Organ Resets: Restoring Internal Communication
Our organs don’t just function mechanically—they exist within a complex network of nervous system signaling, fascia, and energetic flow. When this internal communication is disrupted, whether by stress, trauma, or habitual tension patterns, it can create a sense of disconnection that affects both physical health and emotional well-being.
Organ resets are a way to help restore our internal communication process. By using breathwork, localized and directional touch, and awareness, we engage the vagus nerve and fascial system to support the natural motility and function of the organs. This helps release stored tension, improve interoception, and reestablish a sense of safety and connection in the body.
Rather than forcing change, as with all aspects of Somatic Alignment, organ resets create the conditions for the body to reorganize itself naturally. By inviting a recalibration of the nervous system, these resets foster adaptability, deeper integration, and a fluid connection between body and mind.
The Vagus Nerve: Your Body’s Communication Superhighway
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in our body, running from our brainstem down through our neck, chest, and abdomen. Its name comes from the Latin word vagari, meaning “to wander,” because it branches out to almost every major organ along its path.
Here’s why it’s so important:
• Parasympathetic Regulation: The vagus nerve is a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes “rest-and-digest” functions. It helps counterbalance the “fight-or-flight” responses of the sympathetic nervous system.
• Two-Way Communication: About 80% of vagus nerve fibers are afferent (sensory), meaning they send information from the organs to the brain. The remaining 20% are efferent (motor), carrying signals from the brain to regulate organ function. This bidirectional communication is crucial for maintaining homeostasis.
This highlights how much our brain’s interpretation of experience depends on signals from within our bodies (bottom-up communication).
• Emotional Connection: The vagus nerve links physical sensations to emotional states. It helps regulate stress responses, inflammation, and even emotions like grief or anger.
When we influence the vagus nerve during organ resets, we’re not just working with physical processes—we’re also tapping into its role in emotional regulation and creating space for deeper healing. This happens because the elements we use come together to restore, balance, and reset our internal biofeedback loop of sensory and motor input.
This restoration of communication lines is going to be effective at addressing that which led us to lose connection with ourselves in the first place. Whether through stress, trauma, habitual patterns, or life’s inevitable challenges in the most general sense, disruptions in our sensory-motor balance can affect everything from posture and coordination to focus, emotional regulation, and overall well-being. By restoring this internal communication super highway, we reconnect with ourselves on multiple levels, reclaiming a sense of equilibrium and presence in our bodies.
The Enteric Nervous System: Our Gut’s Second Brain
The enteric nervous system (ENS), often referred to as the “second brain,” takes the vagus nerve’s role in sensory communication to an entirely new level. Embedded in the walls of the gastrointestinal tract, the ENS contains over 500 million neurons—more than the spinal cord—and operates with remarkable autonomy. While the vagus nerve acts as a communication highway between the gut and brain, the ENS can independently manage digestion, gut motility, and enzyme secretion without relying on direct input from the central nervous system (CNS).
Why Does It Matter?
• Autonomous Function: The ENS governs digestion through local reflexes without needing input from the CNS. It controls peristalsis (gut movement), enzyme secretion, blood flow, and nutrient absorption. This independence allows it to respond quickly and efficiently to changes in the gut environment.
• Gut-Brain Connection: The ENS communicates bi-directionally with your CNS via the vagus nerve as part of the gut-brain axis. This connection influences not only digestion but also mood, cognition, and immune responses. For example, disruptions in this axis have been linked to conditions like depression, anxiety, and neurodegenerative diseases.
• Neurotransmitters: The ENS produces key neurotransmitters like serotonin (95% of which is found in the gut) and dopamine. These chemicals are critical for regulating digestion and play a significant role in emotional health and mental well-being. Gut microbes also influence this process by producing neuroactive compounds that interact with the ENS and brain.
Disruptions in this system—caused by stress, inflammation, or gut microbiota imbalances—can alter vagal signaling and lead to miscommunication between body and brain. This can manifest as digestive issues, heightened emotional sensitivity, or difficulty managing stress.
When we work with organ resets involving areas like the umbilical region or intestines, we’re not just supporting physical digestion—we’re also engaging this intricate gut-brain network to promote emotional balance and overall well-being.
