Vagus nerve reset exercise and finding your place in collective action

WEBVTT

1

This is a Stereo Forest production from StereoForest

2

.com.

3

Information, resources and opportunities to support the show

4

and connect with others are available at StereoForest

5

.com slash Daily Reconnect.

6

This podcast is for informational and educational purposes

7

only and is not a substitute for medical

8

advice, diagnosis or treatment.

9

If you have specific mental health concerns, please

10

consult with a qualified healthcare professional.

11

Now, on to the show.

12

This episode includes a vagus nerve reset exercise

13

and then continues with some motivating words to

14

help you find your place within collective action.

15

Welcome to the Daily Reconnect.

16

It's March 21st and I'm your host Janda

17

Han.

18

This short moment together will help anchor you

19

to the present when you might be feeling

20

detached or disconnected from the world.

21

Together we'll reconnect with this messy reality and

22

after our time together we'll discover some energy

23

to move into our day and continue through

24

this challenge that is modern life.

25

Let's use the practices that speak to you

26

during the session and you can change or

27

you can improvise with anything that doesn't resonate

28

with you.

29

This moment belongs to you so make it

30

whatever it needs to be.

31

In today's exercise we'll practice a vagus nerve

32

reset and it's specifically designed to calm your

33

nervous system down when it's being activated by

34

the news cycle.

35

When we're constantly being exposed to really overwhelming

36

information our nervous systems can become sort of

37

stuck in a state of heightened alert.

38

It's kind of like that fright flight thing

39

going on.

40

So today's exercise it works directly with your

41

vagus nerve and this is the main pathway

42

of your parasympathetic nervous system and that system

43

helps you calm down after stressful things happen.

44

So let's begin.

45

Find a comfortable seated position or a walking

46

pace and take a few deep breaths.

47

Start by gently placing one hand on your

48

chest and one hand on your belly.

49

Feel the rhythm of your breath beneath your

50

palms.

51

The vagus nerve it runs through your chest

52

and your diaphragm and conscious breathing is one

53

of the best ways to stimulate it.

54

Now begin to extend your exhales so they

55

become slightly longer than your inhales.

56

This extended exhale pattern signals safety to your

57

nervous system and that activates your vagus nerve

58

to dampen the stress response that things like

59

that news overwhelm can trigger.

60

As an example you could breathe in for

61

a count of four and out for a

62

count of six.

63

So I'll guide you through three sets where

64

we inhale for a count of four and

65

then exhale for a count of six.

66

But feel free to adjust this for your

67

own capacity or try a different pattern afterwards

68

to see if it works better for you.

69

All right so let's do our first set.

70

Inhale three two one and exhale five four

71

three two and one.

72

Now return to your natural breathing.

73

So as we continue this same breathing pattern

74

bring your attention to your face.

75

This is where many branches of the vagus

76

nerve are located.

77

So gently relax your jaw letting your teeth

78

part slightly and soften the muscles around your

79

eyes and let your forehead become smooth with

80

that relaxation.

81

All right so let's repeat this pattern a

82

couple more times.

83

Inhale three two one.

84

Exhale five four three two one.

85

Inhale three two one and exhale five

86

four three two one and inhale three

87

two one and exhale five four three two

88

and one.

89

And now return to your natural breathing pattern.

90

So remember that your body doesn't distinguish between

91

immediate physical threats and threatening information that you

92

either read or you watch.

93

News that you read can also trigger some

94

of the same survival responses as like these

95

immediate physical danger things.

96

So this vagus nerve practice it reminds your

97

body that in this moment you're physically safe.

98

So now let's move on to some motivational

99

words.

100

So let's build on some of what we've

101

explored together in the previous episodes this week

102

and this is how systems deliberately isolate us.

103

How they attempt to break down our spirit

104

and how we can maintain some of our

105

inner control our inner autonomy despite all of

106

these intense kinds of pressures.

107

So today we're going to take the next

108

step where we connect our individual resistance to

109

collective community action.

110

So even when we're facing systems that are

111

as powerful as capitalism and fascism even the

112

strongest personal resilience that we might have it

113

sure has some limits.

114

Our individual choices they matter for sure but

115

those alone can't effectively create large scale structural

116

change which is really something that we need.

117

For that we need movements we need organized

118

strategic efforts that unite all of our separate

119

unique strengths all of those towards a single

120

shared goal because no one it seems is

121

coming to save us or fix this.

122

So many of these movements they already exist.

123

People in communities across the world they're organizing

124

huge strikes and large scale boycotts.

125

Many countries around the world for example are

126

all boycotting American products on like a massive

127

scale right now.

128

People are working to protect water sources or

129

create mutual aid networks or resist fascist mobilization

130

or even building like co-op alternatives to

131

some of the you know capitalist structures.

132

You don't need to create something new because

133

like all on your own because joining existing

134

efforts it multiplies the impact in ways that

135

fragmented initiatives rarely can achieve.

136

Sometimes they do but a lot of times

137

they don't.

138

So large coordinated movements can apply pressure at

139

multiple points simultaneously.

140

It can sustain a momentum through a whole

141

bunch of setbacks.

142

We're going to have setbacks and you can

143

take advantage of professional or historical knowledge needed

144

for really effective action.

145

And there are so many ways that you

146

can participate and each person is valuable and

147

necessary to the greater whole.

148

The key is finding where your particular circumstances

149

such as your access, your skills, your capacity,

150

how that lines up with what's needed out

151

there.

152

For example I have very limited physical access

153

to a lot of things but I have

154

background in organization planning tech and this is

155

all crucial work too even if you can't

156

be at a place or in a movement

157

in person.

158

You can coordinate communication or campaigns or research

159

or use your tech knowledge or you might

160

be able to provide emotional support to people

161

on the front line or other forms of

162

facilitation that involves your personal or professional skills

163

or even your financial resources if you have

164

them but you don't have the time.

165

If you have physical capacity and availability of

166

course showing up in person at protests or

167

community meetings or defensive actions or political education

168

events all of this creates the visible mass

169

that demonstrates the movement.

170

So consider not just how you can help

171

but ask others where the current needs are

172

and how those two things can intersect with

173

whatever it is that you can offer.

174

Successful movements have included people across a spectrum

175

of involvement.

176

Some people they devote their entire lives to

177

organizing.

178

Other people they contribute in smaller but very

179

consistent and sustained ways while they balance their

180

other responsibilities or capacity.

181

That changes too but every single one of

182

these roles matters.

183

You matter.

184

Every contribution connects and strengthens the collective whole

185

and we really need it right now.

186

The inner sovereignty that we've been discussing this

187

week is about finding that shared purpose.

188

The system that so many of us find

189

ourselves under is designed to divide us.

190

Those systems are powerful but they are not

191

stronger than all of us together of our

192

capacity to recognize each other to organize each

193

other to use our intellect and our strength

194

to build the world that we need.

195

You belong in this work exactly as you

196

are how you are and together in our

197

different capacities from all of our different locations

198

we can form a diverse and sustained resistance.

199

One that could be strong and large enough

200

that no system however entrenched against us it

201

might be can permanently withstand.

202

So that's it for today Friday March 21st.

203

Thanks so much for joining me here and

204

let's connect again next week.

205

Thank you for listening to The Daily Reconnect.

206

Episodes are released on Monday, Wednesday and Friday

207

every week.

208

This show was created, written, hosted, edited and

209

produced by Jen DeHaan.

210

Links to contact information, ways to support the

211

show, transcripts, the free newsletter and our community

212

discord can be found in the show notes.

213

This is a Stereo Forest production.