Your body runs on a kind of internal autopilot — a system called the autonomic nervous system. It has two key settings: the sympathetic nervous system, often called 'fight or flight' — it prepares your body to deal with perceived threats by increasing heart rate, tightening muscles, and sharpening focus — and the parasympathetic nervous system, known as 'rest and digest' — it calms the body, slows the heart rate, supports digestion, and allows healing and repair to take place.
While the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems may seem like opposites, your body actually needs both to function well — just not all the time. The sympathetic state helps you take action, stay alert, and respond to challenges. It's vital for focus, motivation, and keeping you safe in emergencies. But if you're stuck there too long, your body never gets a chance to rest, repair, or digest properly. That’s where the parasympathetic state comes in — it brings the system back into balance. It slows your heart rate, supports healthy digestion, calms your mind, and helps regulate hormones and immune function. Without enough time in this rest-and-repair mode, you’re more likely to experience burnout, anxiety, poor sleep, hormone imbalances, and gut issues.
A healthy nervous system flexibly moves between the two states — energizing you when needed, then allowing deep rest and recovery. The goal isn’t to live in parasympathetic mode all the time, but to be able to return to it easily, so your body doesn’t live in a constant state of stress.
The vagus nerve plays a central role here. It’s a long nerve that connects your brain to many organs — including your heart, lungs, and gut — and it’s the main pathway that helps switch you into that calm, restorative parasympathetic state. When your vagus nerve is activated, your body gets the message that it’s safe — and only then can things like digestion, hormone regulation, and emotional balance really begin to happen.
Activating your vagus nerve at key times during the day can be very beneficial.
Think of vagus nerve activation as something to sprinkle throughout your day, not just save for crisis moments. The more often you remind your body that it’s safe, the easier it becomes to stay regulated — even when life gets busy or unpredictable. Here's how:
1. Morning (After Waking Up)
Why it matters...
Starting your day in a calm, grounded state sets the tone for your nervous system. Many people start their day in a sympathetic state — rushing to get to work or thinking about all the things they need to do in the day.
How to support vagal tone:
Take 2–5 minutes to do deep belly breathing, light humming, or gentle movement like stretching or yoga. This activates the vagus nerve and helps your system start in parasympathetic mode rather than launching straight into stress. Checking your phone might not be a good idea, read more about this below.
2. Before and After Meals
Why it matters...
Digestion happens best in the parasympathetic state — this is literally why it's called the “rest and digest” system. Eating while stressed can lead to bloating, indigestion, or IBS flare-ups.
How to support vagal tone:
Take a few slow breaths before eating, say a gratitude or mindfulness phrase, or even hum quietly while preparing food. After meals, try slow walks, diaphragmatic breathing, or simply resting without screens for 10–15 minutes.
3. During Times of Emotional Stress
Why it matters...
When stress hits — during a tough conversation, unexpected news, feeling overwhelmed or experiencing a sense of urgency and busyness — your body often shifts into fight-or-flight mode. Pausing to activate your vagus nerve can help interrupt that stress cycle and prevent a cascade of anxiety, hormone disruption, or gut symptoms.
How to support vagal tone:
In-the-moment tools like alternate nostril breathing, splashing cold water on your face, or exhaling twice as long as you inhale can help.
4. Evening Wind-Down / Before Bed
Why it matters...
To sleep well, your nervous system must downshift into a deeply parasympathetic state. If you’re wired or scrolling right up until bed, your body won’t get the signal that it’s safe to rest.
How to support vagal tone:
Dim lights, turn off screens, and use calming rituals like some deep breathing, essential oils, warm baths, gentle music, meditation, or another suitable vagus nerve activating activity (see below). These prepare your system for deeper, more restorative sleep.
Comprehensive Parasympathetic Nervous State Activation Strategies:
1. Deep, Slow Diaphragmatic breathing — also called belly breathing or deep abdominal breathing — is one of the most effective and accessible ways to activate the vagus nerve and shift the body into a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state.
What happens when we stay in the sympathetic state too long, too often:
Mental & Emotional Health is affected...