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The Four Core Organs: The Umbilical Area & Their Vagal Connection
Each organ has its unique relationship with the vagus nerve and plays a specific role in both physical regulation and emotional processing.
In Somatic Alignment, we focus primarily on the liver, lungs, bladder, and spleen because these four organs have profound downstream effects on the rest of the body, including organs like the kidneys, pancreas, and heart.
Here’s a look at each of these 4 organs and their Vagal connection.
1. Liver & Gallbladder – Anger, Flow & Release
• Vagal Connection: The liver and gallbladder form a team that processes toxins, filters blood, and releases bile for digestion. While the vagus nerve doesn’t directly innervate liver cells, it regulates blood flow through the hepatic portal triad (where bile ducts, veins, and arteries converge) and supports bile secretion. When we are in a parasympathetic state, these organs can detoxify efficiently. Under stress or sympathetic activation, however, their processes slow down.
• Sensory Feedback: The liver communicates its state subtly—tightness in the right shoulder or ribcage, sluggish digestion, or a general sense of heaviness can all point to stagnation in this area.
• Emotional Integration: The liver is often tied to anger and our ability to release what no longer serves us—whether that’s physical toxins or emotional frustration. Resetting this organ helps restore flow in both digestion and emotions, bringing clarity and lightness.
The Liver & Gallbladder are of the Wood Element and their season is Spring.
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2. Lungs – Breath, Grief & Expansion
• Vagal Connection: The vagus nerve directly innervates the lungs, regulating their rate and depth of breathing. This connection ensures proper oxygenation while calming stress responses through parasympathetic activation.
• Sensory Feedback: Shallow breathing or tightness in the chest often reflects unresolved grief or suppressed emotions. The lungs send sensory signals through the vagus nerve to help adjust breathing patterns based on internal needs or external stressors.
• Emotional Integration: The lungs are deeply tied to grief and our capacity for expansion—both physically (through breath) and emotionally (through letting go). Resetting this organ allows for deeper breathing while releasing stored grief or emotional weight.
The Lungs are of the Metal Element and their season is Autumn.
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3. Bladder – Safety, Fear & Grounding
• Vagal Connection: While the bladder isn’t directly innervated by the vagus nerve itself, it communicates with it via pelvic branches of the autonomic nervous system. This connection regulates elimination processes while influencing feelings of safety and stability.
• Sensory Feedback: Chronic tension in the bladder often mirrors emotional states like fear or urgency. Sensations like tightness or frequent urgency can reflect survival responses tied to stress.
• Emotional Integration: The bladder is associated with grounding—our sense of safety within ourselves. Resetting this organ helps release deep-seated holding patterns tied to fear or insecurity while fostering stability both physically and emotionally.
The Bladder is associated with Winter and its Element is Water
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4. Spleen – Nourishment, Worry & Resilience
• Vagal Connection: The vagus nerve regulates spleen function through its anti-inflammatory pathways. By releasing acetylcholine via parasympathetic activation, it modulates immune cell activity and reduces inflammation.
• Sensory Feedback: An imbalanced spleen often manifests as overwhelm—excessive worry or mental chatter—as well as sluggish digestion due to heightened inflammatory responses.
• Emotional Integration: The spleen is tied to nourishment—both physically (through digestion) and emotionally (through feeling cared for). Resetting this organ reduces worry while promoting resilience against stressors.
The Spleen is of the Earth Element and its season is late summer.
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The Umbilical Area: A Deep Reset Point
The umbilical area is not just a physical landmark—it’s a central hub for digestion and emotional grounding and represents our connection to our mother and the mother archetype. Energetically, it represents our first bond with nourishment and life itself. Physically, it’s part of the broader visceral fascia, which stabilizes internal organs, supports their mobility, and facilitates communication between systems like the vagus nerve and enteric nervous system (ENS).
Tension or restriction in this area can disrupt organ function, circulation, and nervous system signaling, affecting both physical health and emotional regulation. By addressing these patterns, with De-armoring practices we can release stored tension, restore balance, and reconnect with this vital center of the body.
