Anyone who wants to go into business for themselves has to recognize you’re going to have to be resilient. Learning how to push through failures, hard times, and doubts is a major piece to reaching goals. But how do you teach someone to be resilient?
It turns out that there is substantial research to support vagal tone as a major indicator of how a person will be able to respond to a difficult life event.
What is Vagal Tone?
The vagus nerve runs from your brain all the way down to your intestines. If this nerve is healthy and functioning properly, you will have a high vagal tone. This nerve drives many essential functions for the body. It affects digestion, control of emotion, breath rate, heart rate, and much more. The biggest thing to me is that it connects our body to our mind.
The vagus nerve is extremely powerful in helping you be more resilient to stressors and then be able to navigate challenges more successfully.
How Strong is My Vagal Tone?
My favorite measure of vagal tone comes from Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter. She encourages you to measure the rate of your emotions.
Determine this ratio: “how many positive emotions you feel in the course of a day compared with how many negative emotions you feel.”
The more positive you are typically the stronger your vagal tone. The stronger your vagal tone, the more resilient (and likely healthy) you will become.
Increasing Your Vagal Tone
Now it is time to put this into action. If positive emotions are going to help increase your vagal tone and therefore resilience. What steps can you take to increase your vagal tone? I have a list of 5 options here, but I would love to hear your ideas in the comments as well.
1. Read 20 minutes of an uplifting and motivational book every day. This could be the Bible or another nonfiction book. If 20 minutes is too much at first, commit to 5 minutes.
2. Dance everyday. Taking a break each day to just dance your heart out to a favorite song will almost certainly bring a smile to your face.
3. Listen to classical music on your commute or while you work. The uplifting aspects of classical music are well-documented.
4. Go for a walk with no distractions. Spend 10-minutes walking in the sun without access to a cell phone or even another person. The sun will make you happier and the focused time has great calming benefits.
5. Play every day. This sounds so obvious, but many adults struggle to find time to play. This could be a digital game or just fun time with your pet. Who doesn’t want to play more!?! Give yourself the freedom to do just that.
What ideas do you have for producing more positive emotions and increasing your vagal tone? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to like and subscribe.