In this instructional video, David Brimacombe—drawing on his personal experience of surviving seven concussions over two decades—shares his top tool for quickly resetting symptom spikes such as anxiety, irritability, dizziness, and elevated heart rate. He explains the physiological sigh (a double inhale followed by an exhale) and expands it by adding a prolonged humming exhale, which he says vibrates the vocal cords and stimulates the vagus nerve, shifting the autonomic nervous system from a sympathetic (stress) state to a parasympathetic (calm) state. He demonstrates how to perform the technique, recommends extending the hum as long as possible, and suggests pairing it with a brief safety‑affirmation self‑talk. As an additional option, he shows how a low‑setting massage gun applied to the lower neck can also activate the vagus nerve. The video emphasizes that these simple, portable tools can be used anywhere—before meals, before bed, while driving—and can be repeated in 2‑3 sets whenever symptoms arise. He frames the approach within a broader understanding of chronic stress as a “red‑line engine” that needs idle periods, and encourages viewers to adopt the method as part of their post‑concussion recovery routine.
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If you start to feel your symptoms spike suddenly, you get anxiety, irritability, dizziness, I'm going to give you my number one reset tool. Now, this is the one thing that resets my autonomic nervous system quicker and better than anything else. And by the end of this video, you will have a quick reset tool that you can use any and every day to get you out of those symptom spikes. For those new, hi, my name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years, I've learned a lot about how to modify my symptoms with things that I can do. Now, today I want to talk about the best thing that I have found to help with my symptom spikes. Now, I'm sure some of you, if you watch my channel, have seen me do what's called the physiological sigh. Now, this is something that I learned from Dr. Andrew Huberman. Now, he talks a lot about how this replicates an infant crying or someone weeping, where they're going to do that double inhale. We're going to open up their lungs even further, and then exhale, and that's going to get their body into a calm state. Now, I started to do this at the beginning of my recovery, and I really loved it, but I've also found that humming has a great power to help draw down my symptoms. Now I started to think, why is that? Why humming? Now there's something to do that when you make a vibration noise like singing, gargling, chanting, or in this case humming, it actually activates your vagus nerve. Now your vagus nerve is your one nerve that helps draw down your autonomic nervous system to get you out of that sympathetic, that stress state, and downregulate you into the Parasympathetic state. So what does this look like, this physiological sign, and why is it so important? Now let's talk about why it's so important to draw down that stress state. Now again, stress is not inherently bad. Stress in small doses can be good in the long term, but if you have chronic stress or you're chronically stuck in that sympathetic, that stress state, it can wear your body down. Think of a car engine that's constantly revving at redline. And it's constantly— that engine will eventually burn out. Now, your body is no different. Your body needs time to not only go for that high rev state, but also calm idle. So, how do we get into that idle state? I'm going to show you right now with the physiological hum. So, as I mentioned before, the physiological sigh with a double inhale opens up those airways. Now, I'm going to change the exhale From a typical through your mouth or through your nose exhale to a hum, and this is going to draw down those symptoms even quicker, even better. So it's going to look something like this. Now you can extend that exhale as long as you want, as long as it's longer than the inhale. Again, I have found that the deeper. The hum, the better it actually stimulates that vagus nerve. Now, you want to make it almost vibrate. So, think about it this way. As I'm humming, my vocal cords are actually vibrating and it's hitting that vagus nerve, causing it to stimulate, which then sends the message that I need to activate that parasympathetic. Now, another way you can do this, and I found super helpful, is if you have a massage gun at home. Much like this. All that you're going to do is put it on one of the lower settings. You can put it on either side of your neck because your vagus nerve innervates on both sides. And you're just going to put it here, find a spot, and just let it sit. Okay? Try that for 10, 15 seconds to start, and then you can add more time as you go. Again, these are simple tools. These are simple things that you can use in any and everyday life. Now, if you don't want people wondering, why is this person humming all the time? Now, I typically do this before I eat, before I go to bed, while I'm driving. And again, I've got past the point I really care what people think. Once you're in the PCS recovery game long enough, you might be at that same phase as well. But again, you can do this any and everywhere. I usually do 2 or 3 sets, and it significantly helps my stress level. If I start to feel my heart rate elevate, I start to feel that anxiety, That irritability creep up, hum. It's a quick way to get your body to drop down. An additional layer. Now, this is one additional layer. Once you feel comfortable doing this, is to think in your mind, I am safe, I am supported, or something to that extent. Again, you're clarifying those positive thoughts. You're making that connection between the physiological, physiological hum and safety. Again, further helping drop you down into that parasympathetic state. I hope this video helps you. I hope it resonates with you. If you want to learn more about calming your nervous system, you can watch the video above. I appreciate you taking the time to watch this video. Have yourself a great day.
