The Vagus Nerve
Polyvagal Theory, developed by neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, offers a powerful framework for understanding how our nervous system responds to stress, safety, and connection. It expands our view beyond the traditional “fight or flight” response, showing that our body’s reactions are much more nuanced and deeply rooted in survival and social behavior.
Key Concepts of Polyvagal Theory
The Vagus Nerve:
The vagus is a major nerve running from the brainstem to the body, influencing the heart, lungs, and digestion.Polyvagal Theory focuses on how the vagus nerve helps regulate our physiological state.
Three States of the Autonomic Nervous System:
According to Polyvagal Theory, our autonomic nervous system has three main states:Ventral Vagal (Safe & Social)
You feel calm, connected, open, and grounded. This state supports healing, digestion, and connection.Sympathetic (Fight or Flight)
You feel anxious, agitated, or defensive. This mobilized state prepares you to respond to danger.Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown or Freeze)
You feel numb, disconnected, or helpless. This is the body’s way of conserving energy under overwhelming threat.
Neuroception:
This is the subconscious process your body uses to detect safety or danger—before you even think about it. Neuroception influences whether your body shifts into connection, mobilization, or shutdown.
Why It Matters for Somatic Movement and Yoga
Somatic practices, breathwork, and yoga can help you shift out of stress states and into the ventral vagal state, where healing and connection happen. By tuning into body cues and gently moving or breathing in specific ways, you signal to your nervous system that you are safe—helping to regulate emotions, reduce chronic tension, and restore resilience.
Polyvagal Theory provides somatic therapists with a science-backed framework to understand how the nervous system influences behavior, emotions, and healing—and how to support clients in moving from states of stress or shutdown into safety, connection, and resilience. Polyvagal Theory explains that automatic nervous system states, like fight, flight or freeze are not personality traits or conscious choices. This removes shame or judgment and helps clients feel validated in their experiences.
Therapists trained in somatic methods can sense shifts in breath, posture, facial expression, tone of voice, and movement, using these as cues to map which autonomic state a client is in. This guides when to deepen, pause, or adjust the session.
Polyvagal-informed therapy emphasizes creating a safe, attuned, and supportive environment—what Dr. Porges calls “co-regulation.” The therapist’s own regulated nervous system becomes a model and anchor for the client.
Rather than avoiding difficult emotions, somatic therapists help clients build the nervous system capacity to experience and move through them safely—a process called titration and pendulation.
Over time, this builds more resilience and flexibility, allowing clients to better respond to life stressors and restore balance more easily.