Nervous System Regulation Exercises

 

 

Luke: Namastejen1 (Jen) has kindly shared her guide to nervous system regulation exercises with the community here. The contents of this guide are copied in below.

 

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These exercises will help with ventral vagus nerve stimulation. The vagus nerve is a part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Unlike the unmyelinated dorsal vagal nerve, the ventral vagal nerve branch is a myelinated nerve. Myelination means it can be strengthened with repeated exercises like weightlifting to build muscles. Utilize these exercises when feeling collapsed (overactive dorsal vagal state) or agitated (overactive sympathetic nervous system state).

 

 

Remember to take slow, deep, and even belly breaths while doing these exercises. Extend the exhale, without jerks, pauses or forcing, for more of a parasympathetic nervous system response (rest/digest).

 

 

Head and Neck Exercises to Stimulate and Strengthen Vagus Nerve

 

• Look side to side slowly with your eyes 3x, then up/down 3x, on diagonal both ways 3x

• Massage the forehead from center outward, to temples, and passed the ears, 3x

• Massage from bridge of nose, over cheekbones, to jaw, and passed the ears, 3x

• Open and close jaw 3x, then take jaw side to side, 3x

• Massage outer ear with opposite hand, pull on lobe, rub the nub by cheek on each side

• Massage around both ears: ring/little fingers in front by jaw, index/middle fingers in back

• Listen to the nearest sound, then the furthest sound you can hear

• Turn your head slowly from side to side 3x

• Bee’s Breath of humming where you feel it in different areas of the face, 3x

• Hum or use a lower pitched /vooo/ sound for 10 seconds or to your capacity, 3x

• Make a “rowr” sound slowly while opening and closing mouth and jaw, 3-5x

• Take a sip of water

 

 

Hand Hold Sequence for Nervous System Regulation (Hold each for 1-2 minutes)

 

• Hold forehead with one hand while holding your brainstem (base of skull) with the other

• Continue to hold brainstem, take other hand to heart center

• Continue to hold heart center, take other hand to your stomach above belly button

• Rest hands in lap

 

 

Other Exercises for Nervous System Regulation

 

• Kidney-Adrenal Hold: hold right adrenal for 2 minutes, then the left adrenal for 2 minutes

• Connect to sensations with the emotion you are feeling, observe what happens next

• Shift to a place where there is less activation in the body

• Do the opposite—if feeling down, get up and move your body, stand up with arms outstretched in a victory stance (V-shape); if feeling agitated, stand or sit still, root through your seat (if seated), legs, feet, and feeling support at your back (if seated)

Let me know if you have any questions and/or would like to do these exercises together on Zoom. I tried this with SA members. I will need people to confirm with me first by a certain date so I can plan accordingly. I will hopefully be doing something similar for the new tapering services that are here in the States. SA has them in their announcements.

God bless everyone/well wishes to you!

Thank you, I will try these. My anxiety has been through the roof this past week!

18 hours ago, Judecat said:

Thank you, I will try these. My anxiety has been through the roof this past week!

Hi @Judecat I hope that the exercises help you with your anxiety. The nervous system can be quick to respond and then other times not, so give it some repeated practices to ensure a good benefit. Let us know how it works out after a week or so.

This is awesome, thank you for sharing! The Vagal Nerve is so powerful!

On 1/3/2026 at 12:29 AM, Luke said:

Hand Hold Sequence for Nervous System Regulation (Hold each for 1-2 minutes)

 

• Hold forehead with one hand while holding your brainstem (base of skull) with the other

• Continue to hold brainstem, take other hand to heart center

• Continue to hold heart center, take other hand to your stomach above belly button

• Rest hands in lap

This is so soothing, thank you for sharing

On 3/28/2026 at 2:27 PM, littlebird said:

This is so soothing, thank you for sharing

Hi @littlebird , thank you for letting me know. I have so much to share but such little time right now with work and family. I have also had some health setbacks with thyroid/hormones and just general viral stuff going around. So most times it takes me a while to respond. I hope the exercises continue to be soothing and grounding. The more you practice them, the strong the vagus nerve response will be of settling and centered. Take care. Let me know if you have any questions.

On 2/12/2026 at 5:32 PM, HopeHeals said:

This is awesome, thank you for sharing! The Vagal Nerve is so powerful!