When you're stuck in sympathetic mode, your brain becomes hyper-alert. You might feel anxious, overwhelmed, or like you just can’t switch off. Over time, your ability to focus, make decisions, or feel joy can shrink — and you may start living in survival mode rather than truly experiencing life.
Hormonal Health is affected...
Chronic stress triggers a constant drip of cortisol and adrenaline. That throws off the delicate balance of other hormones — like oestrogen, progesterone, thyroid hormones, even insulin. For women, this can mean irregular cycles, fatigue, low libido, and burnout. For men, it can affect testosterone, mood, and energy.
Gut Health is affected...Your gut and nervous system are deeply connected. When you're in fight-or-flight, blood flow is redirected away from your digestive organs — because digestion isn’t a priority when the brain thinks you’re in danger. That means slower digestion, more bloating, more reflux, and more constipation or diarrhoea. And over time chronic stress can lead to dysbiosis, leaky gut, IBS and food intolerances.
So what are the common triggers that take you out of the parasympathetic nervous state:
1. Checking your mobile phone — especially first thing in the morning, frequently throughout the day, or right before bed — can disrupt your parasympathetic nervous system and push you into a low-grade sympathetic (fight-or-flight) state. Your brain doesn’t distinguish between a true threat and a stressful email, news headline, or social media post. Even a small, negative interaction can cause your body to release cortisol and adrenaline, pulling you out of the rest-and-digest mode. Phones bombard your senses with bright light (especially blue light), constant notifications, sounds, and motion. This keeps your brain in a hyper-alert state, making it harder to downshift into calm, reflective parasympathetic mode. Jumping between apps, messages, and information trains your brain to be in a state of constant scanning and shallow attention. This activates the sympathetic system and increases nervous system "noise," making it harder to return to a grounded, focused state.
What to Do Instead:
2. Stress — Physical, Emotional, or Mental
While we no longer face the immediate dangers of caveman life, like fleeing predators or hunting for survival, our modern world presents a constant stream of chronic, low-level stressors that still trigger the same 'fight-or-flight' response in our nervous system. Things like overflowing inboxes, financial pressure, social comparison, feeling busy and overwhelmed, poor sleep, processed foods etc. all can keep our bodies in a heightened stress state. Unlike our ancestors, we rarely get a good break to recover, which is why learning to regulate the nervous system is more important than ever.
3. Negative Thought Patterns
When you spiral into worry, self-criticism, or catastrophizing, your brain reacts as if you're in danger — even if the threat is only in your mind.
4. Overstimulation
Bright lights, constant noise, notifications, traffic... sensory overload keeps your nervous system on high alert.
5. Poor Sleep
Not getting enough deep, restorative sleep makes the body feel unsafe and exhausted — priming it to stay in a sympathetic, stressed-out state the next day.
6. Caffeine and Stimulants
While a cup of coffee can be fine for many people, too much caffeine activates adrenaline and keeps your body wired for 'fight or flight' instead of 'rest and digest'.
7. Blood Sugar Imbalances
If your blood sugar regularly crashes — for example, after eating lots of processed carbs — the body sees it as an emergency and triggers a stress response to stabilize you.
8. Intense Exercise Without Proper Recovery
Exercise is healthy, but if you overtrain or don’t allow enough time for rest, your body can interpret it as physical stress, keeping you stuck in sympathetic mode. Intense exercise like HIIT can increase the stress load on someone already dealing with high levels of stress. Therefore, gentle exercises like walking, swimming, yoga etc. can be more beneficial for some people.
9. Pain and Inflammation
Chronic pain, gut inflammation, or any unresolved physical discomfort signals to your nervous system that you're under threat.
10. Holding the Breath or Shallow Breathing
Many people unconsciously hold their breath when stressed or breathe shallowly into the chest — both of which tell the body that it’s not safe.
11. Unresolved Trauma
Past trauma — even if you think you've 'moved on' — can leave your nervous system more sensitive, and small triggers can reactivate stress responses without warning.
12. Poor Posture
Slouching forward — like when you’re hunched over your phone — compresses the chest and diaphragm, subtly telling the brain that you’re in a protective, defensive position.
