Did you hum today? Nurture your vagal tone

A simple daily humming practice, chanting, a cold shower, an ear massage or a couple of mindful deep breaths can play a fundamental part in preparing for a fertile mind & body. 🌱

By incorporating one or more of these simple daily self-care routines into our day we stimulate one of the most powerful and longest nerves in our body — the vagus nerve.
It wanders all through the body to important organs and areas such as the brain, ears, tongue, heart, lungs, intestines, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and to female reproductive organs (the uterus, ovaries and cervix).

One of the main purposes of the vagus nerve is to calm down the body, by down regulating our body’s stress response. 📉
With a high vagal tone, we are able to return to a state of relaxation faster after stress, improve our immune function, digestion, inflammation, cardiovascular health and mood.

Research is now revealing that vagal tone can be passed on from mother to child. Mothers who are depressed, anxious, stressed or angry during their pregnancy have lower vagal tone.
And once they give birth to their child, the newborn baby can also have lower vagal activity. Studies are also showing links between healthy ovulatory function and the tone of the vagus nerve.

So let’s make use of our time before pregnancy to immerse ourselves in self-care routines and nurture our magical vagus nerve 🧡

Try this out:
Combine humming with deep breathing: take a deep slow breath in through your nose (counting 4 seconds) and hum as you slowly exhale (counting 8 seconds). Repeat a couple of times and voilà! 🧘

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