Feeling Anxious? This Quick and Simple Ear Movement Could Calm Your Vagus Nerve

---

By stimulating your vagus nerve with this simple ear movement technique you might find that it helps to reduce your stress and anxiety levels.

This vagus nerve stimulation technique is also known as the auricular release, or ear release.

The inspiration for this post came from watching Dr. Nicole LePera, a clinical psychologist, perform the technique on a video she shared on X.

Bookmark to practice any time you need to self regulate.

The vagus nerve is a bundle of nerves that goes from the brain stem to every major organ.

It regulates our autonomic nervous system.

We can access vagus nerve stimulation through our ears. Using your finger pull down… pic.twitter.com/J3ZWsfDOF2

— Dr. Nicole LePera (@Theholisticpsyc) October 23, 2024

Steps to Follow

1. Gently put the end of one of your fingers into your outer ear canal
2. Pull down gently to feel some pressure
3. Circle your finger in your ear canal in any direction for 1 minute

How Does this Work?

The way this natural vagal nerve stimulation works is by promoting something called vagal tone.

Vagal tone is inversely related to anxiety levels which means:

• Having higher vagal tone is associated with lower anxiety feelings
• Having lower vagal tone is linked to increased anxiety and stress feelings

This tip could be how to stop anxiety quickly and I found was really simple to perform. Did I feel a massive change not really, but maybe you might.

Related Reading:

• Vagus Nerve Hack | Auricular Ear Release – The Movement Paradigm
• Your Vagus Nerve May Be Key To Fighting Anxiety and Stress