Welcome back and take a moment to settle with me as we start
this episode because today we're going into something that lives
deep inside your body, something that you've never seen, probably
never thought about, but your entire sense of calm depends on
it every minute of your life. And it deserves more attention
than it ever gets. I've been wanting to talk about
this for a while. The phrenic nerve, Partly
because no one ever brings it up, partly because it plays a
role in almost every breath you take.
The more you understand it, the more control you get over your
stress, your anxiety, your tension, emotional regulation,
and even the way you physically hold yourself throughout the
day. There's something incredibly
grounding about knowing how your own body works, especially the
parts that quietly influence you, and the phrenic nerve is
basically the definition of that.
It's not dramatic. It's not flashy, it's not a
nerve people post about online or throw into Wellness routines,
and yet, if it stopped firing for even a handful of seconds,
everything inside you would feel it instantly.
So settle in. Let your shoulders drop just a
little bit. Let me take you into this system
you've been living with since the minute you were born,
whether you realized it or not. The frontic nerve is one of
those parts of your body that just works in the background.
And because it works so consistently and so quietly, it
becomes invisible. The same way you stop noticing
the hum of a refrigerator until it shuts off, or the same way
you stop noticing your own heartbeat until something makes
it race. This nerve doesn't get the
spotlight the vagus nerve gets. And honestly that's a shame
because of the vagus nerve is like the emotional dimmer switch
of your body then the phrenic nerve is the actual engine
running the whole breathing system that makes calm even
possible. This starts high in your neck
from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th cervical spinal nerves, which is
why anatomy students memorize the phrase C345.
Keep the diaphragm alive. That's not an exaggeration, it's
literal. Those 3 spinal nerves merge to
form the phrenic nerve on each side of your body, and from
there each nerve travels downward, running along the
front of your scalene muscles in your neck, moving behind your
collarbone, weaving through the tight architecture of your
chest, slipping between your heart and your lungs, and then
finally landing on the diaphragm, the most important
breathing muscle you have. And when I say landing, I don't
mean casually touching it, I mean the phrenic nerve branches
out into the diaphragm like roots gripping soil, controlling
every contraction, relaxation of that huge Dome shaped muscle as
it's right under your lungs. Every inhale you've ever taken
was initiated by the phrenic nerve sending a signal downward.
Every exhale you've released was shaped by the same nerve,
letting the diaphragm relax. Before you ever learned a
language, before you ever formed a memory, before you even had
the ability to cry, smile, laugh, your phrenic nerve was
already firing. It was the first real movement
pattern of your life, and somehow, even knowing that, we
barely talk about it. And maybe that's why it's so
powerful to slow down and pay attention to it, because it's
been controlling one of the most intimate rhythms of your
existence. Without any gratitude or focus
or acknowledgement from you. In the moment you finally bring
awareness to it, everything in your body starts shifting in a
different direction. One of the most fascinating
things about the phrenic nerve is how deeply intertwined it is
with your emotional life, even though nobody positions it that
way. We usually think emotions live
in the mind, or maybe the chest, and we talk about anxiety or
sadness or stress as if they're purely psychological issues.
But what people forget is that breathing is the first physical
change that happens. The moment and emotion shows up
before you interpret a feeling in your head.
Your diaphragm is already responding before you form a
coherent thought about what you're experiencing.
The phrenic nerve has already changed your breathing pattern.
Before you even realize you're stressed or upset or
overwhelmed, the signal has already traveled down your neck
and into your diaphragm. Take anxiety.
When something stresses you out, your body shifts into shallow
breathing almost instantly. Your chest tightens, your rib
cage stiffens, and your breathing becomes short, fast
and high. It's neurological.
It's the phrenic nerve switching into a different firing pattern
before you can even label the feeling you're having.
The same thing happens in grief, frustration, emotional
overwhelm, or even anticipation. Your diaphragm is basically a
mood sensor, and the nerve is the wiring that delivers that
message. Once you start paying attention
to whether you're breathing low or high, slow or fast, deep or
shallow, you can sense emotions before your mind processes them,
almost like you're reading your body's emotional language before
it translates into thoughts. That's why people do deep
breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, or somatic therapy.
Experience emotional release. It's not mystical, it's
structural. The diaphragm controls pressure,
space and movement, and your chest and abdomen, which then
affects your heart, your digestive system, and your
entire stress response. It's a domino effect.
The first domino is the phrenic nerve.
Let's go deeper into the actual mechanics of what's happening in
your body when the phrenic nerve fires in a calm state versus a
stress state. There's a difference between
those two modes. Explains so much about why some
people feel grounded and steady while others feel constantly
restless or trapped inside their own chest.
When the phrenic nerve fires calmly, the diaphragm contracts
smoothly and fully, pulling downward and creating space in
the lungs to fill with air. This type of breath is wide and
deep and expansive. Your body moves outward, your
ribs widen horizontally, and your lower lungs fill in a way
that naturally slows your heart rate.
There's no force or tension. It's an easy movement, almost
automatic. When the phrenic nerve fires
under stress, the diaphragm contracts differently.
