Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism Paperback – Illustrated, 5 Dec. 2017

Great book..very interesting

Highly recommend this book which has been very interesting in a journey of health recovery I am in. I think this is a untapped area with the NHS and one that chiropractors or non mainstem tend to be more involved with. This chap actually found somebody get healed from autism with his techniques. The book itself really focused on one central technique that you can do at home and the rest you really would need somebody who was a practitioner. It's not one therapy. But it is very interesting and I found some tremendous benefit even from the one exercise. Don't just YouTube the exercise you'll find the book extremely informative. Worth the investment.

This is not a quick and easy read for someone who doesn't have the time or energy (which is usually the case if you are hyper-stressed or unwell) to wade through a load of theory about the cranial nerves, sympathetic, the parasympathic nervous system ... and so on. It appears to have been written for health practitioners rather than as a 'What to do guide' for the general public. Hence, if you want a simple what to do solution for your specific set of stressed related symptoms, you may as well skip reading most of the book and go straight to the exercise examples at the back of the book and practice those without bothering to understand all the theory. The exercises should help to reduce some of the tension in your body so that your mind and body can start to rebalance enough for you to receive some relief from your symptoms. Then when you start to feel better you may have some energy or inclination to start wading through the earlier parts of the book to understand the theory. Meanwhile, whilst the exercise section is useful, it could have been laid out better for the general public with some easy to read bullet point info about the cranial nerve problems and symptoms they are good for. As it is, it's not easy to see which exercises might be better to focus on for your own specific set of symptoms or how often to practice them. Maybe try them all out at a pace that feels right for you and see which ones seem to benefit you the most.

The Polyvagal theory is perhaps the most important scientific discovery of the 21st century. I recommend the readers to watch some interviews with Stephen Porges who first formulated it. But Stanley Rosenberg's book is by far the most profound and useful text on the subjects. I have been trying the exercises and I think they work - I find myself more inclined to engage face to face with people.The book gives us a thorough understanding the role of our high mammalian autonomic nervous system and why our bodies crave real physical social interaction. The biggest irony of our modern information world is that the so called social media in fact deprives people from actively engaging with others face to face and therefore it reduces the ventral nerve activation. It's a form self-induced autism.In conclusion, my take from the book is that we have evolved to survive in groups and for that reason no man is an island!

I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. The underlying concept of the physiological issues at the root of "mental" states was an eye-opener. The exercises at the end of the book are so easy to do and produce such instantaneous positive results. What an absolute goldmine!

Simple to read & understand whilst enlightening about the functioning of the vagus nerve & it’s relationship to cranial nerve function & aspects of autism. Worth every penny & genius exercises, too!

Good in depth info on cranial nervesNice exercises, the Basic Exercise seems to be usefulVery repetitive - needs a good editor.Par 2 is tiny compared to part 1Extreme efficacy of exercises seems questionable.Overall a decent intro to cavalier exercises. Would like to have seen some info on cold water therapy.

If you are interested in movement and the body, this book is a must. It is so fascinating. I chose it instead of the Steve Porges book because I thought it might be a bit too scientific for me to understand. Also there are some amazing and simple exercises in this version.