vagus nerve - awareness body - violet flame

Paula Youmell, RN Natural Health Education Herbalist, Yoga, Energy Medicine

Vagus Nerve Toning: Key to Creating Constant Calm Yes, I am the vagus nerve pusher… sometimes I feel like an endorphin drug dealer, waltzing around in various Yoga poses, trying to convince people this vagal nerve thing is the answer to their prayers.

My absolute favorite article on the vagus nerve comes from The Cut out of New York magazine.

An article I wrote years ago, this was how I figured out the vagal nerve blessing before anyone was talking about it, through my direct experiences starting Yoga activities 30+ years ago: Why I Love Yoga & Other Thoughts On Whole Food Whole Health Healing

I remind you to dive in, as deeply as you want, to those things that catch your attention (that is your intuition) and spark your curiosity. No pressure to read everything I send. I have this PDF file and can always resend if you misplace it in the world of cyber energy.

I am going to repeat things I mentioned in class about poses. This is so important in understanding how I play through classes. I want you to learn to be comfortable in poses, picking the poses you will work with any given day, and poses you can trade out for that are similar to the pose on the Create Constant Calm Yoga card. For example: Low lunge in either a build strength mode OR a relax to the floor in a stretch mode OR I am going to go down into Lizard pose and really dance it up.

Poses are your container to move, come back into your body to have a somatic experience AND recreate the ability to really listen to your body and its energetic and very physical messages. Poses are a container to move life force – chi – prana – breath so you build vagal nerve tone and live from a space of awareness (in your awareness body dominance) so you can be calm, peaceful, the embodiment of bliss. All of this is DNA healing much like the peaceful healing space of a good savasana at the end of Yoga pose & breath work practice.

The Yoga Pose is a container to: • Be in the Moment • Be in your Breath • Be in your Body & out of your head & the constant monkey mind chatter (see invitation below to look into the wisdom of animals) • The space to breathe away old traumas, vibrational packets, in our energy body • A tool to become aware of who you are at your very core • A tool that invites you to explore how you want to walk through this world, head space or heart space, finding balance in the Sacred Circle Center • Everything you do, on or off the mat, IS your pose work. Think about that for a bit.

By the way, I have many other Yoga pose cards I can send you the PDF files for if you want other options for your daily practice. The UPS Store in Potsdam prints them double sided, on the nice card stock, for less than 2 bucks a card.

I put this Yoga ‘pose’ image here as the Yoga eye exercises are great vagal nerve stimulators to add to your toned vagal nerve super powers.

We will talk about symbols overlaying on the poses.

Example… when you do the Lizard pose: How do I look like a Lizard?

How does a Lizard function in the world?

What are the Lizard’s gifts and wisdoms you can draw upon to walk in wisdom and calm?

This is the Shamanic influence in our Sacred Circle Yoga.

We are all Connected, every being on this planet Earth we call home.

We all have gifts to share with each other, things to teach each other.

Yes, the plants-trees-animals-etc. on this planet have great wisdom to share with you if you relearn to listen to the Heart Beat of ALL, the Heart Beat of Momma Earth.

The back of the Yoga card introduces you simply to the way to infuse your Yoga practice with the Elements.

You can pull the Five Elements Symbols into your various chakras to add that Elements gifts to that area of your body. There are so many fun ways to dance joy into the poses and create meaningful symbolic language personal to you.

I use the Fairy emoji to represent the center of the Sacred Circle, Ether, Wisdom, Balance in ALL. When we are balanced, this is literally the Magic of our Being.

Fairies are symbols of magic, fun, joy, wisdom, and whimsical beings of light heartedness.

Who can’t use some of that balanced, centered, magic in their life?

The seed sound mantras for each chakra are a tool that also supports vagus nerve toning.

As you sit in quiet meditation: • Visualize the chakra • Breathe color into the chakra • Say the seed mantra and feel it vibrate through your throat sending its energy to it chakra.

• Example: root chakra sending it red color and saying “luuuummmm” out loud sending the vibrations to the root area.

• This is a way of moving the energy in the chakras to release the vibration of trauma / pain pockets.

How do I get to my daily Yoga pose and breath work?

I want to offer a short, simple, easy to navigate suggestion to bring the calm into your day without a lot of extra "where will I find time for that Paula?!?

Seriously Paula, have you seen my schedule, walked in my shoes?"

Here is a 7-minute nervous system reset to get the day off in Constant Calm Mode all before breakfast. I shared this with my Colton school folks: • • • •

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raise the spine up creating extension between each vertebra while standing at the kitchen counter getting the coffee brewing: Deep Belly Breathe turn sideways to the counter and reach up into the cupboard at a lateral spinal bend to carefully grab a coffee mug... deep belly breathing turn to the other side repeat, grabbing another cup if someone you live with would appreciate your Act Of Love getting their cup ready turn your butt towards the counter and fold forward while deep breathing (and hopefully NOT picking up shattered coffee mug pieces from faulty lateral ooopsies) turn pelvis back towards the counter, lift the spine up and bend backwards from the Sacred Heart space (sternum – breast bone), deep breathing and NOT hyper extending your neck. in the shower, position yourself comfortable and turn the upper body, from the Sacred Heart Sternum space to twist the upper body and rinse off, yup deep breathe repeat on the opposite side. while bending forward, twisting, etc. to dry off... do so with mindful consciousness to your deep breaths

Use this mindset while doing anything in your daily routine.

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Try Modified Goddess pose while doing dishes & deep breathing.

Stand in modified warrior while hanging laundry: breathe your arms up to hang the clothes, breathe your arms down to get the next piece to hang.

Simply choosing to slow, deep breathe while moving through your day… yup, vagal nerve toning, parasympathetic nerve dominance, rest & digest peace mode!

Be careful with tree or eagle pose while cooking. Not that I have experience losing my balance and grabbing for the hot cast iron pan…

Common Sense for safety prevails!

Many Blessings & Love to you all, Paula Class Video Link