Are you nervous or is it your nervous system?
My thoughts around harnessing the PNS in order to perform with less tension and overcome performance anxiety.
You might already be aware of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and their impact on our ability to perform as musicians. If not, here is a quick crash course:
The autonomic nervous system includes both the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). These systems of nerves regulate our organs without our conscious thought, for example, blood pressure, digestion, muscle tension, eye dilation, and blood sugar. The SNS is responsible for flight-flight-freeze-fawn when we are exposed to signs of potential danger or when we do things that increase stress on the body, like exercise. The PNS is responsible for rest and digest and helps the body return to a state of normal after experiencing a stressful event. We see this in nature when an animal is being chased aka flight response. The SNS causes a surge of adrenaline, the animal escapes, and when the danger is gone, the animal will shake its entire body to help activate the PNS. Just like in animals, PNS is supposed to kick-in after a stressful event to bring us back to normal. However, experiences like chronic stress, anxiety, grief, and trauma can cause the body to stay in a more SNS state long term. Even conditions like diabetes can affect the way the nervous system works. Medications prescribed for ‘performance anxiety’ have a direct impact on the nervous system and prevent the body from accessing the upper limits of SNS activation.
Musicians can experience overwhelming amounts of SNS activation when performing, especially for those who live in a constant state of heightened SNS. This might be experienced as shakiness because of the extra adrenaline, trouble focusing on the page because of dilated eyes, butterflies in the stomach, difficulty focusing, and a pattern of muscle tension in the jaw, biceps, and hands.
The good news is that just like animals who shake after a stressful event to engage the PNS, we can do the same thing to regulate our nervous systems! Practices like yoga, mindful breathing, and meditation can be a huge help. In fact, there are specific yoga poses that are more PNS activating: child pose, supine figure four, and legs up a wall are a few of my favorites. The more we do activities that intentionally engage the PNS, the more we can de-escalate stressful events in the moment and remain in control of our thoughts and actions. When SNS is at a manageable level during a performance situation, having a little bit of adrenaline can feel like a superpower instead of a liability.
You already have conscious control over an aspect of your autonomic nervous system: your breath. Throughout the day, we usually breathe without putting any thought into it. It just happens as we need to bring in more oxygen. When you inhale, there's a slight increase in blood pressure; when you exhale, there’s a slight decrease in blood pressure. If you take exhales that are slightly slower and longer than your inhales, you will activate the PNS. I invite you to pause reading here and take three breaths where your exhales are longer than your inhales, maybe breathing in for a count of 4 and out for a count of 6, and take note of how that makes you feel.
For many musicians who use their lungs (i.e. wind players, brass players, and singers) there is a paradoxical experience where instead of activating the PNS this practice of longer exhales activates the SNS. This might be because of how many hours these musicians take longer exhales than inhales, and the intensity of it. I encourage everyone to make note of how breath practices feel in your body, mapping out what is truly PNS activating for you.
As a side note, from my understanding of yoga, singing was the original breath practice. The breath was explored further from there, and pranayamas were discovered or created. Prana is the primordial life force energy and is said to live inside the breath; therefore, when you move the breath, you are moving your prana. Pranayama is an advanced practice that should be done with much care, patience, and time. I’ve been taught by several of my yoga mentors that, traditionally, the breath should not be held until you can master breathing in and out through the nose without disturbing a feather. You begin with a sama vritti (or box breathing without holding the breath) for 4-4 and then increase by one, maybe once a week or once a month, as you slowly build the breath in a way that doesn’t cause strain. I believe that the rishis were on to something because the breath can give you so much more strength and control in your body if you know how to use it, but if you jump in too quickly, it could impact your nervous system.
Okay, so the more we practice consciously engaging the PNS, the lower our baseline nervous system activation can be, and maybe the more effectively we can use techniques (like conscious breathing) in stressful situations.
I also want to share a recent realization I’ve had..
When a cat or dog is physiologically stressed or sick, they do everything they can to avoid showing any signs of weakness or vulnerability. If they are unable to hide that weakness from the group, they will physically find a place to hide. It’s a hard-wired evolutionary trait from their wild ancestors to protect themselves and potentially also protect the group from illness. It’s possible for domesticated animals to behave differently, but this requires a huge amount of safety and trust.
Could the same be true for us as well? When we are vulnerable in front of a group of people, isn’t it just biology that we have an anxiety response?