The vagus nerve, my pride and Tara, the Hindu goddess of compassion

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This will be a short one, as i just finished a 12 hours shift.

Just to point our another great alternative way to become more happy, or why we should integrate meditation in our daily routine. The vagus nerve, maybe you heard about it, maybe you don't, also known as the "caretaking" nerve, it is having connections with the oxytocin network, it is linked with a stronger immune response, it regulates your inflammation response, it relates with the interaction between breathing and heart rate, intervene in the digestion process and few other boring pieces of information.

What we need to know? The more compassion we feel, the stronger vagus nerve responds, the more pride we feel, the weaker is the response. And we care about this because higher levels of activation of vagus nerve are linked with an increase in positive emotions, more resilience to bereavement, more sympathetic prosociality of children and more trust when we interact with strangers. The vagus nerve strongly relates to altruism and prosociality. And the good news! Higher levels of activation can be cultivated through specialized exercise and meditation. Another good reason for me to start to do that again. Isn't it?



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