Healing Through the Vagus Nerve

Very informative, easy to follow instructions and calm inducing illustrations! I enjoyed going through this book and cannot wait to put its contents into practice. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC. I plan on buying a physical copy of this for quick reference and will most definitely recommend for people with anxiety and stress or for people who want to improve their general mindfulness and overal well-being.

As a psychotherapist, I'm often looking for thorough, but simple resources for people to learn about their nervous systems and how they get activated, the role of the vagus nerve and ways to engage in soothing when activated as well as maintain a healthy system. This is going to be a frequently recommended one - I love the clarity and simplicity, and the examples are so helpful. The layout is pleasing and makes the text easy to digest. There were recommendations that I often use as go-to's but some new ones, as well - like the visual exercises and the self massage. I'm excited to use these myself!

I absolutely loved this book! As someone who has suffered with vagus nerve issue over the course of many years I cannot say enough how much I wish I had this as a resource back then. It provided a lot of information, tips, and tricks to help people dealing with this vital nerve and hopefully help them on the path to a better more Geist and fulfilling life.

Thinking “Of course, this makes sense instead” of “what’s wrong with me?” is revolutionary! Understanding and changing your perspective makes all the difference. I found this book exceedingly helpful. While I can’t say I enjoyed the information on the sympathetic and parasympathetic ?? It definitely was important to have this background. The exercises for vagus nerve stimulation are amazing. They range from things like gargling to legs up the wall to cold exposure to laughter! I did find the blueprint section was a great starting point and very helpful. A very useful, comforting and helpful book. I totally recommend adding this to your library.

I have read a few things about the Vagus nerve before but they were quite theoretical and I wasn’t really sure where to go with the information.
This book was great for setting the scene, putting things in context and then setting out some areas and suggestions to make changes.
I actually didn’t realise it could be so easy and that there were so many things that can affect the vagus nerve. I have been left feeling that it will be really easy to make changes in this area.

My husband suffers from long covid and we learned that vagus nerve exercises can help with that as well. So to learn more about this we read this book. It's easy to read, very informative and even aesthetically pleasing.

This book is accessible and informative. It is laid out well in educating about the vagus nerve before moving on to practical steps you can take to help regulate yours. I like the clean layout and drawings that illustrate the author's point (and that they include people of different ages and races!).

Healing Through the Vagus Nerve by Amanda Armstrong. An excellent educational guide that is user-friendly, with clear instructions and helpful visuals. Recommended for individuals with anxiety and stress, offering helpful exercises that stimulate the vagus nerve, including laughing, gargling, and cold conditions. The blueprint portion is a really useful place to start. I plan on purchasing the hardcover copy for future reference once it is published.

Thank you to the author, ‎ Fair Winds Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I found this to be the most thorough and well explained approach to vagal toning that I have read. The importance of good vagal tone for good health and recovery is now widely recognised. For me it was a very important part of my recovery from Long Covid. This book explains the structure and function of the vagus nerves in a very easy to understand way before going through the various techniques for improving vagal tone and suggesting routines to build it into your day. What made this book stand out from others was the range of interventions it covers, the easy to follow explanations and ways of fitting in short practices in your day that are easy to achieve. I wish this book had been around when I was ill - I think it would have been invaluable.

I have been hearing about the role of the vagus nerve in regard to the mind and body connection and was interested in learning more. When I was given the opportunity to read and review Amanda Armstrong's book, Healing Through The Vagus Nerve, I was delighted.

I found this book to be a valuable source of information and tools to improve the mind and body connection. The author provides the groundwork education about the nervous system and the role of the vagus nerve. I appreciated that at the end of each chapter she provides a summary of the key takeaways.

I found the tools to tone the vagal nerve to be easy to understand, accessible, and effective. As an educator in an elementary school I foresee using many of these tools to help children assess how they are feeling and address feelings of stress. I also foresee using many of these techniques on myself when I am feeling dysregulated.

The final chapter guides the reader to develop a daily plan to incorporate tiny habits into the day to heal the vagal nerve. I appreciated the sample day schedule provided as well as progressively adding habits to the daily schedule. I look forward to adding many of these habits to my day and am optimistic about improved ability to handle stress.

The vagus nerve has always been something that interested me as a person who works in mental health, but I had not read a ton on it. This book was a great way to learn more about the vagus nerve and how it affects us! The book was easy to read and follow, and is a great informational resource! Absolutely loved it and plan to share with some colleagues.

This is a topic I am becoming increasingly interested in, and I love that I have had the opportunity to read this book. The vagus nerve affects so much and I don't think people truly realize its impact. This is a great introductory guide that is very informative and helpful. If someone is struggling with their nervous system and how to improve mental health and physical health, then this is the book for them. It's revolutionary and can answer so many questions and help a person begin to find answers and help themselves so that they can be happy and healthy!

