In the human body, you find two vagus nerves, one on each side of the body. They start in the brainstem and travel down both sides of the neck, extend through the chest and into the abdomen, where they connect the brain to major organs, while also wrapping around the digestive tract.
Their main functions are to control heart rate, breathing, and the digestive system. They also manage swallowing, speaking, and transmit sensory signals from internal organs back to the brain.
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Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) through abdominal massage is a manual therapy that utilizes slow, deep, prolonged compression over the solar plexus (coeliac plexus), typically accompanied with deep diaphragmatic breathing and targeted movement to activate the parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” response.
By physically calming the primary neural highway of the abdomen-brain axis, it reduces heart rate, blood pressure, stress-induced gut spasms by signaling safety to the nervous system. It’s also emerging as an alternative method to combat a range of (sometimes unexplained) abdominal pains and gastrointestinal disorders.
Some types of targeted massage modalities, such as acupressure or reflexology, can likewise stimulate the abdominal parts of the vagus nerve by applying pressure to specific points on the body.
In addition, you can also do an abdominal self-massage to stimulate the vagus nerve. Typically, you would gently clockwise massage the belly helping your body to shift from the “flight or fight” mode into the “rest and digest” parasympathetic state, while also easing digestion and tension.
