Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Certain songs break me open — and I let them.
Not to wallow, but to witness. Because when you’ve done the work, the pain doesn’t vanish, it softens, little by little. Scar tissue forms, but my body still remembers.
And if you let the music in, especially the songs that bring you to tears, your nervous system responds. Those tears? That lump in your throat? That’s your parasympathetic system kicking in. Your vagus nerve responding to safety, sorrow, and relief.
🎵 Emotional music, especially if it holds personal meaning, activates vagal tone. That’s not just poetic — it’s science. *Studies show that resonant, legato music and tear-evoking harmony stimulate the vagus nerve, deepen breathing, and promote relational gratitude and emotional regulation
The more I practice, the more I notice: my vagus nerve doesn’t just calm me — it lifts me.
So I ask you:
What’s your song?
Can you get there without substances?
Can you sit in that space — sober, steady — and feel it all? It’s okay if you can’t. But there are ways to get there with time, and healing.
I don’t fear the drop, because I know it’s what helps me rise. Music brings me to that quiet place of bliss, where gratitude floods in, and love flows freely for the ones who see me, know me, and smile when they do.
This is the healing path.
This is what it means to have some nerve.
— Justin
* Porges, 2011; Sachs et al., 2015.
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Certain songs break me open — and I let them.
Not to wallow, but to witness. Because when you’ve done the work, the pain doesn’t vanish, it softens, little by little. Scar tissue forms, but my body still remembers.
And if you let the music in, especially the songs that bring you to tears, your nervous system responds. Those tears? That lump in your throat? That’s your parasympathetic system kicking in. Your vagus nerve responding to safety, sorrow, and relief.
🎵 Emotional music, especially if it holds personal meaning, activates vagal tone. That’s not just poetic — it’s science. *Studies show that resonant, legato music and tear-evoking harmony stimulate the vagus nerve, deepen breathing, and promote relational gratitude and emotional regulation
The more I practice, the more I notice: my vagus nerve doesn’t just calm me — it lifts me.
So I ask you:
What’s your song?
Can you get there without substances?
Can you sit in that space — sober, steady — and feel it all? It’s okay if you can’t. But there are ways to get there with time, and healing.
I don’t fear the drop, because I know it’s what helps me rise. Music brings me to that quiet place of bliss, where gratitude floods in, and love flows freely for the ones who see me, know me, and smile when they do.
This is the healing path.
This is what it means to have some nerve.
— Justin
* Porges, 2011; Sachs et al., 2015.
#youhavesomenerve #justincaffrey #vagusnerve #vagaltone #nervoussystemhealing #traumarecovery #somatichealing #musictherapy #emotionalregulation #healingjourney #griefhealing #anxietyrelief #mindbodyconnection #polyvagaltheory #highvagaltone #soundhealing #healingthroughmusic #nervoussystemsupport #innerpeace #nervoussystemregulation #neuroscienceofmusic #musicandhealing #resonancehealing
