Heartmath, Neuvana Xen and Sensate together? See what happens when I supercharge my Vagus Nerve!

Published 2020-10-28

Links:
Sensate: www.getsensate.com//HatsonCoach
Heartmath: heartmath.co.uk/ or heartmath.com/
Neuvana: neuvanalife.com/

Some of you have been asking me to test what happens when you use three Vagus Nerve Stimulation devices at the same time - Heartmath's Inner Balance, Neuvana Xen and the Sensate Pebble 2. In this video I'll tell you all about my experience and why I think you CAN get too much of a good thing.
Before we go there, let's recap what the Vagus Nerve is. The vagus nerve is a key branch of the autonomic nervous system - the part of your central nervous system that regulates breathing, blood pressure, heart rate and other key bodily functions necessary to keep you alive and well. There are two branches of the autonomic nervous system. First up is the sympathetic side, which elevates your heart rate to help you deal with stress. This side is often referred to as "fight or flight", and it's the part that gets stuck on if you are suffering from chronic stress.
The second side is the parasympathetic branch, and this side slows your heart beat, reduces your blood pressure and breathing rate. It's often called the "rest and digest side", which is an oversimplification but let's go with it for the purposes of this video. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic branch.
When you are healthy and well, and dealing with stress ok, then your sympathetic and parasympathetic branches work together in a kind of dance, helping you deal with challenges that come along and allowing you to sleep like a baby at night. You need both, working together to function.
So these devices - Heartmath Inner Balance, Neuvana Xen and the Sensate Pebble, they all stimulate the vagus nerve. That is to say that they are all encouraging your vagus nerve to activate, effectively slowing down your Heart Rate, lowering your blood pressure and in turn, calming your mind down. They all do it differently - Heartmath uses coherent breathing, Neuvana is stimulating the nerve directly, and Sensate through vibrations. I tried using all three devices at the same time, which is quite a feat considering two of them attach to your ear and the other one goes around your neck, and I used them all for a 20 minute session.
The impact on my heart rate variability was impressive - very quickly I saw good coherence scores and felt incredibly relaxed, and that became a bigger and bigger problem. I felt so relaxed that staying awake became a real problem, and I ended up falling asleep.
I tried using all three devices on three separate occasions and the result was the same every time, I nodded off. And although this might seem like a good result, remember that I was wired up like a laboratory experiment - not a great way to sleep soundly for a long time.
But when you think about it, this was bound to happen. Effectively I overstimulated the vagus nerve, the rest and digest nerve. I put my autonomic nervous system out of balance. During the day you want to be balanced - have your sympathetic and parasympathetic branches dancing together to deal with what life throws at us. And whilst having an overstimulated vagus is probably less dangerous to health and wellbeing than an overstimulated sympathetic system, neither state is conducive to being a happy, health and motivated person.
Now what these devices are intended to do is to help bring you down from a stressed, fight or flight state, in to one of balance. Too much vagus nerve stimulation will likely leave you listless and lacking the motivation to get things done.
And one more note of caution. Vagus nerve stimulation devices are not the solution to a long term problem. If you are regularly stressed and even anxious and don't have good practices to keep yourself regulated, then most of these devices won't fix that. Your best choice is the Heartmath Inner Balance and to get yourself some Heartmath Coaching to help you develop the right skills to cope better with the stresses that life throws at us. And you can find out more about Heartmath coaching in the link in the description.
#sensate #heartmath #neuvana

@xeniapopaja 1 year ago

So this could be a good thing for insomnia? Since you fell asleep… I have inner balance and after 2 years of prqctice (refused to give up) its much easier now to wind down. But I felt like I needed something more since I have POTS and the more tired I get the harder it is to wind down and fall asleep, even with meds. So after seeing your video on the Xen device I ordered myself one. Cannot wait to try them both together. Thank You for the videos and info! 🙏🤗 Hopefully Ill be able to sleep better soon 🤗

@cathalbrady3984 3 years ago

hahaha Matthew you PSNS junkie!!! Great videos though keep them up, my sensate is being delivered next week, I am looking for just some relief but I am going to look into Hearthmath as well as I want to prevent it also.

@donnajones8906 3 years ago

Thanks for the video! I recently purchased the Heart Math Inner Balance, but I am looking for something to achieve quick stress/anxiety relief while I am going through the process of learning to train my body to calm itself (with the Inner Balance). If cost was not a factor, would you recommend the xen or the sensate for me? I feel like stress is contributing to some health issues and I want to begin to eliminate the stress asap. Thank you!