James LaughlinHigh-performance leadership and executive coach. Covering all aspects of life and career.

Next time you feel overwhelmed, try this before you say or do something you regret.

9 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this short instructional segment, the speaker demonstrates a simple polyvagal exercise designed to help individuals regulate feelings of overwhelm before reacting. The exercise involves folding the hands and placing them behind the head and upper neck, then, without moving the head, turning the gaze to one side until a physiological sigh or yawn occurs, holding that position, and then repeating the process on the opposite side. The speaker emphasizes that the yawn is intentional—a physiological sigh—to activate the vagal response, and the movement is meant to be done gently and mindfully. This technique aims to engage the parasympathetic nervous system, providing a quick, accessible method to calm the nervous system in stressful moments.

Chapters

This is called the basic polyvagal exercise. You take your hands like that, just fold them, and then you put them behind your— kind of like behind your head and your upper neck. Okay. And essentially what you do without moving your head is you look to the left. Now, I'm not yawning because I'm bored. I just yawn because that was a physiological sigh. What you want to do is you want to hold that position, look to the one side until you yawn or sigh. And then once you do that, then you look to the other side. There you go. That's weird. Now look to the other side. And do the same thing again.