by | | Curated Content
August 20th 2025
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WellBeing Magazine
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There has been much fanfare in recent years about the vagus nerve (VN), with every podcaster, wellness influencer and yoga teacher preaching its capacity to moderate our wellbeing. But given most of us had probably never heard of the now-trending VN until recently, what exactly is the big deal with this big nerve, and how can we use our yoga practice to harness its power?
Parasympathetic nervous system
The etymology of the word “vagus” gives us some insight as to its function. “Vagus” comes from the old Latin “wandering”, and this is exactly what the VN does. The VN is a long and complex cranial nerve that meanders through so many parts of the body, it impacts many different aspects of our system. The VN makes up around three quarters of the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system and therefore plays a crucial role in regulating various bodily functions, including the heart rate, digestion and respiratory rate. Vagal tone indicates how well the vagal nerve is functioning, and a 2010 landmark study found that those with higher vagal tone had better overall heart health, lower levels of inflammation and a profound effect on aspects of wellbeing beyond our physical health.
Social and psychological wellbeing
In a study by social psychologists Barbara Fredrickson and Bethany Kok, genuine moments of social connectedness between people triggered the parasympathetic nervous system, toned the VN and created positive emotions. Participants also had stronger social bonds and exhibited better emotional regulation. In 2013, further research by Fredrickson and Kok found that practising loving-kindness meditation with yourself and others was the key to turbo-charging this upward spiral of vagal tone. There is an increasing understanding in the world of both psychology and physiology that working with the mind-body connection through body-based practices is the most effective way to address both physical and mental health issues.
Polyvagal theory
Polyvagal theory (PVT) offers a framework for understanding one way this mind-body connection plays out. PVT expounds how the autonomic nervous system, especially the VN, dictates our behaviour and overall health. We can either respond with calm and switch on the ventral vagal complex (VVC), which is associated with social engagement and feelings of safety. Or we may be mobilised, when the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is triggered, stimulating the fi ght-or-fl ight response. Or immobilised via the dorsal vagal complex (DVC), which is related to our “shutdown” responses. These neural circuits are activated in response to what happens around us, our environmental cues and how safe we feel.
The gunas
Another framework we see embodying this mind- body connection, one of the yoga physiology models, is that of the gunas. Yoga philosophy says the gunas are fundamental qualities that constitute all of nature. Sattva represents clarity, harmony and balance. Rajas denotes activity, energy and movement. And tamas signifies inertia, darkness and stagnation. According to yoga, the interplay of the gunas influences an individual’s physical, mental and emotional states. The mental state will impact the physical and vice versa.
Polyvagal theory meets the gunas
The similarities between PVT and the gunas lie in these parallel structures. Sattva and the relaxed VVC are both associated with states of social connection and calm wellbeing. Rajas and the mobilised SNS both relate to activation and energy. Tamas and the immobilised DVC both correspond to withdrawal and conservation of energy. Understanding this connection between the gunas and PVT provides a comprehensive perspective on how yoga practices can influence our nervous system and therefore our overall wellbeing. PVT suggests self-regulation and social connection are key in promoting relaxation and reducing stress, and yoga is a tried-and-tested way to foster these qualities.
Yogic practices
Awareness of imbalances in the gunas and the associated neural circuits allows us to choose practices that restore balance. For example, calming, yin-based yogic practice may help bring you back into a sattvic state. Conversely, activating yang practices may help reawaken your system. Ultimately, all yogic practices are aimed at bringing you back to a sattvic state, where the VN is toned and the nervous system is purring like a kitten, rather than roaring like a hot V8 engine in overdrive.
Yogic tools for the VN
Asana (physical poses), Drishti, meditation and mindfulness cultivate awareness and clarity, reinforcing sattva and facilitating a harmonious autonomic state. Pranayama (breathwork) stimulates the VN, activating the calm VVC and supporting sattvic qualities. Research has found that controlled breathing patterns, characterised by slow, deep inhalations and extended exhalations, directly stimulate the VN. This stimulation enhances parasympathetic tone, promoting a state of relaxation and counteracting stress responses. Chanting activates the vocal chords, stimulating the VN at a vibrational level. Integrating these tools and practices supports emotional regulation, stress reduction and greater resilience.
The beauty of all this is that we can work with the VN in lots of different, practical ways as we become more conscious and mindful. Taking regular breaks, exercising, stretching and gentle massage are all helpful. Reflexology, short-term exposure to cold temperatures like cold plunges or ending showers with cold water, as well as fostering feelings of awe through music, nature or meaningful experiences have also been shown to stimulate the VN.
Practice
This holistic sequence targets the main areas through which the vagus nerve travels (neck, chest and belly) using tools shown to support vagal tone and keep you sattvic — so you can carry on.
