Vagal tone decreases with age (which you can’t help), but you can increase your physical activity. Research shows that exercise leads to a higher and healthier tone. “This includes not just focusing on frequency of exercise, but gradually increasing intensity and length of time spent, and varying the type of exercises performed,” Bostan said. Another way to get vagal toned: deep breathing. One recent study found that just five minutes of slow, deep breaths reduces anxiety and increases vagal tone.