Thank you to NetGalley, Amanda Armstrong, and Fair Winds Press for the eARC of this book.

The vagus nerve, a sensory superhighway connecting the brain to vital organs, regulates functions from digestion to heart rate. Its intricate structure, consisting of approximately 160,000 nerve fibers, is being mapped to understand its wide-ranging impacts better, including mood regulation, immune response, and inflammation control. I see more of this popping up on social media to educate and help us understand how vital the vagus nerve plays in our day-to-day lives. This book captured so much complex background information into a digestible format to allow a reader to know how it works, what it can impact, and what you can do to cope. Kudos to the author for a fantastic job along with the wonderful illustrations. Wellness is such an important aspect that hopefully becomes easier to keep in the forefront of our minds.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds, Fair Winds Press, and of course the author, Amanda Armstrong for this wonderful ARC.

Excellent practical guide
Recently it has become clearer and clearer that healing on a physical and mental level is so much easier and at times only possible if you integrate your nervous system esp. the Vagus Nerv. If you think about it and the author makes a very good point: the stressful living in a modern world is not what the human body was made for. And to balance our nervous system in a way that supports a natural state of health you have to work with the system and its most important nerve, the Vagus nerv.
There are quite a few good books around this one excels because it is easy to read and very practical. As a Covid longhauler I can attest that Armstrong‘s explanations and practical exercises are excellent.
The author puts all the important information out there. The good thing: The information is in a nutshell and easy to understand. She does not skimp but nails the important points. Armstrong makes it totally clear why you need the foundations: depending on the state of your nervous the interventions may differ. And the exercises she proposes are easy as well. I loved how she encourages to start very small and gives lots of practical advice how to implement the change. I very much recommend this book.

received an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

If you have ended up on the high cortisol side of Tiktok like me, then this book will be perfect for you! I have been interested in learning more about vagal toning and this book walks you through everything you need to know and then gives you practical exercises to get started. Everything was explained in a way that made the information easy to understand, while also not being too long winded or boring. The formatting and illustrations were also beautiful and helpful for understanding. I can see myself referring to this book often, especially while learning the exercises at the end of the book.

4.75/5

Thank you Amanda Armstrong and NetGalley for this ARC!

Even though the wellness and spiritual world could not be more popular right now, I’m willing to bet there are very few people who could locate the Vegus nerve in their body! It’s very surprising to me that there is such little literature available explaining why it’s so important to understand more about it. Amanda Armstrong excellent job of explaining where it is ,why it’s important [fight flight freeze mode] And how we can learn to regulate it With meditation and breath work etc.
As a health and spirituality writer I will keep this book in my proverbial back pocket for future articles…
This is a beautifully laid out book and deserves its place on the bookshelves of anyone curious about Wellness and also wellness practitioners. Thoroughly recommend

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I am so glad I picked up this book, from my previous books and studies I knew the importance of the Vagus Nerve in regulation and tackling trauma but this is my first in depth look into it. I appreciated how the book started off with explaining all about the nerve and its importance to give a more holistic view before looking into healing it and the illustrations for things such as the phases of healing and the zones makes it easier to visualise these theories. I was also pleasantly surprised with the representation in the illustrations with a mix of genders and races being depicted and even people like long hair and stubble together or wearing a headscarf which can easily be overlooked when making less image dense books like this. I also appreciated the end having recommendations for rise as we are and wearable tech recommendations as well as further reading and the references.

Favourite Quote:
"It's also important to note that trauma isn't universal; it isn't what happened but instead how you experienced it."

This is such a beautiful book and I got lost in it today. These are all the symptoms I've been having and was an absolute must read. I'm going to be slowly re-reading and taking notes this time. Must read for anyone in their 30s struggling with chronic pain, aches and stress.

Very easy read. Easy to follow and understand. I struggle with stress and anxiety and this book really helped relieve some of that stress and anxiety!

Love this self-help book!! I'm definitely purchasing it when it comes out so I can reference back to it when needed. Crazy how the body can affect the mind when it's not "healed" right. I'll be eiplimenting a lot of what I learned throughout this book in my day to day life..

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for this ARC

I have really found this book interesting and valuable. I have liked how the book is laid out and presented. The information is in depth but not unmanageable to take in. I will keep revisiting this book as I know it is something I want to work on personally.

NetGalley app review

Highly recommend this for anyone who works in a career with this topic coming up, or anyone who is interested in this topic for them self. I would absolutely utilize this book with my yoga clients and meditation clients.
I even learn some new things from this book which was so refreshing. The layout and design is aesthetically pleasing, Making it even more easy to understand a topic such as this.