Latest / The Dr. Sarah Hensley Show / Episode 48, Season 1: The Vagus Nerve

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Episode 48, Season 1: The Vagus Nerve · The Dr. Sarah Hensley Show

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Love Dog Podcast. I'm your co host
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Raina Butcher here with our host, doctor Sarah Hinsley. Hi, hi,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: now the owner and CEO of the Love Doc relationship
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  Speaker 1: coaching services.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yay, the rebrand finally, Well, by the time everybody listens
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to this and they complained this.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: And we're kind of like, oh, I'm.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: So tired, I can't even. It's a lot like think
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: right now. I'm going to try to do my best
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to think for everybody out there today. But we have
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: definitely exhausted ourselves. We worked all weekend on our we
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: had a work retreat. So just if I trip over
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: my words a little bit, forgive me.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Just bear with us, and I'm going to try to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: do as little talking as possible. That's how y'all like
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: it anyway.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Right, I'm just kidding, Right, it's still but hurt over
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: more reviews.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: I'm still but hurt. No, listen, I love y'all's reviews.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I do.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just a sensitive person and so but I take
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: them to heart, and I take accountability and I take
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: them into consideration.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Someone said that we talk about ourselves too much, so.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: We're going to try not to do. We talk about
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: our trauma too much.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I learned a lot of lessons from that trauma.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: It's hard not to talk about it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I wouldn't know anything, I know. I mean, yeah,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I went to school for psychology. But I'm telling you,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: nothing is a better teacher than your own personal experience.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So I appreciate that review, and we're going to back
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: off on that just a little bit. But just know
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: that a lot of how we got to where we
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: are is because of those things. So we are taking
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: that into consideration, and we also value our personal experiences.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: We'll just kind of leave it there.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, we value our personal experiences, but we also value
• 1:42
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• 1:43
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• 1:44
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  Speaker 3: Why Cozy Earth came into your life?
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  Speaker 2: It is show you the way. It came right at
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• 3:06
  Speaker 1: So thank you Cozy Earth. All right today, Episode forty eight.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: It's crazy that it's episode forty eight.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: We're almost at fifty two, which means it'll be a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: year and then we're gonna start season two. And we
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: got new things coming and a new we're gonna do
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a new set and it's gonna be really exciting. We're
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: gonna we're girly this setup.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: So for those of those of you that watch us
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: on YouTube or you know, you get the visual effect
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of us, then you're gonna see some some more pain's
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: gonna make it cool, yeah, and some like we're gonna
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: get a neon sign.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be fun. Yeah, I'm excited.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Anyway, today we are going to talk about the vegas nerves.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, the vegas nerve is very, very important. It is
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the longest cranial nerve that we have, and it is
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: essentially responsible for pulling you back down out of a
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  Speaker 2: fight flight er freeze response and into a parasympathetic nervous
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: system state, which is also known as a ventral vaguel state.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And anybody who has experienced any kind of trauma and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: who struggles with anxiety, anybody who struggles with PTSD or CPTSD,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: those of us with attachment traumas can all benefit from
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: learning how to work with your vegus nerve.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So I know this is something that you teach in
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: your practice, in your hybrid group. So of course without
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: completely giving away all the goods which we know you
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: can't do. Yeah, just touch a little bit about some
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of the exercises around how to control the vagus nerve
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: ways that you know, real life circumstances that you might
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: be in in ways to kind of calm the nervous
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: system by using those exercises.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, So, the vegus nerve is actually extremely complicated.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: It starts in our neck and it like basically branches
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: out to so many organs. It is a very calm,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: complex nerve and it has a lot of functions. So
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: let me just cover that first. So essentially, we have
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a fight or flight state, which is sympathetic nervous system activity.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And what happens in sympathetic nervous system activity is we