13. Nutrient Deficiencies
Lack of essential nutrients like magnesium, B vitamins, and omega-3s reduces your body's ability to regulate stress properly.
14. Digestive Stress
Eating too quickly, overeating, or consuming irritating foods stresses the gut — and because the gut and brain are closely connected, it stresses the brain too.
15. Dehydration
Even mild dehydration signals to the body that resources are scarce — leading to a low-level but persistent activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
16. Eating disorders and undereating
When you consistently under-eat or deprive your body of essential nutrients, your brain perceives this as a threat to survival, much like famine. This activates the stress response system, increasing cortisol and adrenaline, and suppressing functions that aren’t critical in a crisis, like digestion, reproduction, and immunity.
In summary, while there are many things in our modern lives that have the potential to keep us in a chronic state of fight-or-flight, there are some really powerful ways to help bring your nervous system back into balance and activate a state of rest-and-digest. I recommend picking one or two activities to consistently incorporate into your days. Come back to the list of ideas when you feel ready to add more.
I hope this helps.
Amanda x
While the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems may seem like opposites, your body actually needs both to function well — just not all the time. The sympathetic state helps you take action, stay alert, and respond to challenges. It's vital for focus, motivation, and keeping you safe in emergencies. But if you're stuck there too long, your body never gets a chance to rest, repair, or digest properly. That’s where the parasympathetic state comes in — it brings the system back into balance. It slows your heart rate, supports healthy digestion, calms your mind, and helps regulate hormones and immune function. Without enough time in this rest-and-repair mode, you’re more likely to experience burnout, anxiety, poor sleep, hormone imbalances, and gut issues.
A healthy nervous system flexibly moves between the two states — energizing you when needed, then allowing deep rest and recovery. The goal isn’t to live in parasympathetic mode all the time, but to be able to return to it easily, so your body doesn’t live in a constant state of stress.
The vagus nerve plays a central role here. It’s a long nerve that connects your brain to many organs — including your heart, lungs, and gut — and it’s the main pathway that helps switch you into that calm, restorative parasympathetic state. When your vagus nerve is activated, your body gets the message that it’s safe — and only then can things like digestion, hormone regulation, and emotional balance really begin to happen.
Activating your vagus nerve at key times during the day can be very beneficial.
Think of vagus nerve activation as something to sprinkle throughout your day, not just save for crisis moments. The more often you remind your body that it’s safe, the easier it becomes to stay regulated — even when life gets busy or unpredictable. Here's how:
1. Morning (After Waking Up)
Why it matters...
Starting your day in a calm, grounded state sets the tone for your nervous system. Many people start their day in a sympathetic state — rushing to get to work or thinking about all the things they need to do in the day.
How to support vagal tone:
Take 2–5 minutes to do deep belly breathing, light humming, or gentle movement like stretching or yoga. This activates the vagus nerve and helps your system start in parasympathetic mode rather than launching straight into stress. Checking your phone might not be a good idea, read more about this below.
2. Before and After Meals
Why it matters...
Digestion happens best in the parasympathetic state — this is literally why it's called the “rest and digest” system. Eating while stressed can lead to bloating, indigestion, or IBS flare-ups.
How to support vagal tone:
Take a few slow breaths before eating, say a gratitude or mindfulness phrase, or even hum quietly while preparing food. After meals, try slow walks, diaphragmatic breathing, or simply resting without screens for 10–15 minutes.
3. During Times of Emotional Stress
Why it matters...
When stress hits — during a tough conversation, unexpected news, feeling overwhelmed or experiencing a sense of urgency and busyness — your body often shifts into fight-or-flight mode. Pausing to activate your vagus nerve can help interrupt that stress cycle and prevent a cascade of anxiety, hormone disruption, or gut symptoms.
How to support vagal tone:
In-the-moment tools like alternate nostril breathing, splashing cold water on your face, or exhaling twice as long as you inhale can help.
4. Evening Wind-Down / Before Bed
Why it matters...
To sleep well, your nervous system must downshift into a deeply parasympathetic state. If you’re wired or scrolling right up until bed, your body won’t get the signal that it’s safe to rest.
