V – Vagus Nerve

Introduction

In this A–Z of Stress & Anxiety, each letter names a common doorway into understanding how the human system responds under pressure. Some entries focus on thoughts. Others on behaviour, mood, or fatigue.

This letter turns our attention to the body.

The vagus nerve sits at the centre of how we regulate, recover, connect, and settle. It is not a fashionable wellness concept. It is a fundamental part of our physiology. When we speak about feeling wired, on edge, shut down, socially withdrawn, or unusually reactive, we are often describing shifts in vagal regulation.

Stress and anxiety are not abstract experiences. They are embodied states. The vagus nerve is one of the main pathways through which those states are expressed.

What the Vagus Nerve Often Looks Like in Real Life

Most people do not think about their vagus nerve. They notice the experience instead.

They describe:

• A tight chest when under pressure

• A lump in the throat during conflict

• Digestive discomfort before a difficult meeting

• Feeling suddenly exhausted after a period of stress

• Struggling to switch off even when nothing urgent is happening

• Feeling detached or flat after prolonged overwhelm

Others describe the opposite pattern:

• Difficulty relaxing even on holiday

• Irritability over small disruptions

• Feeling constantly “on”

• Trouble making eye contact when anxious

• Avoiding social interaction despite wanting connection

These are not personality flaws. They are nervous system states.

In clinical work, I often hear people say, “I don’t know why I react like this.” When we explore further, it becomes clear that the reaction is not chosen. It is automatic. It reflects the balance between activation and regulation in the autonomic nervous system.

What Is Often Misunderstood About This

The vagus nerve is frequently discussed online as something to “stimulate” or “hack”.

This framing can be misleading.

The nervous system is not broken and waiting to be fixed. It is responding to load. Every human nervous system is constantly adapting to pressure, responsibility, relationships, uncertainty, and accumulated stress.

It is also misunderstood as being only about calmness. In reality, the vagus nerve is involved in far more than relaxation. It influences heart rate, digestion, inflammation, vocal tone, facial expression, and our capacity for social engagement.

Trying harder does not directly regulate the vagus nerve. Logic alone does not override autonomic patterns. Motivation does not neutralise stress chemistry.

When someone says, “I know I shouldn’t feel this way,” what they are describing is often a gap between cognitive understanding and physiological capacity.

What Is Happening Underneath

The vagus nerve is a major component of the autonomic nervous system, or ANS. The ANS has two broad branches:

• The sympathetic nervous system, associated with mobilisation, alertness, and threat response

• The parasympathetic nervous system, associated with restoration, digestion, and recovery

The vagus nerve is the primary pathway of the parasympathetic system.

When sympathetic activation dominates for too long, we experience tension, vigilance, shallow breathing, and difficulty switching off. This is adaptive in short bursts. It becomes costly when sustained.

Polyvagal theory adds nuance to this picture. It suggests that the vagus nerve has different functional pathways linked to safety and connection on one hand, and immobilisation on the other. In simple terms, our system shifts between:

• Mobilisation when something feels threatening

• Shutdown when threat feels overwhelming

• Social engagement when we feel sufficiently safe

These shifts are not conscious decisions. They are biological adjustments.

Over time, cumulative stress contributes to what is known as allostatic load. Allostasis refers to the body’s process of maintaining stability through change. Allostatic load reflects the wear and tear that results from repeated or prolonged adaptation.

In the Mind Works model, this is where the Pressure Gauge becomes useful. The gauge represents the total internal and external load on the system. As pressure rises, regulation becomes more fragile. Small triggers create larger responses. Recovery takes longer.

The vagus nerve plays a central role in whether the system can return to baseline once activated.

One way we can observe this indirectly is through heart rate variability, or HRV. HRV measures the variation in time between heartbeats. Higher variability is generally associated with greater flexibility in the nervous system. Lower variability often reflects strain or reduced adaptability.

HRV does not diagnose stress. It does not label someone as healthy or unhealthy. It offers an indication of how much capacity the system currently has.

When HRV is consistently low, it often aligns with what people describe subjectively as being stretched, depleted, or on edge.

How This Fits Within the Mind Works Framework

Within the Process of Change, understanding comes before managing. Recognising that anxiety, fatigue, irritability, or shutdown are rooted in autonomic regulation reframes the experience.

At certain Tower Block levels, executive function narrows. Emotional reactivity increases. The Protective Self becomes louder. We may seek comfort, avoid confrontation, overwork, withdraw, or become self-critical. These behaviours make sense in context. They are attempts to stabilise under load.

The Pillars of Health also intersect here. Sleep, nutrition, movement, social connection, and psychological safety all influence vagal tone. When multiple pillars are under strain, regulation weakens.

This is not a moral failure. It is a systems issue.

Repeated stress can also reinforce negative core beliefs. If the system remains activated for long periods, experiences of overwhelm can become encoded as “I cannot cope” or “Something is wrong with me”. In reality, the nervous system is signalling pressure.

When we see the vagus nerve as part of a broader regulatory system, rather than a standalone target, the picture becomes coherent.

Orientation Rather Than Solutions

It can be tempting to search for techniques that immediately calm the system. While certain practices can support regulation, orientation is more important than optimisation.

If someone is chronically overloaded, asking them to relax without adjusting pressure is unrealistic. If allostatic load remains high, regulation will remain fragile.

The first step is often recognition.

• What pressures are currently active

• How long they have been active

• Which Pillars are most depleted

• Where in the Tower Block the system feels to be operating

From this position of understanding, change becomes more sustainable.

Stabilisation often precedes ambition. Regulation precedes transformation. The nervous system requires safety before growth.

Closing Reflection

The vagus nerve is not a trend. It is a reminder that stress and anxiety are embodied experiences.

When the system feels unsettled, reactive, or shut down, it is not evidence of weakness. It is evidence of load.

In some cases, focused support that centres on nervous system stabilisation can be helpful. Reset-style work, whether brief or structured, often begins by mapping pressure and restoring a sense of physiological safety before addressing goals or performance.

When regulation improves, clarity follows.

And when clarity returns, change becomes possible.