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: stop digesting our food because it takes a lot of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: energy to digest. Our heart rate increases, our cortisol levels rise,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: our breathing becomes rapid and shallow. So essentially we know
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: we distribute our blood into our muscles so that we
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: can either fight off whatever the threat is or we
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: can run away from whatever the threat is. So it
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: prepares us to essentially deal with a threat, right, and Unfortunately,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: for those of us with attachment traumas, and for most
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: humans really, our brain can't very well tell the difference
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: between an emotional threat and an actual physical threat to
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: your own survival. And so when we have difficult situations
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: with our romantic partner, for example, our vagus nerve can
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: over time, if we have lots of attachment traumas and
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: relationship stress sort of wear out. It can become the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: term that slang term is floppy. Okay, because the clinical
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: term to fix your vegas nerve is called toning the
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: vegas nerve. So the vegas nerve, when activated, should sort
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of reverse all of those functions. It makes you start
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: digesting your food, It makes you be able to breathe slower.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: It actually plays a role in inflammation. So if you
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: are presented with a threat, your inflammatory responses will increase
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: because it thinks you might get cut or bruised or
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: something like that, right, and so you pump out pro
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: inflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory immune markers. So the vegus
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: nerve kicks in and sort of tells the immune system
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  Speaker 2: calm down. Where, Okay, you don't need to send all
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: of those inflammation cells, you know, to out throughout the body.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I should say, I told you guys, I'm tired, so sorry,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: job like, we have been working insane hours. So okay.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: So you know, it helps you digest your food, It
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: helps you restore normal breathing, It helps the heart rate
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: slow down after you've pumped out adrenaline and cortisol. It
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: helps with stopping inflammation. So it plays a very critical
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: role in modulating our stress response. And so those of
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: us that had early attachment traumas specifically, I would say
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: it's most prevalent for the fearful avoidant, because we know
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: they have the most trauma. The vagus nerve starts wearing
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: out from early childhood because it's being used so often
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: to pull you out a fight or flight and pull
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you back down into a parasympathetic nervous system state, which
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: is also known as rest or digest or ventral vagel
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: And so you know all of that over reactivity, I
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: mean it gets worn out. Yeah, it just does. Whenever
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: you call upon any part of your body over and
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: over again, over time, it's going to wear out more.
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  Speaker 2: Think of it as somebody who works with their hands
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and who's a carpenter, for example, their hands are going
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: to get callous and they're more prone to arthritis, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: you know, you use something over and over again, is
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: just going to get worn out. And that's what happens
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  Speaker 2: to the vagus nerve. And so a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: with attachment traumas especially come into adulthood with a dysregulated
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: or dysfunctional vague nerve. And that is a major problem
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  Speaker 2: because the ability to pull yourself out of dysregulation and
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  Speaker 2: pull yourself back into a regulated state, which is the
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: hallmark of being able to execute securely attached behaviors, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: to pause before you react, and to use discernment, and
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: to be able to think on your feet very well
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and determine action and consequence. All of the things we
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: need to be a good relationship partner are going to
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: be affected if your vegas nerve is not functioning in
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  Speaker 2: an optimal way. So there are exercises, there are things
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: that we can do resources to improve the functioning of
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: our vegas nerve, and I teach some of that. Of course,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of them, so I don't spend
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: the whole time teaching every exercise that exists. Some of
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  Speaker 2: the more well known ones are meditation, humming and singing
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: because it stimulates the vegus nerve in a very specific
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: way because the start of it is in our throat.
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  Speaker 2: So humming, singing, all in a very positive way can
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  Speaker 2: help tone the vegas nerves. So sing in the shower,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: let it out, let it go, sing in your car.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Hum I've gotten very used to humming throughout the day
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: in order to stimulate or retone my vegas nerve.