How to support vagal tone:
Dim lights, turn off screens, and use calming rituals like some deep breathing, essential oils, warm baths, gentle music, meditation, or another suitable vagus nerve activating activity (see below). These prepare your system for deeper, more restorative sleep.
Comprehensive Parasympathetic Nervous State Activation Strategies:
1. Deep, Slow Diaphragmatic breathing — also called belly breathing or deep abdominal breathing — is one of the most effective and accessible ways to activate the vagus nerve and shift the body into a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state.
- Try diaphragmatic breathing by inhaling deeply, filling up your chest then your belly and let it expand — slow inhales of 4–6 seconds followed by even slower exhales of 6–8 seconds. Repeat for 2-5 minutes (or longer), focusing on the rise of your belly.
- The vagus nerve runs down from the brainstem through the diaphragm, the large muscle just below your lungs. When you breathe deeply and slowly using your diaphragm (instead of shallow chest breathing), the rhythmic movement gently massages and stimulates the vagus nerve, which then sends calming signals to your brain and internal organs. Also, when you're breathing slowly and deeply, it sends a strong signal to the brain that you're safe. This tells the nervous system it’s okay to turn off survival mode
- Activities like humming, chanting “OM,” or singing stimulate the vagus nerve through vibration. Can you do this while getting dressed, driving in the car, preparing meals or getting ready ready for bed?
- Gargle water vigorously for 30–60 seconds activates muscles linked to the vagus nerve.
- Splash cold water on your face for 30 seconds or take a cold rinse in the shower (even just 30 seconds at the end of your regular shower, focusing on your chest, neck, and face). Cold exposure to the face — especially around the eyes, nose, and mouth — activates cranial nerves that connect directly with the vagus nerve
- Practices that foster feelings of compassion and connection activate parasympathetic pathways.
- Especially slow, mindful styles (like yin yoga or restorative yoga) that emphasize breath and body awareness.
- Gentle, repetitive movements (like walking, tai chi, Qi Gong or swaying) send signals to your brain that you are not needing to be in survival mode.
- Genuine laughter releases tension and stimulates vagal activity. Watch something funny or laugh intentionally.
- Positive social interactions, face-to-face conversation, and eye contact increase vagal tone.
- Particularly neck, foot, and abdominal massage can calm the nervous system. Self-massage works too!
- Visualize safe, calming scenes (like being on a beach or hugged by a loved one) to trigger parasympathetic responses. Pairing this with slow deep breathing can be very relaxing.
- Systematically tensing and releasing muscle groups brings awareness and relaxation to the body.
- Using your voice loudly and intentionally (singing loudly in the car counts!) stimulates the vagus nerve.
- Repeating calming prayers or mantras rhythmically (out loud or silently) can have a similar effect to chanting.
- Focusing daily on things you're grateful for shifts you into a calmer, heart-centred state.
What happens when we stay in the sympathetic state too long, too often:
Mental & Emotional Health is affected...
When you're stuck in sympathetic mode, your brain becomes hyper-alert. You might feel anxious, overwhelmed, or like you just can’t switch off. Over time, your ability to focus, make decisions, or feel joy can shrink — and you may start living in survival mode rather than truly experiencing life.
Hormonal Health is affected...
Chronic stress triggers a constant drip of cortisol and adrenaline. That throws off the delicate balance of other hormones — like oestrogen, progesterone, thyroid hormones, even insulin. For women, this can mean irregular cycles, fatigue, low libido, and burnout. For men, it can affect testosterone, mood, and energy.
Gut Health is affected...Your gut and nervous system are deeply connected. When you're in fight-or-flight, blood flow is redirected away from your digestive organs — because digestion isn’t a priority when the brain thinks you’re in danger. That means slower digestion, more bloating, more reflux, and more constipation or diarrhoea. And over time chronic stress can lead to dysbiosis, leaky gut, IBS and food intolerances.
