How the Vagus Nerve and Feeling Safe Are Connected: Inspired by Dr. Stephen Porges and Deb Dana

Every moment, your body is quietly asking an important question:"Am I safe?"

This question is not just emotional; it’s biological. It happens through a special part of your body called the vagus nerve.The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body. It connects your brain to your heart, lungs, and stomach. Dr. Stephen Porges, who created Polyvagal Theory, discovered that the vagus nerve controls how safe, calm, and connected you feel (Porges, 2011).

When you feel safe, the top part of your vagus nerve (called the ventral vagal system) is active. You feel open, alive, able to laugh, cry, speak, and trust. Your body is in “rest and connect” mode. Healing, growth, and happiness happen here.

But when you feel unsafe—if you are judged, hurt, lonely, or stressed—your nervous system changes. You might go into fight-or-flight (feeling anxious, angry) or even freeze (feeling numb, disconnected).This is not a weakness. It’s your body trying to survive.

Deb Dana, a leading therapist who works closely with Polyvagal Theory, teaches that we can learn to listen to our nervous system and bring ourselves back to safety (Dana, 2018). She explains that simple things—like hearing a warm voice, being seen with kindness, or connecting with someone who listens—can "awaken" the vagus nerve and help us feel safe again.

This is exactly why being witnessed is so powerful.

When someone truly sees you—not to judge, fix, or advise you—but simply to be there with you, your body feels it. Your heart rate slows down. Your breathing softens. Your muscles relax. Your brain shifts from survival to connection.

At FeelSafeHub, we believe that witnessing and supporting women is not just emotional work. It is biological healing.When a woman is witnessed in her truth, her body remembers:"It’s safe to be me."This creates real change—not just in the mind, but deep in the heart, the cells, the nervous system.

Gentle connection is medicine.Feeling safe is not a luxury.It is a foundation for health, happiness, and full living.

At FeelSafeHub, we create spaces where your nervous system can breathe, heal, and come home to itself.You were never meant to heal alone.

References:

• Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.

• Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.