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 hey beautiful humans i'm suki 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 mentioned 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 going to 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 of 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 going to 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 know 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 you're going to 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 going to 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 [Music] 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 going to 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 going to 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 going to do is find your ear canal and you're just going to press towards the back side so towards the back of your head and again we're just going to 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 going to 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 it is 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 of the things 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 stretching this direction nice and gentle if it's uncomfortable or painful stretch less or don't do it pain is counterproductive and stretching down and away and then up and away and again working your way around your ear 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 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 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 going to 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 and you're just going to 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 ah 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 going to do the same thing in reverse we're going to take the skin and we're going to 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 this 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 going to do the same thing on the other side so again you're going to 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 so you might notice that the skin moves more easily in one direction than another that's good information too and then now we're going to reverse that we're going to go down so you're going to slide the skin towards the floor and now we're going to take that skin we're going to stretch it away from the ear so you stretch it 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 it's often productive to go in the direction that the skin moves the most easily 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 a little less strain i notice 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 going to 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 and leave me a comment and let me know how this vegas 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 you