So what are the common triggers that take you out of the parasympathetic nervous state:
1. Checking your mobile phone — especially first thing in the morning, frequently throughout the day, or right before bed — can disrupt your parasympathetic nervous system and push you into a low-grade sympathetic (fight-or-flight) state. Your brain doesn’t distinguish between a true threat and a stressful email, news headline, or social media post. Even a small, negative interaction can cause your body to release cortisol and adrenaline, pulling you out of the rest-and-digest mode. Phones bombard your senses with bright light (especially blue light), constant notifications, sounds, and motion. This keeps your brain in a hyper-alert state, making it harder to downshift into calm, reflective parasympathetic mode. Jumping between apps, messages, and information trains your brain to be in a state of constant scanning and shallow attention. This activates the sympathetic system and increases nervous system "noise," making it harder to return to a grounded, focused state.
What to Do Instead:
- Wait at least 20–30 minutes after waking to check your phone
- Turn off unnecessary notifications
- Set screen-free times, especially before meals, during movement, and before bed
- Use Do Not Disturb mode when doing vagus-activating practices
2. Stress — Physical, Emotional, or Mental
While we no longer face the immediate dangers of caveman life, like fleeing predators or hunting for survival, our modern world presents a constant stream of chronic, low-level stressors that still trigger the same 'fight-or-flight' response in our nervous system. Things like overflowing inboxes, financial pressure, social comparison, feeling busy and overwhelmed, poor sleep, processed foods etc. all can keep our bodies in a heightened stress state. Unlike our ancestors, we rarely get a good break to recover, which is why learning to regulate the nervous system is more important than ever.
3. Negative Thought Patterns
When you spiral into worry, self-criticism, or catastrophizing, your brain reacts as if you're in danger — even if the threat is only in your mind.
4. Overstimulation
Bright lights, constant noise, notifications, traffic... sensory overload keeps your nervous system on high alert.
5. Poor Sleep
Not getting enough deep, restorative sleep makes the body feel unsafe and exhausted — priming it to stay in a sympathetic, stressed-out state the next day.
6. Caffeine and Stimulants
While a cup of coffee can be fine for many people, too much caffeine activates adrenaline and keeps your body wired for 'fight or flight' instead of 'rest and digest'.
7. Blood Sugar Imbalances
If your blood sugar regularly crashes — for example, after eating lots of processed carbs — the body sees it as an emergency and triggers a stress response to stabilize you.
8. Intense Exercise Without Proper Recovery
Exercise is healthy, but if you overtrain or don’t allow enough time for rest, your body can interpret it as physical stress, keeping you stuck in sympathetic mode. Intense exercise like HIIT can increase the stress load on someone already dealing with high levels of stress. Therefore, gentle exercises like walking, swimming, yoga etc. can be more beneficial for some people.
9. Pain and Inflammation
Chronic pain, gut inflammation, or any unresolved physical discomfort signals to your nervous system that you're under threat.
10. Holding the Breath or Shallow Breathing
Many people unconsciously hold their breath when stressed or breathe shallowly into the chest — both of which tell the body that it’s not safe.
11. Unresolved Trauma
Past trauma — even if you think you've 'moved on' — can leave your nervous system more sensitive, and small triggers can reactivate stress responses without warning.
12. Poor Posture
Slouching forward — like when you’re hunched over your phone — compresses the chest and diaphragm, subtly telling the brain that you’re in a protective, defensive position.
13. Nutrient Deficiencies
Lack of essential nutrients like magnesium, B vitamins, and omega-3s reduces your body's ability to regulate stress properly.
14. Digestive Stress
Eating too quickly, overeating, or consuming irritating foods stresses the gut — and because the gut and brain are closely connected, it stresses the brain too.
15. Dehydration
Even mild dehydration signals to the body that resources are scarce — leading to a low-level but persistent activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
16. Eating disorders and undereating
When you consistently under-eat or deprive your body of essential nutrients, your brain perceives this as a threat to survival, much like famine. This activates the stress response system, increasing cortisol and adrenaline, and suppressing functions that aren’t critical in a crisis, like digestion, reproduction, and immunity.
In summary, while there are many things in our modern lives that have the potential to keep us in a chronic state of fight-or-flight, there are some really powerful ways to help bring your nervous system back into balance and activate a state of rest-and-digest. I recommend picking one or two activities to consistently incorporate into your days. Come back to the list of ideas when you feel ready to add more.
I hope this helps.
Amanda x