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  Speaker 3: That relaxes the mind.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: To humming, guys, because I've read something I don't remember
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: exactly how it was worded, but if you're humming, you can't.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: There's something that happens to the brain when you hum
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: where you can't have rapid thoughts or ruminating thoughts.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So it's all connected, Okay. So it is definitely connected
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: to our autonomic nervous system functioning, and so things like
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: rumination and anxiety and the somatic sensations of anxiety, but
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: also the cognitive aspects of anxiety, like that rapid thinking
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: and that rumination are going to decrease when our nervous
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: system is regulated. And so this isn't just for people
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: that have attachment trauma, although people with attachment trauma are
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: much more likely to develop anxiety or depression or OCD
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: or ADHD and all of the more common mental illnesses
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: that we see. And so doing these vagus nerve exercises
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: on a regular basis can really help. They can really
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: help someone who is learning to heal their nerves system
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: heal out a much rapid, more rapid pace than not
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: doing anything at all with your vegas nerve. And there's
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: a really great book out there. It is in my
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Amazon store on all my socials. So if you go
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: to any of my socials, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: will see my link tree page. Inside of my link
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: tree page is my Amazon store. Inside of my Amazon
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: store is this book and it's called Accessing the Healing
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Power of the Vegas Nerve by Stanley Rosenberg. And it
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: starts with very simple exercises that you can do on
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: your own, and it works its way up to more
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: advanced exercises that you can do with your chiropractor or
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: things that you can do with a partner to help
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: position you because you have to get into different positions.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Some of those may be laying on the ground and
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: so if you have trouble, you know, getting from sitting
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: to standing or laying to standing. You might need somebody
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: to assist you in some of these exercises, and I've
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: found them very, very beneficial in my journey. So they
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: were really an adjunct to proper emotional processing and neurofeedback,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: which is the biggest thing that I teach in my practice,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: and for me, it was the biggest source of creating
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: a safe nervous system that I could access. That was
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I would say it was the biggest resource I had,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: was proper emotional processing and neurofeedback. But as an adjunct
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: or an addition to those things, I felt like this
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: really sped up my progress and I noticed most of
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: the changes in my physical well being.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: And that was going to be my next question.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously, I know you're not a medical doctor,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but I'm not.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And this is not medical medical advice, not medical advice.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: But that was going to be my next kind of
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: avenue was to talk about the vagus nerve. And obviously,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you know when it's used over and over again and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: it kind of wears out. Not only do we have
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the result of things like mental illness, but we have
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: these physical.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Ailments as well.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, and some of those physical ailments you know, just
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: explain how they may show up.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Right, So if we go back to what the function
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: of the vegas nerve is, it helps regulate digestion, heart rate, breathing, inflammation,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: and emotion. So it regulates all five of those things.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Those are things, right, So if we have a dysfunctional
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: vegas nerve, let's go through those again. Digestion, you're going
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to have gut issues, mostly issues in gut motility, so
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: we have you know, if your gut's not moving or
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: if it's moving too fast. You know what results from that.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: We have inflammation, which can be very closely tied to
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: histamine as well. So a lot of people that have
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: a very worn out vegas nerve will be diagnosed with
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: mass cell activation syndrome. They will have histamine intolerances. And
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: you and I both have experienced that in a chronic form,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and of course for me it has gotten much much better.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: I used to have chronic itching. My skin would just
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: feel raw, it would feel sun burnt, and it would
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: come out of the blue. And so I was thinking
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: it's a dermatological problem, right. I was for so many years, guys,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: You have to know I was doctor chasing for all
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: of these issues that I'm talking about that are related
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: to vegas nerve dysfunction and chronic stress and trauma. So
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: you might have hives. I see so many people in
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: my practice that struggle with chronic hives, chronic inflammation of
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: the skin, chronic inflammation anywhere in the body, so achy
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: and painful joints. Chronic fatigue syndrome has been linked to
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: poor functioning vegas nerve. Again, let's talk about the emotions.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: It regulates emotion, right, and so when we aren't dysregulated,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: we have fight flight freeze and Vaughn, a lot of
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: people live in functional freeze. And if we go back
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: to the episode with Dana Dozzie, she talks a lot
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: about functional freeze and how we can stay there for
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, our whole lives if we don't fix it.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Which is functional freeze. Again, for those of you that
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: don't remember, is this blended state between going into sympathetic
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: fighter flight and then going into level two trauma, which
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: is a dorsal vagel response known as freeze. So it
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: essentially we operate in the state where we are either
