Dr. Marielle Bouquet

Rocking?

Rocking.

Rocking actually initiates that calming response, that parasympathetic response within our nervous system that engages our ventral vagal nerve.

which is the nerve within our cranial nerve, within our nervous system that actually helps us to experience rest and restoration and calm and ease.

So when we rock, we actually engage that ventral vagal nerve, which is just a beautiful thing.

I mean, if you think about it, for example, like when you're in hammock rocking, right?

Or in a rocking chair, what's the effect that it gives you?

It's true, or a swing or like anything like that.

It grounds you.

Or even when you think about as a child, when you were in a caregiver's arms and they were rocking you to sleep, the reason why you were able to get sleep is because you actually felt a sense of safety because your ventral vagal response was being initiated.

Wow.

So rocking.

What's another one?

Another one is humming.

Humming is also a way to elicit that ventral vagal response.

So it actually helps a lot, you know, to be able to even pair the two.

I like to hum and rock.

And it's almost like you can even pick your favorite song if you're doing it with a kid, with a child.

It's very child friendly as a practice.

And so this can be a way in which a child can also like help themselves to soothe.