36 years ago, at Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Kenneth Freeman would start every Body Awareness class with long OMs. As an attachment and trauma therapist during the Covid Pandemic, I now understand what he was up to. With each of the nearly 20 OMs we did, we were directly impacting our vagus nerves by our long outbreaths, creating grounded calm. How brilliant the original Buddhist teachers were, so many centuries ago, to create this practice.
When we breathe out longer than than we inhale, it trips the vagus nerve to quiet the unmyelinated ventral part (tied to flight and fight) and switch to the myelinated ventral part, tied to relaxed, socially connectible, “normal” states. People with trauma or anxiety are taught to relax their panic, OCD patterns, flashbacks with this exercise: “Breathe out all the way. Hold. Breathe in halfway. Hold. Breathe out all the way. Hold. Repeat 5 times.” And they do relax. I love that the old learning meshes so well with the new!
My other favorite calm down method for anxious folks is “Silencing the Alarm”: “Brush the fingers from the inside point of the eyebrow to your ears, behind your ears, to the point of the shoulder, the point of the elbow, and off the back of your hand. At least 3 times on each side.” It’s a lovely, self soothing accupressure. And it directly impacts the vagus nerve. Who knew!
Laurel Holmes, ABs, LMHC 