ExclusiveHow to reset a dysregulated nervous system through cranial nerves and Stoicism.

Welcome to Epoch Insights with Tiffany. My name is Tiffany Brannan. We can't control everything that happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it. There's both a physical and an emotional response to anything that happens, and the way you react is, again, both physical and mental. There are two different articles in the Epoch Times in this latest issue, each talking about the response that we have to something that perhaps is a traumatic experience or something negative, and the repercussions it can have on your health, both mental and physical. One of these articles is approaching it from the physical standpoint, and the other is approaching it from the philosophical standpoint. The two different powers that we're going to discuss today are the vagus nerve and the inner citadel. Let's start by talking about the vagal nerve, which is the physical side of the equation. In the mind and body section, there's part two in an ongoing series called How to Stimulate Vagus Nerve Function to Counter Depression. The vagus nerve isn't a particular spot on the body like an acupuncture point. Rather, it's a whole system running from the brain down the back of the spine. The vagus nerve forms the main communication pathway between the brain and body, affecting mood, emotional regulation, and resilience to stress. By stimulating the vagus nerve, either through natural or mechanical means, that helps reduce the body's production of stress hormones like cortisol and increases the release of calming neurotransmitters, sort of like pressing the reset button on a computer. An educational psychologist found an example where there was a seven-year-old girl who struggled with severe anxiety, frequent panic attacks, and intense tantrums. Her parents at first thought she was just difficult, but they eventually realized that her nervous system was dysregulated, and so she was prone to becoming overwhelmed. One way that they helped her settle into calm was to simply scratch her on the back when she was starting to get overwhelmed. These tricks to calm down the vagus nerve are really ways of telling your nerve to stop telling the whole mind and body that you're in a state of panic, because in such states, our cognitive function declines, emotions become unregulated and reactive, and mental health takes a knock, often leading to burnout, anxiety, and depression. And even our interpretation of social cues can be thrown off. Other ways to reset the vagus nerve involve stimulating the vocal cord region, because a lot of those nerves are in the throat. So you can do that by gargling. 30 seconds of gargling with water or some other liquid stimulates the vocal cord area and can lead to that sense of calm. Singing or humming, particularly in a slow and low way, is more likely to stimulate those nerves. So if you might find that just humming to yourself could have a calming effect. Breathing, of course, is one of the simplest techniques for calming down, particularly the square or box method, which is four seconds in, hold for four seconds, four seconds out, hold for four seconds. We think of it like a box. In, hold, out, hold. And by doing this for a little while, it can tell you to relax because your body will realize you can't be running for your life if you're able to take the time to breathe that calmly and slowly. And of course, there are also psychological ways, like meditation or practices of sitting slowly and concentrating. There are a few key places that you can rub to activate and release the vagus nerve, although massage of any kind is beneficial. The main points are the top of the earlobe, where the jaw and the ear meet, and across the neck, especially the back of the neck. That can really release the vagus nerve because it is back there and rubbing the feet can help too. Dr. Grobler, an educational psychologist, emphasizes that feelings of overwhelm can very much be a physical reaction. So she says, don't try to think yourself out of a dysregulated state. It's a body thing. Nevertheless, many of the ways that you'll see to release the vagus nerve are meditating and other things which really are thinking. That brings us to the other way to press the reset button on yourself when you feel overwhelmed, and that is the stoic method of going to the inner citadel. On the cover of the Life and Tradition section, there's an article entitled The Marcus Aurelius Guide to Self-Care. