Yes, you can actively influence how your body handles stress and mood—and one of the most direct routes runs through your vagus nerve. This long cranial nerve carries bidirectional signals between your brain and your gastrointestinal tract, a relationship scientists call the brain-gut axis. Research indicates that your vagal tone—your vagus nerve's capacity for activity—is correlated with your ability to regulate stress responses, and that practices like yogic breathing, meditation, and even experiencing awe can increase it.
The Gut-Brain Axis: A Two-Way Street for Well-being
Your brain and your gut are in constant conversation, and that conversation runs both ways. The bidirectional communication system linking them—which researchers also call the brain-gut axis—rests on a complex network that includes the vagus nerve, sympathetic pathways through prevertebral ganglia, endocrine and immune links, humoral signaling, and the influence of gut microbiota, as described by Sigrid Breit, Aleksandra Kupferberg, Gerhard Rogler, and Gregor Hasler in a review published in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2018.
This system does two jobs at once. It regulates gastrointestinal homeostasis—keeping digestion running smoothly—and it connects emotional and cognitive areas of the brain with gut functions. In other words, your gut sends information upward that can shape how you feel, while your brain sends signals downward that shape how your gut behaves. The vagus nerve is a central pathway in this exchange, which is why stimulating it can register in both your body and your mood.
How the Vagus Nerve Regulates Stress, Mood, and Inflammation
The vagus nerve operates largely outside your conscious awareness. According to Cleveland Clinic, your vagal nerves play key roles in helping your body manage involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion. Damage to these nerves can cause digestive problems like gastroparesis, which underscores how directly vagal function maps onto physical well-being.
On the emotional side, the Frontiers review links vagal activity to the regulation of the stress response. When you engage with something greater than yourself and feel a sense of connection to others and the outside world, that experience activates the vagus nerve, says Vernon B. Williams, a sports neurologist at Cedars-Sinai. In his account, this activation can help lower blood pressure, inhibit the stress response, and reduce inflammation, while also increasing heart rate variability—a biomarker of improved health—reducing pain, and improving sleep and mood.
