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Scroll far enough on social media, and you’ll hit a quick fix promising to calm your nervous system in seconds. Mastering vagus nerve stimulation in particular has become wellness shorthand for “calm on demand,” but there’s actual science behind how you do it properly—and it goes far beyond a 15-second clip.
So, what is the vagus nerve? Essentially, the longest cranial nerve in the body, traveling from the brainstem down through the neck and chest into the abdomen, brushing past the heart, lungs, and gut. It’s the main line of the parasympathetic nervous system—your body’s primary mechanism for rest, digestion, repair—as opposed to the sympathetic system that gears you up to handle a threat. “If you think of your body as a car, the autonomic nervous system is the drivetrain and brakes,” says Lou Atkinson, clinical wellbeing lead of Yōjō, a health and wellness platform specializing in vagus nerve stimulation or VNS. “The sympathetic nervous system is the accelerator, while the vagus nerve is your essential braking system, slowing your heart rate, initiating digestion, and lowering inflammation.”
Activating the vagus nerve can help us feel calmer, but the issue with quick fixes is that we are treating the symptoms of nervous system dysregulation—like anxiety, insomnia, a need to control everything—rather than the dysregulation itself. “If we treat the symptom without ever getting to the root cause, it becomes a tireless battle managing something that cannot dissipate unless we leave the state we’re in,” explains Sarah Baldwin, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
What happens to our nervous system when we travel?
Travel obliterates almost all our comforting routines and habits. “It’s essentially a stress-test for your autonomic nervous system, and vagal tone takes the hit,” says Human Potential Coach and Breathwork Practitioner, Rob Rea. “Crossing time zones desynchronizes the body’s rest-and-digest rhythm from local day and night—a large part of why jet lag brings poor sleep, a racing heart and low mood, not just tiredness.” Short nights, dry cabin air, dehydration, alcohol, and caffeine all tip the body further towards fight-or-flight, leaving less room for recovery.
For some, it goes way deeper than jet lag. Leaving a familiar environment removes our daily safety anchors, and unresolved stress can resurface as anxiety or hypervigilance amid the unpredictability of new places. “Long after we’ve arrived, and the danger has passed, the body can keep replaying that same protective response—that’s why so many of us feel anxious or shut down for reasons we can’t quite explain, especially when traveling,” trauma psychotherapist Emmy Brunner says. “Release isn’t about forcing it—it happens through small, repeated doses of safety, not pushing through.”