Cat-cow
Set yourself on all-fours, shoulders over wrists, hips over knees. On an inhale, slide shoulders away from the ears, shoulder blades down the back and tailbone up. Exhale reverse, pulling pubic bone towards ribs, arching the back and pressing the earth away. Repeat for a few rounds.
Neck stretch
Seated comfortably, supporting the buttocks if you need to be grounded, reach your right arm overhead and place right hand on left ear. If your neck is well, gently reach left fingers down to the earth as you reach the skull up and over to the right. Gently move the chin slowly forward and back to find any little sticky spots. Stretch the left side of the neck and take a few slow breaths. Swap to the other side.
Heart-opener
Still seated, interlace fingers at the base of the spine. Gently slide wrists towards earth and away from your lower back as you broaden collarbones and open the chest. Take a few slow breaths.
To deepen, from kneeling, tuck the toes under, set knees outer hip-width apart, hips over knees, hands to hips. Either keep hands on hips, lifting front of pelvis up and lift sternum up and open the chest. Or take hands into sacrum, fingers pointing up or down, open chest to sky, perhaps reach fingers down to catch heels. Otherwise keep hands supporting lower back. Take a few slow breaths and inhale to lift back up and sit on heels for a few moments.
Side bend
Reach right hand or forearm to the earth as you stretch left fingertips over to the right side, stretching the left-side body. Take a few slow, calm breaths and swap to the other side.
Reclined heart-opener with tapping
Recline with the upper body, chest and head on a bolster or blocks, buttocks on the earth. Take a few breaths. Then start to gently tap your fingertips in the centre of your chest, under the collarbones. Take a few breaths as you tap or simply lie with the chest and heart open.
Lying on the belly
Place a rolled-up blanket under the belly. Lie flat and take 10 slow belly breaths, allowing muscles and organs in the region to remain soft. Bend your elbows, stack the hands and let your forehead rest on them. Or turn your cheek to the earth if that feels better.
Prone shoulder stretch
Remove the blanket. Reach your right arm out to the side, either bent or extended, and press down with the left hand or fingers to peel the left side of the chest and body open. Take a few slow breaths. Swap to the other side. Make sure the arm is in a position where it is stretching the front part of the chest, not compressing the shoulder joint itself.
Loving-kindness meditation
Choose a comfortable seat. Take a moment to bring your awareness into your physical body, noticing the quality of your body, especially the space around your heart. Observe the quality of your thoughts and the quality of your breath. Watch the inhale and the exhale. Don’t modify the breath in any way. As you inhale, think of someone you love. Sending them loving kindness. Start with those close to you. And then as you move to the next person, and the next, notice the circle widen. Inhale gratitude, exhale the name or face of someone who pops into your mind. Continue for a few minutes and then shift all your awareness back to the heart space.
Bhramari pranayama
Close your eyes. Take a slow, soft inhale and exhale to empty your lungs. Inhale gently and fully once more. Keeping the mouth closed, hum all the way to the end of the exhale. Repeat for five rounds. (If you wish, you can add a mudra: thumbs close off the ears, index fingers in the corners of the eyes, middle fingers by the nose, fourth finger above the lips and pinky underneath.)
Satsang/sangha
Genuine social connectedness fosters parasympathetic engagement helping this feedback loop. Think of someone who always leaves you feeling harmonious, light, blissful and sattvic. Find some time to catch up with them. Or get to a group class with other yogis or meditators to connect with other conscious beings.
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 217
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Yoga and vagus nerve
by | | Curated Content
August 20th 2025
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WellBeing Magazine
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Mary Jane’s coming out from pot parties and into mainstream medical practice. Though cannabis has valid therapeutic benefits, it’s not Puff the magic drug. Users need to be aware of weed warnings before getting too hemp happy.
Hashish history
“We are only beginning to understand how cannabis works. The potential benefits are enormous.” Dr. Raphael Mechoulam
Marijuana has undergone more makeovers than Madonna. Today, the tide’s turned towards greater acceptance, which some welcome and others are wary of. Many form their perspective from personal experience.
My GP client swears he can walk with less pain due to his daily dose, while a psychiatrist friend says he’s seen serious disassociation and psychosis linked to cannabis. Powerful substances tend to have the potential to heal or harm. Love it or loathe it, weed is a budding business that’s flourishing faster than lantana. Let’s track the growth of this herb from an ascetic seed to a flourishing trillion-dollar cash crop.
Many Eastern cultures valued cannabis for healing, recreation and rituals. As far back as 2737 BCE, Emperor Shen Nong prized marijuana for health issues, including arthritis. Scythians in the 5th century used ceremonial cannabis smoke. Hashish was popular in the 10th century in Middle Eastern artistic circles. Sufis in the 11th-12th century valued hashish for heightened spiritual states.
