Polyvagal Theory - A theory to Self Calm
Flight or Freeze:
A potent mechanism that has the potential to down-regulate threat resides in the ventral portion of the brainstem, in an area known as the nucleus ambiguus, where the vagus nerve, the star player of the autonomic nervous system, originates.
Vagus means wandering, and the vagus nerve begins at the base of the brain, branches down to the heart, the lungs, and the digestive tract, with stops along the way at the larynx, the pharynx, and the diaphragm, before descending into the abdomen.
The branches of the vagus nerve enable the organs to adjust instantly to the demands of a person’s surroundings. It is the duty of the vagus nerve to orchestrate bodily responses to keep you safe or prepare your body for danger before you are even aware of it or have a chance to think about it. Most of the vagus is composed of sensory fibers that function as our surveillance system, informing the brain of the status of our visceral organs.
In our evolutionary journey to becoming social mammals, the basic reptilian structures underwent modification. In order for animals to become social, there had to be a way to turn off threat reactions—animals had to be able to cue one another that they were safe enough to come close to.
As distinct from reptiles, mammals have neuroception not only of threat but also of safety. The vegas nerve responds to cues of safety—detected by higher brain structures—which bring on enough calm to open you up to socially engage with others.
Because information flows both to and from the brain via vagal pathways, the vagus nerve can be thought of as a major mind-body highway. Through the vagus nerve, you react to signals in your environment in ways that calm, alarm, or dysregulate the body, and these states in turn create emotional experience and play out in behavior.
Polyvagal Theory. defines how the vagal pathways operate and the control they exert
over our thoughts and bodies.
Worry is a personal narrative we create in a state of threat to justify why we feel bad.
Polyvagal theory not only explains anxiety as a physiologic state of threat, it also opens a portal of intervention.
Applying specific maneuvers effecting vagal pathways, we can use the nervous system to reset the physiologic state. Independent of the threshold of reactivity that pitches a person into alarm mode.
It is possible to re-educate the nervous system with cues of safety.
Removal of the threat isn’t a bad tactic, but it is not what the nervous system demands: It needs cues of safety. Shift the mental and physical state and you change the character of experience.
The most direct way to access the neural pathway that turns off threat is through breathing -
Diaphragmatic Breathing. Our evolutionary journey endowed us with a gift—the ability to control our breathing utilizing the diaphragm muscle; this enables us to regulate our mental, emotional and physical state.
Neurophysiologically powerful, it acts on fibers of the ventral vagus nerve ferrying signals between visceral organs and the brainstem, where autonomic control of body organs originates.
Diaphragmatic Breathing—also humming and gum-chewing—stimulates the nerve fibers of the muscles of the face, head, and oral cavity and opens the social engagement system, enabling people to respond reciprocally to the invitations of others.
Gaining control of physiologic state through Diaphragmatic Breathing is why some people turn to Hypnosis, yoga and meditation.
Singing uses the same neurophysiological structures of breathing and facial muscles as the social engagement system. Playing a wind instrument gives you no choice but to use Diaphragmatic Breathing.
Many anxious people feed the physiologic state of threat, anxiety etc. by making slow inhalations and rapid exhalations, high in the chest cavity. (Not using the diaphragm.)
Diaphragmatic Breathing, Shifting physiologic state restores access to your whole self. Calming and relaxing you. Memory and higher capacities are available. You become cognitively present to solve problems. The social engagement system becomes a portal to gaining back our human heritage.