Hi @HopeHeals, thank you for letting me know. Without repeating myself with the response I gave above yours, let me know if you have any questions. Practice improves the nervous system response to stress. Take care!

Hello, hope I can ask some questions here.

First, do some of you have positive experience with let's say "commercial" techniques like e.g. Dynamic Neural Retraining System or the Gupta program? I believe someone mentioned DNRS here.

Second, I'm in a state where I really cannot say which of my strange symptoms are the original neural dysbalance, which of them are an adverse reaction and which of them are the withdrawal effects. My question is, regarding any of the excersises, does it even matter? My gut feeling says that the approach should be the same in all the cases: Slowly and safely taper off and try to get the nervous system into an equilibrium again. Am I correct?

2 minutes ago, CzechOut said:

Second, I'm in a state where I really cannot say which of my strange symptoms are the original neural dysbalance, which of them are an adverse reaction and which of them are the withdrawal effects.

It is very hard to unpick which is which.

3 minutes ago, CzechOut said:

My question is, regarding any of the excersises, does it even matter? My gut feeling says that the approach should be the same in all the cases: Slowly and safely taper off and try to get the nervous system into an equilibrium again. Am I correct?

You are correct, it doesn't really matter. Time will help heal the injury, a slow taper will help reduce the WD symptoms and reduce any further harm. Once at zero you can allow your system, to finish healing and get back to normal.

@CzechOut Hi! Thanks for your questions and for @Chippy replying too. All the exercises will strengthen the nervous system. Pick a few a day and rotate or do them all. There’s a lot in that document! But I wanted to share some simple techniques I could type out for others to easily use. I think of the ventral part of the vagus nerve like a muscle— the more you practice the different techniques, the more strengthened its response will be. Typically, its response is feeling more present, centered, and calm. I believe these exercises make a difference in any type of brain healing. Our nervous system controls just about everything, so why not consciously and practically help it along?

I'm reading the Vagus Nerve Reset by Anna Ferguson. I'll be honest - Imma little sceptical it will do anything as I feel I'm a super weird case. But it does make sense when you read it. I'll give the exercises a go and see if any response.

@LostPhil I would like to know how they worked for you. It is like working a muscle--with repeated practice, it will get strengthened. I am been offline for a while. I will update everything on my status soon. I found a book that has lymph exercises that I can share about here as well. Some of them are directly in line with the vagus nerve--interesting...help your nervous system and flush out toxins at the same time. Win-win scenario.

I think that yoga poses, although some are skeptical of it for a variety of reasons (religious, it's for women, it's for flexible people, etc), also work the nervous and lymph systems. I have learned that the yoga poses, outside of a few meditative poses, were not from Indian. There origins were European gymnastics/fitness/etc. Curious how some who think it is directly tied to a religion might feel about it now. I see yoga, or I am calling it mindful movement because I teach from different disciplines, as wellness exercise.

Anyhow...let me know about the nervous system regulation exercises when you can. I am slow to be on here, yet I will respond! Take care my friend!

On 7/8/2026 at 8:50 AM, namastejen1 said:

@LostPhil I would like to know how they worked for you. It is like working a muscle--with repeated practice, it will get strengthened. I am been offline for a while. I will update everything on my status soon. I found a book that has lymph exercises that I can share about here as well. Some of them are directly in line with the vagus nerve--interesting...help your nervous system and flush out toxins at the same time. Win-win scenario.

I think that yoga poses, although some are skeptical of it for a variety of reasons (religious, it's for women, it's for flexible people, etc), also work the nervous and lymph systems. I have learned that the yoga poses, outside of a few meditative poses, were not from Indian. There origins were European gymnastics/fitness/etc. Curious how some who think it is directly tied to a religion might feel about it now. I see yoga, or I am calling it mindful movement because I teach from different disciplines, as wellness exercise.

Anyhow...let me know about the nervous system regulation exercises when you can. I am slow to be on here, yet I will respond! Take care my friend!

Hi Nama - i haven't read the book yet - just the first chapter. I did google and it seems there isn't proven studies vagus nerve exercises work. So its probably in that category of 'if it works for you that's' cool'. But it can't hurt either doing some calming/stretching exercises. I also bought a book on the importance of breathe so want to get through that as well. I tend not to have patience for meditation & breathe work though. I get very antsy. The lymph exercises seem interesting. Thats interesting the poses are European but kind of makes senses as Eastern thought is often about stillness.