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor who lived in the 2nd century AD. He's known for his wisdom, particularly in his writings, because he's one of the foremost philosophers associated with the stoic method. The stoic method began several centuries earlier in ancient Greece. The basic principle of all stoicism is that you can't control what happens to you, but you can control your own mind. It's the only thing over which you have control. Stoicism is based on four principal virtues, but it's also based on the main point of having control over oneself in all things, over one's mind, one's body, and one's reaction to everything. Marcus Aurelius is one of the later stoics, and he's best remembered for his writings which are called Meditations. Now, this is a collection of 12 different books, but it's believed that he didn't write these with the intention of having them published. Rather, they're a collection of his personal musings. He simply wrote these thoughts for his own enrichment, enlightenment, and his own reflections on life. Marcus Aurelius talked about the retreat which we all have right inside ourselves. He wrote, men seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, in the hills, and you yourself are particularly prone to this yearning. But all this is quite unphilosophic when it is open to you at any time you want to retreat into yourself. No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there, which put him at immediate and complete ease. And by ease, I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat and renew yourself. The doctrines you will visit there should be few and fundamental, sufficient at one meeting to wash away all your pain and send you back free of resentment at what you must rejoin. The article goes on to describe that this place is called the inner citadel because it's like a tower or room which one might have in his house, especially someone like an emperor who was constantly surrounded by advisors, criticism, the strains of war and peacetime and politics, yet he knew he could retreat in the midst of any difficulty to that place of really looking at his own conscience. And that's what Stoicism believes. Marcus Aurelius wrote that nothing that happens can affect your mind unless your mind itself creates it. Only your own mind has the power to determine reactions to things, and certainly we build patterns and certain people are more prone to running to different habits in their thoughts. One interesting point he made in one of his writings was that most people, whether they acknowledge it or not, think more of themselves than anyone else, yet other people's opinions have such great sway over us that even things that we know to be true are quickly forgotten. So he argued, why do we not listen to our own sense of truth and what we know we believe and we know about ourselves? Now bringing Stoicism to the modern age, and it is becoming quite popular, especially amongst younger men, the article mentions that it's not easy to find solitude ourselves in this modern age. In fact, most of us run from it without realizing we constantly are surrounding ourselves with things which make it impossible to reach the inner citadel or even to knock on the door. There's the constant source of stimulation and entertainment we have from electronic devices and screens, even the sound of music or books around us, reading a paper or texting with someone, there's always something to keep your attention and really to avoid having to be alone with your thoughts. But the practice of Stoicism is to make you want to be alone with your thoughts, at least sometimes, and you only need really a few minutes a day to do it, especially when starting. One article mentioned to regularly travel inside your mind, especially if you need peace or freedom, and all you need is five to ten minutes a day to shut out the outside world and to look inside your own mind. Stoicism fell out of popularity as Christianity rose in Europe to then be rediscovered in the Renaissance and now having a resurgence in modern times as people are looking for some new sense of truth. Yet many Christian philosophers have believed that Stoicism is not against the principles of Christianity, at least some of its practices. In fact, an Episcopalian bishop who wrote the foreword to a translation he himself did of Marcus Aurelius' writings said that he felt that the Stoic principles of Marcus Aurelius were some of the greatest ideas to help in the understanding of the Christian life beyond the Bible. Because we can use all these as a way to meditate and meditation can be aligned to any spiritual practice, whether it's an Eastern religion like Buddhism or Hinduism or a Western religion like Christianity. And as we see, similar to the vagus nerve, it's a way of making yourself take a re-evaluation of what's happening. Is it a life and death situation? Or even if it is a serious problem, are you going to make it any better by how you respond in fear or negativity, becoming dreary or sad? Or can you still find a sense of peace, calm, control and virtue even in difficult situations? And in that moment of looking in, you could find, as you're in that place of quiet, an opportunity to communicate with God and that sense of the motivation for why we should aspire to virtue and do something that's good. And as a final thought on the Stoic practice, particularly as Marcus Aurelius described it, here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter. Not this is misfortune, but to bear this worthily is good fortune. Thank you for spending this time talking about two ways to reset our nervous system. One through physical stimuli of the vagus nerve, and the other through the philosophical mental process of approaching the inner citadel, as described by Stoic philosophy. If you enjoyed this video, I hope you'll like it, subscribe to the channel, share it with your friends, and leave a comment letting me know what you think about these practices. Thank you for watching!