How the Subconscious Lives in Our Organs and Nervous System
The subconscious is deeply embedded in the body, and the vagus nerve is the bridge that connects and brings it to light.
For thousands of years, hidden ancient healing traditions have taught that the body is more than muscle and bone; it is a living memory field, a reservoir of emotional experience, and a gateway into the subconscious mind. Today, modern neuroscience is finally confirming what spiritual and holistic practitioners have known for years: the organs, the gut, and the nervous system feel the subtle energy around you and can hold generations of emotional imprints long before the mind can make sense of them.
At the heart of this connection lies the vagus nerve, a powerful, wandering nerve that bridges body and mind, feeling and emotion, subconscious and consciousness together.
Your body remembers everything, and healing begins when we learn to listen.
The Vagus Nerve: The Highway of the Subconscious
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system, connecting the brain to nearly every major organ, the heart, lungs, gut, liver, kidneys, diaphragm, spleen, pancreas, throat, and more. What makes it extraordinary is that almost 80% of its signals travel from the body upward to the brain. What does this alone tell us!!
Whether you are conscious of it or not, it means the organs are constantly feeding subtle emotional and physiological information into your consciousness.
The vagus nerve carries signals such as:
fear and safety
tension and relaxation
gut instinct and intuition
unresolved emotion
digestive and hormonal changes
breath patterns
internal sensations you may not consciously notice
What we often call the “subconscious mind” is deeply intertwined with these body-to-brain signals.
When the body holds tension, unprocessed emotions, or chronic stress, the subconscious adopts these physiological and belief systems as truth, shaping beliefs like:
“I’m not safe.”
“I need to stay alert.”
“I must hold everything together.”
“Relaxation is dangerous.”
“I’m not enough”
These aren’t just thoughts we believe to be true; they are embodied memories and feelings communicated through the vagus nerve.
The Gut: Where Emotional Memory Takes Root
Neuroscience refers to the gut as the second brain, but in reality, it is the first brain, and it contains a network of 500 million neurons, the enteric nervous system.
This system communicates continuously with the brain through the vagus nerve, influencing:
mood
emotional regulation
decision-making
intuition
stress responses
subconscious reactions
When the mind cannot process an emotional experience, the body stores it to be processed later- patterns of the emotion is repeated, often known as triggers, until we process the feeling of the emotion.
Common examples:
Urinary infections or a tight stomach during fear
Lung problems or colds during grief
Digestive issues during prolonged stress
Gut heaviness during unspoken sadness
Loss of appetite when overwhelmed and anxious
These responses are vagal and are also emotional memories, stored physically.
Over time, these emotional responses and subtle feelings form subconscious patterns. The body, (the subconscious mind) begins to energetically operate from these patterns long before the conscious mind understands what is happening.
Your organs hold stories.
Your nervous system holds memory.
Your breath holds the doorway.
Your presence holds the key to releasing it all.
Eastern Ancient Wisdom and Philosophy
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has mapped emotional storage in the organs for thousands of years. While these teachings are energetic rather than anatomical, they align strongly with modern somatic and vagus nerve science.
In TCM, each organ holds an emotional frequency:
Liver — anger, frustration, boundaries
Lungs — grief, sadness, letting go
Heart — joy, spirit (Shen), emotional overwhelm
Kidneys — fear, survival, willpower
Stomach/Spleen — worry, overthinking, rumination
Large Intestine — release, forgiveness
When emotions are expressed and released, the organs stay open, fluid, and balanced.
When emotions are suppressed or denied, the organ system becomes tight, sluggish, and stagnant energetically and physically.
This stagnation affects the vagus nerve’s signals, creating a loop where emotional memory becomes physical memory, and physical memory becomes subconscious patterning.
How Emotional Memories Become Stored in the Body
When an emotional experience overwhelms the system, or the mind sees and believes something as truth repeatedly through the media, advertising and society, one of two things happens:
The emotion flows through, is felt, processed, and released.
The emotion is too intense, overwhelming, and the body stores it for later.
The body "stores" emotion through:
muscle and fascia tension
diaphragm constriction
changes in organ function
breath holding
chronic inflammation
protective vagal responses,
suppressed movement or voice
digestive changes in the gut, small intestine and large
This becomes a form of implicit memory, a subconscious imprint held beneath conscious awareness.
For example:
Chronic stress may create tightness around the diaphragm, affecting vagal tone and digestion.
Grief may constrict the lungs and oesophagus, creating heaviness in the chest.
Suppressed anger and control may create stagnation in the liver and gallbladder.
Prolonged fear can weaken the kidneys and adrenals, leading to bouts of urinary infection.
A feeling of lack and over-worrying can weaken the spleen
These physical states send continuous signals to the brain via the vagus nerve.
Over weeks, months, or years, these signals become subconscious energetic patterns.
You are not forcing healing; you are creating a nervous system environment where healing becomes possible.
Working with the vagus nerve, through breathwork, sound, meditation, Craniosacral therapy, movement, or somatic practices, can create the right conditions for the body to release what has been stored.
Vagal activation can help:
1. Reset the diaphragm
A soft diaphragm unlocks emotional memory and signals safety to the brain.
2. Restore organ communication
Organs receive balanced neural input, unwinding emotional holding.
3. Shift subconscious beliefs
Calmer body signals create new emotional and mental patterns.
4. Release stored emotional tension
Tears, warmth, shaking, sighs, yawns, and deeper breath often arise naturally.
5. Increase presence
When the body feels safe, the mind becomes quiet, clear, and expansive.
The Body as a Map of the Subconscious
When we bring together:
modern neuroscience
vagus nerve research
somatic psychology
Ancient practices and philosophy
embodied spiritual practice that heal all 4 energetic bodies, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual a clear picture emerges:
This is why deep healing often feels physical. Why intuition rises from the gut. Why some emotions cannot be released through thinking alone but need to be FELT, and why body-based practices, especially vagus nerve work, are so transformative and enlightening.
Empower yourself and learn how to heal your vagus nerve through my Free Online Vagus Nerve Care course or my online Vagus Nerve Master Course.