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: on and when we're on and in fight or flight,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: we can push through, we can be productive. We can
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: clean our house, we can cook a meal, we can
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: get our work done, we can get to the gym
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: and you know, get that cardio in and all of
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: those things. And then when we're off, we are just off.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: It is like just falling in the bed and doom
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: scrolling or door dashing, smoking weed, whatever it is that
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: can turn your nervous system off, because when the vegus
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: nerve isn't functioning well, it's really hard to move in
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: and out of different states. Like we may have a
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: stressful moment, say at work with our boss, and we
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: launch into fight or flight. We should be able to
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: when that stressful moment is over easily come back to
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: on into regulation. But that's not what happens. When our
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: vagus nerve is dysfunctional. We're going to even go launch
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: further into a freeze response, which means we're going to
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: get more activated instead of less activated. And that's when
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: we're going to see a lot of emotional dysregulation anxiety.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I mean I would cry when I was that dysregulated,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I would feel depressed. I would move in and out
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: of lots of different dysfunctional emotional states well.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And the tricky thing about functional freeze. I think is
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: because because you're in the free state and you're so
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: almost unaware, right, you're very unaware that you don't that
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you feel like you're okay.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, you feel like you're okay in freeze. Freeze is
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: a And here's the thing. All of these were evolutionarily adaptive.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: You know, they help us survive, but they're meant to
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: be short term responses in terms of like, if we
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: encountered predator, some predators, it might be best to lay
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: down and play dead or quote unquote free to ensure
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: our survival. There are times in our life where we
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: need to compartmentalize. If we're in the middle of a
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: work meeting or I'm getting ready to do this podcast,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I can't be balling my eyes out or freaking out
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: on the podcast, right, I have to be able to compartmentalize.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: And so that actually serves a purpose, but it should
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: serve a very limited purpose in our lives. And for
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of us that have had chronic stress, especially
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: relational stress and relational attachment trauma, we have been in
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and out of these sympathetic or dorsal vagel responses for years, decades,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: over and over and over and it's really sad to say,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: but I never knew what it felt like to feel
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: truly safe in my body until I started doing this work,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: and the profound difference in that feeling of feeling safe
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: compared to living in functional freeze or some people just
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: live in fight or flight, which is really really painful.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: You know, I didn't even know how to go into
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: freeze for a while. It wasn't until my trauma got
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: really really bad that you know, freeze took over because
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: there was no choice. But living in fight or flight
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: is no walk in the park either.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: No, that's it might be tougher.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: It was tougher. I would take freeze over. Yeah. And
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: this is an interesting thing that I see in my practice.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: So many people go, I wish I was a dismissive avoidant.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I'd rather be frozen than all these things, and to
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: feel all these feelings chronically and to feel chronically anxious.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: And I agree with them, I say, I know, I
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: get it. I've been there. And although you know you
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: lose your capacity for joy in freeze, and you can
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: feel very depressed and very hopeless in a freeze response,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I'd take it over anxiety any day. Lastly, just from
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: a physically painful right, you know, perspective.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: A physical standpoint of it first.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but the vagus nerve is responsible for helping us
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: be able to get into a space where our prefrontal
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: cortex sort of takes over. And when our prefrontal cortex
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: takes over, that is our rational brain. That's also where
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of our compassion and empathy live, and it's
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: where our openness and curiosity live. It's where the most
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: beautiful parts of our personality live. It's really the part
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: of the brain that makes us very human. And so
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the vegus nerve pulls us back down into regulation so
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: our prefrontal cortex can take over and we can become
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: individuals who are deliberate and use discernment before we think
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: or before we speak I'm sorry again, guys, I'm tired
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: before we act, and it allows us to just put
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: the pause in and to say, wait, is this really
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: how I want to handle this situation? And it gives
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: us that maturity and that accountability where we can say,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: if I do this, this thing is going to happen. Right.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: That might not be the best move for me, But
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: when we have a poorly, poorly functioning vegas nerve, and
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: we're stuck in these other nervous system states. We're going
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: to be operating from the hip. We're gonna shooting from
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: the hip all the time, and that can lead to
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of regret of saying things and doing things
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: that aren't going to bring us the outcomes that we
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: want in our life.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: So for the people who are listening and fascinated me
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: included by this stuff, you know, but I know for
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: some who also may be listening, it might be.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: Like like over their head a little bit. For those people, you.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Know, where would you suggest they start breath work?
