I am the parent of two amazing adult children, and have retired from a long and fulfilling teaching career. Aside from teaching and parenting, I have always been interested in nutrition, health, and naturopathy, and while I believe there is a time and place for medication, my personal belief is that it’s always better to heal yourself naturally as much as possible. Throughout my parenting, teaching, and living, I have unknowingly used bits and pieces of Polyvagal Theory for years. Polyvagal Theory helped me while healing my own health issues, and I continue to be amazed at the human body’s capacity to heal itself. We know now that your mind and body don’t work as separate entities, but that they function together, symbiotically. We can actually harness that power to become healthier in mind, body, and spirit. I honestly believe that I would have been a better parent and teacher had I known about Polyvagal Theory sooner.
Almost twenty years ago, I suffered from bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome accompanied by nerve damage. Despite many attempts, Western medicine simply couldn’t heal these ailments. For two years, I tried everything I could find; eventually, I turned to biofeedback, medical massage, and acupuncture. Biofeedback taught me to calm my nervous system through breath work, and medical massage of my neck, shoulders, and arms helped to reduce my pain. As for acupuncture, I was amazed at how quickly it addressed the pain and helped heal my injury and although I didn’t understand it, I was grateful for the relief. I have since learned that there are many studies that show that acupuncture, massage, and breath work can help stimulate the vagus nerve, which in turn can have anti-inflammatory effects on the body.
In addition to relieving my physical pain, stimulating my vagus nerve also helped me to deal with a long and difficult divorce that caused a lot of anxiety and depression for me. The only place where I felt I could breathe deeply and be released from my anxiety during this time was in yoga class. Of course, I didn’t realize the reason for this was because yoga was stimulating my vagus nerve. When I went through a battle with breast cancer, yoga rescued me once again. I felt alone and scared, and yoga class became a safe zone for me where I could truly relax. I didn’t understand why this was my experience, but activating my vagus nerve was, in reality, relieving my stress. Nowadays, I do yoga and breath work almost every day, because I continue to love the way it makes me feel.
I have a lot more knowledge now than I did in the past, and it has occurred to me that if I’d had this information earlier, I would have been a better mother and teacher. This is why I’m so passionate about sharing what I know with others. Please keep in mind I am not a doctor and I can’t offer professional medical advice, this you must get from your doctor, however, I can share my own story of recovery, a lay person’s perspective on holistic healing, and my own experience with the beneficial effects of regulating the vagus nerve, both with my students and personally. My goal is to put people in control of their bodies by teaching them how to use the vagus nerve to stop the typical cycle of fight or flight because only then does the body feel safe enough to start learning new skills, enjoy more social activity, express creativity, or begin to heal itself. It has helped me turn my life around, and it continues to be the thing I turn to when something in my body is amiss. Not only has it proven extremely effective, but it’s so easy, it almost feels illegal!
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