How Organ Resets Work
Organ resets combine physical techniques and nervous system activation/regulation to promote deep healing.
(Note: When we think about nervous system regulation, we often associate it with being relaxed, balanced, calm, or having a “healthy” nervous system. But let’s redefine “healthy” as a system whose ability to communicate is currently intact. Rather than a fixed state of calm, a truly healthy nervous system is one whose ability to communicate is intact—allowing it to adapt, respond, and restore as needed.)
1. Breathwork: Instead of just “calming” the system, we can use breathwork to create space for deeper shifts in autonomic tone. Slow, diaphragmatic, as well as conscious-connected breaths, breath retentions, or even directional breathing techniques like Breath flossing can increase vagal activation, and shift long-held tension patterns.
2. Bodywork Techniques: Specific, intentional directional touch supports the release of stored tension in and around organs. This isn’t just about relaxation or the palpation of tissue—it’s about reestablishing sensory clarity, restoring motility, and allowing the body to reorganize from the inside out.
3. Awareness & Interoception Practices: Directing attention to internal sensations helps reestablish lost connections between the body and mind. This isn’t just about passive observation—it’s an active process of learning how to listen to the body’s signals and respond in a way that supports communication.
4. Resonance & Vibration: Stimulating cranial nerves through resonance—whether via music, vibration, or undulating movement—shifts fascial tone, enhances vagal function, and improves organ motility. Humming, toning, rhythmic breath patterns or fluid movement create oscillations that support deep integration and realignment, reinforcing the body’s ability to self-regulate.
These techniques work together to stimulate vagal activity while creating conditions for your body to regulate (restore connection) with itself naturally.
Why This Matters
Trauma—understood as the disconnection that can result from a life event that we ended up not being able to process—doesn’t just live in our minds or bodies. It resides in the narratives we construct around those events and in the habitual ways we relate to the past. These narratives shape our sense of self in the present, often operating beneath our awareness.
The disconnection we experience, along with the procedural memories that accompany it, doesn’t exist solely in the mind or the body but in the line of communication between the two. When this communication is disrupted, it alters our perception, influences our conceptual habits, and affects how we engage with the world AND this includes our relationship we have with ourselves.
Organ resets offer a gentle, direct way to access and release these stored patterns without overwhelming the system. By integrating breathwork, touch, movement, and awareness—especially in ways that engage the vagus nerve—we restore a sense of safety and connection within the body. This process reestablishes clear communication between the mind and body, creating space for deeper healing, regulation, and integration.
Conclusion:
It all comes back to reconnecting with our body’s wisdom. When we create the conditions for safety through nervous system attunement, then de-armoring and organ resets become profound pathways to restoring balance. By releasing stored tension in both the musculoskeletal and visceral systems, we support the body’s natural capacity for regulation, healing, and flow.
Somatic Alignment is not just about undoing layers of armor or performing fancy therapeutic techniques—it’s about cultivating a deeper relationship with ourselves, one where we can listen to and honor the signals our body has been trying to share all along. As we continue this journey, the invitation is to stay curious, patient, and compassionate with ourselves, trusting that every breath and every shift in sensation brings us closer to a state of embodied ease and vitality.
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As we continue exploring Somatic Alignment in future posts, we’ll build on these foundational practices to dive even deeper into how the body communicates and heals:
• The Five Pranic Ovals: We’ll look at how these energy centers or diaphragms facilitate healthy breathing and energy flow and how we could also call them the five belts of tension as each one correlates to one of the five belts or segments of tension.
• The Five Vayus: Think of these as the “winds” of energy that govern movement in the body—prana, apana, samana, udana, and vyana. Each one has a unique role, and understanding their dynamics can help you feel more connected to your inner flow.
• The Three Levels of Touch: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas: Touch isn’t just physical—it carries energy and intention. We’ll explore how different qualities of touch can shift awareness, energy, and even emotional states.
• The Vagus Nerve & Fascia Connection: Throughout, I’ll try and keep some context around how all of these things work in real-time on the fascial system and with the vagus nerve.
And who knows what else might emerge? This work is always evolving as we deepen our understanding of the body’s wisdom. Stay tuned—there’s so much more to discover!