Ancient ayurvedic medicine prescribed cannabis as an analgesic, anti-diarrhoeal, aphrodisiac, appetite stimulant, euphoric, expectorant and sedative. It’s included in classical preparations such as Jatiphaladi Churna for malabsorption and respiratory issues. The Atharva Veda has mixed reviews about marijuana. It’s exalted as one of the five most sacred plants but is also classified as a mild toxin that must be purified. Ayurveda warns that extensive use can cause agitation, anxiety, apathy, confusion, dehydration, delusions, overheating and more. The Sanskrit for cannabis is bhaṅgā which translates as break. In this sense it can break one’s identification with the mind/body, offering temporary respite from overreacting and overthinking.
Marijuana wafted to the west where it was taken primarily for pain. Famous users include Queen Victoria whose physician Dr John Russel Reynolds prescribed it for dysmenorrhea. The US joined the joint revolution in the 1900s – 1930s, using it for anxiety, insomnia and pain. A reefer madness campaign claiming whacky tobaccy turns smokers into sex maniacs led to its prohibition in America in 1937. However, until 1942 it was listed in the US pharmacopoeia as a treatment for many conditions including neuralgia. Sixties hippies revived the green dream as a way to tune out and turn on to transcendental experiences. Rastafarians including Bob Marley felt marijuana “reveals you to yourself.” They exalted hemp as a sacramental substance for rituals and “reasoning sessions.” Modern day Churches of Cannabis (Colorado) and Church of Ubuntu (Newcastle) hail hemp as a superior healing herb.
Legal limbo
After a long war on weed, pot propaganda is subsiding with marijuana’s medicinal merits re-emerging along with its conditional legal use in many regions. However, countries still largely prohibit the cultivation and use of hemp including Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The US revolution came in 2018 with the Farm Bill declaring it legal to produce hemp that contains less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Hence low THC cannabis is readily available in the USA in an amazing assortment of strains and forms including edible “Girl Scout Cookies.” There are countless places in the US you can get over the counter cannabis beverages, edibles, oil, patches, suppositories, tinctures, topicals, vapes and old school bud.
In Australia and New Zealand hemp is legal for food and industrial use but restricted to prescription only for medicinal use. This may shift as 80 per cent of people felt personal use of cannabis should be decriminalised in the Australian 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household survey. The ACT is leading the way to change when in 2020 it declared it legal for over 18’s to have up to 50gms cannabis for personal use and to grow two hemp plants at home per person with a maximum of four plants per household if kept and used in a place not visible to the public.
The Nimbin Hemp Embassy, hempembassy.net, is campaigning for cannabis freedom in Australia. CBD containing less than 0.01 per cent THC is legal in Australia for adults up to a maximum of 150 mg/day to be supplied over-the-counter by a pharmacist without a prescription however there doesn’t appear to be any TGA approved products meeting this criteria currently, most likely due to the cost of product registration. According to ABC news, “Expert clinical groups including physicians, psychiatrists, the Australian Medical Association and Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists opposed the down-scheduling, citing the lack of safety data, lack of efficacy data, issues with product labelling and the potential for interactions with prescription medicines.”
Only some doctors in Australia are approved through the TGA to prescribe cannabis via the Special Access Scheme or Authorised Prescriber Scheme. The cost of prescribed cannabis can be higher than illegally purchased cannabis because it’s a relatively new and niche treatment, not covered by Medicare or private health insurance. However, some may be eligible for clinical trials on medicinal cannabis. Search “cannabis” on the Australian/New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry to access a list of all Australian medicinal cannabis clinical trials.
Drug driving
Considering THC can affect driving skills even drivers on prescribed cannabis face penalties if THC is detected. Penalties may include demerit points, fines, license suspension and criminal charges.
Money trees
After Australia legalised the use of prescribed medical marijuana in 2016 the hemp harvest is estimated to earn 1 billion by 2025. Australians purchased a whopping $400 million on medicinal cannabis in the first half of 2024 according to a report by the Pennington Institute. According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022–2023 (NDSHS), “In 2022–2023, 3.0 per cent of people in Australia had used cannabis for medical purposes in the previous 12 months, equating to around 700,000 people.” The study revealed 49 per cent of users suffered anxiety, 43 per cent chronic pain, and 6.2 per cent cancer. This has branched into a massive telehealth industry which often only prescribes their affiliated brand of medicinal cannabis reaping massive profits with some questioning the level of client care. This was investigated in a special report by ABC news, “Medicinal cannabis sales are booming but unethical prescribing is putting Australians at risk.”
The ABCs of CBD and THC
Cannabis contains over 500 constituents of which only the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compound is mind altering. They key healing constituents in cannabis are cannabidiol (CBD) and THC.