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, breath work? So I mentioned meditation, I mentioned humming
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: and singing. There are some exercises that are way too
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: complicated to describe. It has to do with eye movement
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: and the positioning of your head and things like that.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: So listening on the podcast to these descriptions of those
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: exercises is not going to be helpful. So go get
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the book that's in my link tree in my acause
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: you do. I do talk about some of these, not
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: all of them. But breath work is an excellent source
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: of tone the vagus nerve. Breathing from the diaphragm, because remember,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: when the vegus nerve is not working properly, we take short,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: shallow breaths that will oxygenate our muscles and preparation for
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: fight or flight right of some kind of threat. But
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: when we're breathing through our diaphragm, we're sending powerful signals
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: to the brain that we are safe. And so I
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: pair breath work with completing emotional processing cycles. That's a
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: big part of what I teach in my group because
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: that essentially is the classical conditioning or pairing, that's another
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: word for pairing safety with experiencing difficult emotions inside of
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: our body. And we need to do that in order
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: to be someone that can tolerate and quickly recover from
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: being flooded with negative emotions during difficult situations like when
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: you get in a fight with your partner. You know,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of people know the term flooding. It's essentially
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: when you escalate into fight, flight or flight and you
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: feel very very intensely to the point where you know,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: essentially your brain kind of short circuits.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Ye.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Right, you're operating from the emotional brain, which is a
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: primitive part of the brain, so you're not going to
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: be at the top of your game, right, You're not
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: going to be thinking logically, you're not going to be
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: pausing and using discernment, you're not going to be accessing
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: your empathy and compassion, and we need to be able
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: to do those things. So the best place to start
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: is breath work. And there's a lot of different types
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: of breath work.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And there's a ton of resources internally. So I've used
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: this app called insight Timer for years and it's it's free.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can pay for the paid version as well,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: but it's great because it gives little tiny snippets For
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: people who who maybe have never done breath work, it
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: can be a little overwhelming.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: I've even had people mention, like in your group, like.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: That when they start doing the breath work, you can
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: start feeling a little bit more anxiety initially a little bit.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And we talk about that, and we talk about how
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: it's important to try to relax to it, and how
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: you have to remind yourself that you are safe if
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: those physical sensations start to escalate, because really what that
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: is it's allowing the full manifestation of emotion inside of
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: your body, and that's a really good thing. We need
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: that to complete proper emotional processing cycles.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And that's why the piece that you teach in your
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: group about nurow feedbacks and keep retraining the brain is
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: so important.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Huge, huge. We have to train our brain to recognize
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: that our emotions are safe.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: And recognizing those thoughts that are happening when you're going
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: through these physical things.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Right, and so obviously thoughts and feelings are intimately connected.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: A lot of people don't know this, but feelings are
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: simply the sematic sensations of emotion. Emotion is actually the
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: sematic sensations plus our thoughts about what's happening or the
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: story around what's happening, and we have to attend to both.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: We have to make sure that we're correcting our negative
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: stories or untrue or unproductive stories about what's happening. And
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: we have to deal with the somatic sensations because the
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: sensations are the language of the subconscious mind. So how
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: can we rewrite the stories inside of our subconscious if
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: we're not even attending to what it's trying to tell us?
