You scored the highest in areas for the ventral vagal state of the Polyvagal Theory. This means that you have a good connection to your ventral vagal state of warmth, openness, and love. You are primed for the path of increasing your capacity to remain connected to ventral vagal while experiencing greater states of hyper and hypo-arousal (intensity of peak experiences or lack of stimulus in meditative states, respectively).

Ventral vagal is our home base of safety and relaxation, and in this state you are calm, collected, and connected.

In the ventral vagal state, your body able to relax, repair, and thrive. You might experience safety, warmth, openness, confidence, creativity, and a sense of connection to yourself and others. Physical indicators include relaxed muscles, smooth/deep breathing, and normal heartrate variability (HRV).

In the ventral vagal state, our social engagement system is fully online. We are more compassionate and caring towards others, we can more easily tune into people’s words, tone of voice, and facial expressions, and we can better soothe and support others from this state.

The more time we spend in ventral vagal, the more we can improve our resilience and our capacity to remain steady during challenging situations. This state is also highly beneficial for your wellness because it promotes lower inflammation, balanced metabolism and glucose levels, and healthy gut activity.

Anchoring into your ventral vagal state can help you deepen your sense of peace, clarity, creativity, and compassion for yourself and others.

3-minute exercises to anchor the ventral vagal state:

• Heart resonance breathing - sit comfortably with an upright posture and close your eyes. Breathing through your nose, breathe IN for a count of 5 and OUT for a count of 6. Imagine you are breathing in and out of your heart, or the center of your chest (heart chakra). You can place your hand on your heart if you’d like, and imagine a white or golden light glowing in your chest. This exercise is designed for HRV training (scientific measure of vagal tone).

• Tonglen - sit comfortably with an upright posture and close your eyes. Send loving-kindness and compassion to three people: first to your inner child, then someone you love, and finally someone it’s difficult to feel compassion for. You can imagine they are standing in front of you, and on the in-breath, breathe in their suffering. On the out-breath, send them kindness, compasion, and forgiveness.

• Ecstatic Dance - put on an upbeat song that lights you up inside. Let your body move freely to the beat—shake, twist, and bounce around. As you do, keep a smile on your face to enhance the ventral vagal effects.

I can also support you with curated exercises and personalized guidance based on your goals. Click here for more information, and book a free exploratory call here.