This dynamic duo differ in the following ways – CBD doesn’t make you stoned whereas THC’s psychoactive effect can make you high as it interacts with the CB1 receptors in the endocannabinoid system. THC is analgesic, anti-nausea, stimulates appetite and assists non-Rem sleep.
CBD is a potent anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, anticonvulsant, antioxidant and neuroprotective.
The only cannabis strains approved for prescribing in Australia are sativa and indica. Cannabis indica has higher levels of CBD than THC. It is used more for its sedative effects in insomnia and anxiety. Cannabis sativa has higher levels of CBD and THC than indica. It is used for all conditions. Hybrid blends of indica and sativa are commonly created for the desired ratio of CBD:THC.
There’s a varied landscape of cannabis strains and products prescribed in Australia tailored to patient’s needs. Cannabis is available as capsules, chewables, creams, crystals, flower, lozenges, oil, oro-mucosal sprays and tinctures.
Formulations have varying ratios of CBD to THC. High CBD, Low THC are commonly used for conditions like anxiety, epilepsy and chronic pain. Balanced CBD:THC is often used for cancer-related symptoms and pain. High THC, Low CBD may be prescribed for low appetite, intense pain and nausea. One of the largest producers is Tilray who provide a 1:1 CBD:THC strain and an 18:1 CBD:THC strain. Popular products include high CBD ACDC, Avidekel and Charlotte’s Web. Cannatonic and Harlequin are both balanced CBD:THC blends.
High Hopes
“The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS.” – Former US Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Everyone responds differently to cannabis according to many factors including their internal endocannabinoid system. Medicinal cannabis is a gamechanger for some while others find it has a detrimental or insignificant effect. At this stage in Australia the TGA has approved the use of medicinal cannabis as a valid therapy in some cases of the following conditions:
- Anxiety and PTSD
- Chronic pain, particularly pain related to arthritis, cancer, multiple sclerosis and neuralgia.
- Cancer treatment related symptoms such as anorexia, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
- Epilepsy, particularly treatment-resistant types.
- Inflammatory conditions such as Crohn’s disease.
- Multiple sclerosis to treat muscle spasticity and pain.
- Neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
Stigma to science
Separating weed facts from fallacies requires more stringent scientific support. The latest studies on medicinal cannabis have very encouraging conclusions in supporting cannabis use for anxiety, chronic pain, cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s, epileptic seizures in children, depression, nausea with cancer treatment and inflammatory bowel disease. Accounts of beneficial effects abound in reliable research.
The good green
A pioneering product showing great promise is liposomal CBD. Studies showed it absorbs into the blood stream much faster and in higher levers than non-liposomal CBD. Smoking cannabis exposes one to potentially carcinogenic tar and increases carbon monoxide and gases that reduce circulating oxygen. Vaping may expose one to harmful vitamin E acetate and heavy metals.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration and a 2021 study conducted by Alexander Larcombe, a respiratory physiologist at Curtin University, vapes also contain harmful chemicals and flavourings that are carcinogenic. Evidence indicates e-cigarettes can increase the incidence of airway injury, asthma, bronchitis, cough, high blood pressure, impaired immunity and lung cancer.
Coming down
Marijuana is more than a harmless hippy herb. Though generally safe in low doses over short durations it can have serious side effects. One of my clients claimed, “dope made me dumb.” Documented downers may include addiction, amotivational syndrome, anxiety, cognitive impairment, depression, disassociation, impaired motor skills, raised heart rate, reduced fertility, respiratory issues, psychosis and severe vomiting. Approximately 9 per cent of cannabis users will develop a dependency according to research published in JAMA Psychiatry. Cannabis should be avoided during breastfeeding, driving, operating machinery, pregnancy and while on incompatible medications. As with any medicinal substance cannabis should be tailored to the individual and their condition and prescribed by a qualified healthcare profession.
Holy smoke
Indian mythology recounts Lord Shiva, taking a toke on the peace train when his infamous anger flared thousands of years ago. Granted Shiva was also able process poisons like mercury without effects and he didn’t stay stoned like some diehard devotees do. He was generally high on the divine without the need for substances.
Most modern yoga teachers don’t advise regular use of cannabis as it can clog the mental channels increasing tamas or ignorance. As spiritual master Srila Prabhupada taught, with pure yoga you can “Stay high forever. No more coming down!” Sadguru encourages a natural high, “If you look into my eyes, you will see I am always stoned, without taking any substance. Everything that you want to experience is already in your system.”
Donny Daison shared their experience on YouTube, “I’ve had a lot of deep and expansive experiences in meditation with marijuana, but I found eventually it only took me so far, and once I learned what I needed to learn from this plant, I could go much further without it. Now I have it only about twice a year when I feel divinely inspired and the moment is right.”
The author does not endorse or advocate the use of cannabis. The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any decisions regarding cannabis use.
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Medicinal Cannabis