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: And emotions give us very powerful messages, they have signal value.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: But if we're sitting here with a disregulated and really
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: floppy vegas nerve. We don't get to complete proper emotional
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: processing cycles. The discomfort is so bad for some people
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: that they're just using band aid techniques, or for someone
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: who's more avoidant, they're utilizing excuse me, compartmentalization all the time.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: They're suppressing all the time, which is not attending to
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: your emotions at all and keeps you very stuck in
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: a freeze response. So people are either stuck in fight
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: or flight, or they're stuck in freeze, or they're toggling
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: between the two states, which is known as functional freeze.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: And toning your vegus nerve can really help you, but
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: you have to also learn how to confront your emotions
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: in the process.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: This makes me think of something else. And of course,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: again we just want to say that this is not
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: medical advice. These are strictly our opinions. But you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I want to get your opinion on plant medicine and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the medicinal properties of it, and just really your opinion
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and what you think about it, because I know it's
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you know, ketamine, psilocybin, you know THHC, yep, these things
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: that ketamine is not plant medicine. Just so let me
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: be sure, let me be clear.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: But it has some of the same psychoactive properties that
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: have been shown in several several clinical trials now to
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: be beneficial for people who have had trauma.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know psilocybin is hot on the topic.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: It is we have suppressed, as I would say we our
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: government has suppressed the research on cannabis or THHC, particularly
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: and psilocybin, which is mushrooms for people that don't know
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: comes from mushrooms for a very very long time because
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: of the quote War on drugs, and they were considered,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: you know, psychoactive agents that you know, had so many
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: negative effects on behavior, so we're going to outlaw them. Therefore,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: we're not going to do research on them because they're illegal.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Why would we do research on illegal substances, right, But
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: now they have become legal, and I mean, psilocybin is
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: now legal in several states. Cannabis is even medically legal
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: in Kentucky, and in many many states it's legal recreationally.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And so we're starting to see research kick up again
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: and the government actually allowing research on these things. And
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the studies are phenomenal in terms of the results, fascinating
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: it's phenomenal because what it does is it allows certain
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: parts of your brain to open up and gain perspective
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: in ways that you can't see formally accent normally access
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: and see things from that objective more open lens. And
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: so what we're finding is in this research is that
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: when these psychoactive agents are given, it opens up parts
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: of the brain that give us a more rational and
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: logical and accepting perspective over what has happened to us.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: And it really can combat a lot of the catastrophic
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: stories and things like black and white thinking around these
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: stories of things that have happened to us, and it
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: really can essentially open our mind to accepting what has
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: happened to us and integrating what happened to us into
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: our psyche so that we can normalize our functioning. Because
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of the hell that trauma creates, both in
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: our minds and in our bodies is the fact that
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: we can't integrate it into our psyche. It can't be
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: integrated because it's too painful. Because really confronting those emotions
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: with an open and objective and rational mind, our brain
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: views that as too painful, and so it doesn't allow
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: us to do that it tries to protect us from
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the painful emotions and memories associated with our trauma. But
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: when we have these psychoactive agents, we're cranking up serotonin
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: as a protection. Serotonin is so protective for the brain.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: That's why ssriyes do have some efficacy because they recycle
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: the serotonin that you do have. Serotonin comes from sleep,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: it comes from love, it comes from eating good food,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: and it can come from psychoactive agents. And serotonin is neuroprotective.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: And when we have this big boost of serotonin, we're
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: going to get mood elevation, we're going to get good sleep,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: and it allows our prefrontal cortex to work well and
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: so we're able to accept and integrate some of these
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: more difficult traumatic experiences and confront those emotions full force
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: without breaking down in the process.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Right. And I think for somebody specifically who may be
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: in functional freeze, it's big because it allows them to
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: confront things, let it out. Because I know, something like psilocybin,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: for example, can you can have these really like cathartic
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: episodes of whether it's like extreme laughter or extreme crying,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: where it's just like you just let that stuff out.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I have to let it out, and a lot of
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: people don't complete full emotional processing cycles because the somatic
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: expressions of those emotions are not fully exhibited, right, and yes.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Even something like joy, absolutely, yeah.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: And so the studies are just fascinating and that's why
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I am pro cannabis. Yeah, And I know, you know,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I don't think that people should smoke cannabis all day
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: every day. I think that can cause its own issues.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I do think that it. I think cannabis can be
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: psychologically addictive. It is not physically addictive. We have no