It tightens upward instead of downward, almost like it's
bracing. Your rib cage narrows, your
chest rises, your breath shortens, and your heart rate
spikes. Because the lower diaphragm
position never happens, and because the diaphragm controls
the pressure inside your torso, this tension pulls your stomach
tight, your shoulders forward, and your posture into a
protective shape. You can try to think positive in
that state, but it's useless because your body is physically
locked into a pattern that doesn't allow calm.
This is why breath work works, not because it's spiritual, but
because the moment you intentionally move your chest,
your breathing, the nerve has no choice but to respond
differently and your entire nervous system recalibrates.
This is also why people often cry randomly during deep
breathing or during meditation when they finally take a real
deep breath after hours of old intention.
The release isn't mental, it's physical.
It's the diaphragm finally dropping into a full movement
for the first time in a while, and the phrenic nerve firing
cleanly instead of in that tight, compressed protective
pattern. Now I want to talk a little
about posture, because this is something no one connects to the
phrenic nerve, even though the connection is painfully obvious
once you see it. The nerve passes through your
neck, runs down behind your collarbone, and slides through
your chest. If you live your life launched
forward, shoulders rolled in, sternum collapsed, chin tucked,
or always sucking in your stomach, you're putting actual
mechanical pressure on the pathway the nerve travels.
And if the nerve is compressed or irritated, even mildly,
breathing feels harder. Not so much in a dramatic I
can't breathe way, but in a subtle my breath never feels
deep enough way. People misinterpret that feeling
as anxiety or overthinking or stress, but a lot of the time
it's literally just the diaphragm not having enough room
to move because your posture is compressing everything around
it. Think about how many hours you
spend sitting, scrolling, working on a laptop, driving,
texting. Each of those positions closes
your chest, shortens the muscles around your phrenic nerve.
It's not that your body is broken, it's that you've created
a shape that forces the nerve to work harder.
But the moment you stretch your chest, lift your sternum, let
your rib cage widen and allow your stomach to relax, the nerve
slides freely and your breathing deepens instantly.
Try it with me. That's why people feel a weird
sense of relief when they stretch.
You're giving your body more freedom.
Your diaphragm is also one of the main places you store
emotions that you've never processed.
Every time you swallow anger, every time you held back tears,
every time you force yourself to stay calm or try not to show
disappointment or fear or frustration, your chest
tightened, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours or
years. But because the nerve controls
the diaphragm, those emotional patterns get wired into the
nerves firing pattern. Not in a metaphorical way.
In a neurological, literal way. That's why people can live their
entire adult lives feeling like their chest is tight or their
breathing is shallow, like something inside them is stuck
even when nothing is wrong. Their body has been living in a
protective position for so long that they forgot what a relaxed
breath even feels like when you finally reconnect with that part
of yourself. When you breathe low and slow
and wide and your stomach actually moves freely, your body
gets to experience a pattern it hasn't accessed in a long time.
That's why emotional release happens, not because you're
being dramatic or you're fragile.
Because your body finally has permission to stop bracing, your
phrenic nerve learns new patterns the same way your mind
does. Slowly, through repetition,
through gentle exposure to safety.
Every deep breath is a signal saying it's OK to relax now.
And the more often you send that signal, the easier it becomes
for your body to trust it. Let's go into the meditative
side of this. Meditation isn't about emptying
your mind. It's not about thinking nothing
or transcending your problems. It's about teaching your nervous
system what safety feels like. And safety starts with breath,
and breath starts with the diaphragm.
The diaphragm starts with the phrenic nerve.
So when you meditate and bring your attention to your
breathing, what you're really doing is bringing awareness to
your body and the movement your nerve controls.
When you inhale slowly through your nose, feeling the breath
move downward into your stomach, when you let the exhale fall out
of you without force, you're signaling your body to relax.
When you breathe at a pace where the inhale and exhale feel
smooth instead of sharp, you're treating your nervous system to
stay in a restful state. This is why meditation lowers
your heart rate. Your thoughts slow down.
You feel grounded. You're calming your mind and
your body together. Meditation is physical before
it's mental. Breath is physical before it's
emotional. Everything rises from the bottom
up. If you guide your breath, if
your body regulates itself, your mind will stabilize.
And all that begins with the nerve.
To close this out, I want to give you something simple.
Something you can do anytime, anywhere, without equipment,
without needing silence or needing perfect conditions.
It's just a way to check in and remind your body that you can
relax wherever you are. If you're comfortable, let your
stomach soften, not dramatically.
Just release it a little. Then lengthen your spine a bit
without forcing anything, just creating space for your chest.
Inhale slowly through your nose and picture the air moving
downward, almost like it's filling the bottom of your
dorsal instead of your chest. Feel your diaphragm drop, your
ribs expand outward, and your shoulders stay relaxed.
And as you exhale, don't push it out.
Just let it fall. Let it drop out of you
naturally. Let your body decide the pace.
Do that a few times with a no goal, no pressure, no
expectation. You'll notice the shift.
Your nervous system recognizes a pattern it hasn't been allowed
to feel in a while. It knows this rhythm.
It remembers it. The phrenic nerve doesn't need
technique, it just needs space, and giving it that space is the
easiest way to bring yourself back into your body, back into
your breath, and back into your life in a way that actually
feels grounded. Thanks for being here with me
today. I hope you enjoyed our session.
Take one more deep breath in and out from me and I'll see you in
the next one.