Stress and Your Vagus Nerve: A Key to Healing

These days it seems that everyone is talking about the vagus nerve, and rightly so as it is a crucial part of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), often called the ‘rest and digest’ system. Extending from the brainstem through the neck and into the chest and abdomen, the vagus nerve plays a major role in regulating various bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, and mood. It is also works in tandem with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (more about the HPA in another article), which governs your body’s stress response.

In times of stress, the HPA axis is activated, triggering the release of stress hormones like cortisol, to prepare your body for a ‘fight, flight, freeze or fawn’ response. The vagus nerve, however, acts as a counterbalance within this system, helping to bring the body back to a state of equilibrium once the stressor has passed. It essentially helps switch off the heightened alert response, initiating a relaxation response and supporting recovery.

When stress becomes chronic, it can impair the vagus nerve's ability to effectively activate the parasympathetic 'rest and digest' response, leaving the body stuck in a persistent state of stress. Over time, this dysregulation can disrupt the normal functioning of the HPA axis, leading to a weakened immune system, sleep disturbances, emotional distress, and other health issues. This creates a vicious cycle of stress that can be difficult to break.

How the Vagus Nerve Supports Stress Recovery By promoting a balance between the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which is responsible for the stress response, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) which creates calm, the vagus nerve helps regulate the HPA axis, thereby controlling the body’s reaction to stress.

When the vagus nerve is functioning optimally, it activates your parasympathetic response more effectively, allowing you to recover from stress more quickly by lowering your heart rate, deepening your breathing, and promoting relaxation—acts that aid in reducing the long-term effects of stress.

The good news is that you can take proactive steps to strengthen and stimulate your vagus nerve, support your HPA axis, and enhance your body’s ability to manage stress through self-care stress management techniques.

Start the journey toward a stress-free future today, and empower your vagus nerve to help you find balance and healing. Research: Vagal Tone: A Physiologic Marker of Stress Vulnerability

Rosanna Commisso - Founder, StressCare Solutions

Championing Workplace Wellbeing | Mental Health & Trauma Advocate

As the Founder of StressCare Solutions, my passion for helping organisations navigate the growing challenge of stress and trauma in the workplace, is personal.

With over 30-years’ experience spanning health, training and community services, and my own lived experience with mental health, burnout and trauma—I bring both professional insight and ‘lived experience’ understanding to my work.

My mission is simple: to empower organisations, and their staff, with the tools they need to recognise, manage, and reduce stress before it leads to burnout, and to implement trauma-informed practices to support their staff.

Through engaging, evidence-based workshops, impactful speaking engagements, and trauma-informed workplace support, I help teams build resilience, improve wellbeing, and thrive.

Let’s build healthier workplaces—together.

📩 rosanna@stresscare.com.au | 🌐 www.stresscare.com.au