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: science to show that it is physically addictive. But strategic
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: use of cannabis for people that have PTSD and CPTSD.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: The research is supporting it, and that is why it's
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: being given to people with PTSD and why it's being
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: legalized across many states with PTSD being one of the
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: diagnoses under which you can get a medical card, for example,
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: because the studies are just showing that it freaking helps,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: that it helps, and I support it. I support it
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: for our veterans. I support it for people who have
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: had serious traumas, especially shock traumas that the brain just
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: cannot integrate these experiences. And I am very much looking
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: forward to more research on psilocybin and controlled, controlled psilocybin
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: use for trauma. Yeah, an addiction, an addiction, Oh my gosh.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: The research on how it can benefit people who are
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: addicts is that Matthew Perry, Oh yeah, he was.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: He was a big advocate for ketamine and psilocybin, and.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: That's actually into what ended up killing you, unfortunately, because.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Again, but he was mixing it with other stuff way
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: and he was using it all.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: He was using it in massive doses. So we're not
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: talking about abusing any of these things. Please do not
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: These are our opinions.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: These are opinions, and I am absolutely not referring to
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: people abusing these substances. I'm referring to people using them
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: under the guidance of a physician for specific medical conditions.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: So let's just be clear on that. Okay, don't don't
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: go on your own and have a bad trip. Okay,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: We're not Please don't do that. There are now my
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: nurse practitioner actually who my mental health nurse practitioner who
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: I've seen on and off for therapy. It's throughout you know,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of these really difficult years, especially when I
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: experienced my biggest trauma. She is actually part of a
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: research study going on right now of practitioners who are
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: looking into controlled psilocybin for trauma, and she has told
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: me so many positive things about their initial results and
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: that she's hoping that Kentucky as a state is going
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: to make psilocybin therapy legal. And like or hate Andy Basher,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: he is the one who did legalize marijuana for medical
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: purposes in Kentucky where I should say cannabis. And so yeah,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of interesting things to come. And speaking
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: of the vague vegas nerve, they're showing positive impact on
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: the vegas nerve functioning as well. So because if you
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: if you stop feeling these things, you're stop you're going
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: to stop calling on your in vegas nerve all the
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: time to pull you out of the anxiety and the
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: you know, trauma responses that you're in, whether that be
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: all the way up in freeze or fight flight sympathetic activity.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So that's just some exciting things to come. I'm going
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: to keep my face.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: I'm going to keep my thumb on that science because
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I certainly am never going to be a provider of
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: those things. That's not what I do. But if it
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: helps to if I can feel confident in referring people
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: to providers that provide these things, I want to be
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: able to have that resource available for people.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: So and be an educated advocate.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: And an educated advocate. And you know, if the research
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: takes a turn for the worst and shows that eventually
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: it harms people, I'll be honest about.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: That, right.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I am not going to advocate for something that the
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: science has not backed because I truly believe in evidenced
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: based approaches.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, I love the science.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: It's so fat I love the episodes with the science.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: It always makes my brain just goo. And so hopefully
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: that you feel the same way when you listen to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: these episodes, because we are going to bring you more
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and more of the science each and every week with
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: doctor Hensley. And of course, if you're looking for a
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: place to start in terms of training right or toning
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: the nerves, the vegas.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Training the brain to pair your emotional responses with safety
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: so you can properly process your emotions, which will bring
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: you out of functional freeze long term and create a
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: new baseline of ventral vagel or safety inside of your
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: nervous system. That is the key to the foundation.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: It's the foundation of her practice and she can teach
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: you how to do all that. So please visit the
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: lovedoc dot com and check out all of doctor Hensley's
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: services there, her hybrid group coaching program, her course.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: The New Course.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: We have a new course too. We have a breakup
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: course how to get your X back or if you
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: even should get your X back. Yeah, we go through
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: all of the the things you need to do to
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: process a breakup and to potentially reconcile with your ex
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: if that is what you wish to do.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, So please go check her out at the lovedoc
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: dot com, continue to tune in, leave us a review,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: send us an email.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: We just love you, guys. We can never express that enough.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: We love you.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Even the constructive criticism. Yes, sometimes stings a little bit
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: where we don't participate in rejection. We're going to just
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: take it and improve. So thank you guys.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely so, please keep on listening and until next time, peace, love,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and perspective.