your ears. So, we can do some additional massage that's not directly targeting the branches of the vagus nerve, but will indirectly help
to send sensory information that can help your nervous system to calm. So, one other thing we can do is just like we did with the assessment, we can take your ear. So if you just grasp it gently and just gently stretch
it away from your skull. So, I'm pulling it out this direction. And again, I'm not being forceful I'm just giving it a gentle stretch. And this can be quite beneficial
if you have any TMJ issues. Or if you suffer from tension headaches. And then you can also stretch down. So taking that same
kind of part of your ear and just pulling kind of gently down and away from your skull. So, this direction. And then we can do the same
thing kind of up and away. And you can really work
your way around your ear, just sort of gently stretching. And this is pulling and creating stretch in the skin all around your ear. Which is again sending
that sensory information through your nervous system that can create a calming response. Okay, and let's go ahead
and do the other side. So again, we're just
gonna stretch out and away from your skull. So, I'm stretching this
direction nice and gentle. If it's uncomfortable or
painful, stretch less. Or, don't do it, heinous
counterproductive. And then stretching down and away. And then up and away. And again, working your
way around your air with these gentle stretches. And like with the other massages, you can spend as much
time here as you like. So, if this is feeling very nourishing and productive for you, you can continue for as
long as it feels good. And then we can check again and notice did that create more changes in your ears? Do they move more easily now? So, just kind of, I
mean, it's the same thing we just did to actually
create the stretch, but you can kind of
wiggle your ears and say, Oh, do they feel more similar? Do they feel looser? Is there more movement available? Does the skin slide more easily? And the final place that we're going to want to
massage is just behind the ear. So, what we're gonna do is take the skin that is just behind the ear between your ear and your hairline. And just gently slide it up towards the top of your head. So, you're basically
just stretching the skin behind your ear upwards. And it's just at the skin level. You don't need to press hard. You're just gonna
stretch it and then hold. Again, we're sending a nice
sensory information data bundle to your brain, saying this can move here. Which can in turn cause your brain to say, Oh yes, indeed it can move there. Let's relax all the muscles
that are connected to that, because they don't need to be so tight. Okay, and then we're gonna
do the same thing in reverse. We're gonna take the skin and we're gonna pull it down away from the top of your head, towards your neck, or towards your chin downwards. And holding the stretch. Again, you don't need to press hard, you're just moving your skin. And then you can take
that same piece of skin. So, we're still on the
skin just behind your ear between your ear and your hairline. And you can stretch it
back away from your ear. So, you're going towards
the back of your head. Okay, and then we're
gonna do the same thing on the other side. So again, you're gonna find the skin that is between the back of
your ear and your hairline. And you're going to slide it up towards the top of your head. You might notice that the
skin moves more easily in one direction than another. That's good information too. And then now we're gonna reverse that. We're gonna go down. So, you're gonna slide the
skin towards the floor. And now we're gonna take that skin and we're gonna stretch
it away from the ears, so you stretch up towards
the back of your head. You might notice that the
skin stretches more easily in one direction than another direction. That's very common. And it's often productive to go in the direction that
the skin moves the most easily. So you might spend a little bit more time if your skin slides easily upward, then maybe spend a little more time there. And vice versa if it
slides better downward. Okay, go ahead and release that. And again, let's check our ears and see, did that change anything? And you might notice that
they feel a little looser. You might also feel some
release of tension in your jaw. Some release of tightness in your neck. Oftentimes your eyes will feel
softer, little less strain. I noticed my breathing is a
bit easier through my sinuses. There are many things that you may notice because your vagus nerve is connected to many
functions in your throat. And also visceral functions in your chest and in your lower abdomen. So, there's lots of potential effects that can happen from this. And it's gonna be unique to you. So, that's a simple way to
massage your vagus nerve and calm your autonomic nervous system for practically instant
stress and anxiety relief. Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know how this
vagus nerve massage technique went for you. And if you like this video, hit like. Remember to subscribe, hit the bell to get notified every time I release a new video. And I'll see you in the next one (upbeat music)
