Polyvagal. As in Polyvagal Theory. A ground-breaking theory that has many practical applications. First published in 1994 by Dr. Stephen Porges, the Polyvagal Theory has major implications for how people feel safe, for social behaviour, and for emotional regulation. (1) (2)
Dr. Porges delineated what he terms the social engagement system, a heart-face connection that coordinates the heart with the muscles of the face and head.(3) When we feel safe, we connect and communicate well with other people. If we don’t feel safe, we don’t connect or communicate well with other people.
Just one example. When our body is in a defensive state, the middle ear muscles attached to the tympanic membrane relax. When these muscles no longer pull on the membrane, its convex shape relaxes. Big deal? Definitely. This changes what we hear better and what becomes muffled.(4)
When we feel safe, the tympanic membrane’s shape is optimizes to hear human speech. Reduce the convex-ness, and you don’t hear what someone is saying as well because the consonants are muffled. We do hear lower frequency environmental sounds better, though. We can hear the rumble of furnace quite well, thank you. And don’t forget the stress hormones which cause our attention to shift to-and-fro. Because we’re scanning for predators who can come from anywhere. In short, we may end up literally not hearing what the other people are saying.
Being able to hear what other people are saying can be critical. As when a battered partner has to meet with their lawyer, their former partner and that former partner’s lawyer to negotiate a settlement. Or when they have to meet with a mediator and their former partner. Unless the appropriate safety factors are in place, the battered partner will not feel safe. Their nervous system will automatically be in defense mode. They likely will agree to anything just to get away (the “flight” part of fight-or-flight) and may not remember most of what was said. And not because they were really not willing to meet and try to resolve the issues, but because their body is in defense mode, overriding their good intentions.(5)
Our nervous system constantly monitors the external environment and our internal environment for risks. Dr. Porges uses the term neuroception for this process. As long as everything checks out well, we stay in social engagement mode. When it detects a risk, it upgrades our defense mode and downgrades our social engagement mode. And if that risk is high enough, it triggers our defence options: Attack. Escape. And if you can’t escape, Don’t Move. Or, Fight-or-Flight-or-Freeze. That initial choice, at least, is made automatically by our nervous system.
Attack and Escape are the classic fight-or-flight options that the sympathetic nervous system provides. Don’t Move is the “freeze” option that the parasympathetic system (specifically the dorsal vagus complex) provides. Freezing can take the form of Don’t Move, Faint, Dissociate, or Play Dead, depending on how strong the threat to life is. Getting back to the battered partner, they may easily “space out”, a mild form of dissociation.
Now let’s apply this to the lockdowns we face because of Covid-19. Lockdowns have many serious, though unintended, consequences.
Lockdowns and isolation are forms of social isolation. Social isolation has significant negative impacts on people. It can seriously affect our physical and mental wellbeing. Children and teenagers become distressed when they can’t meet with their friends.
While being locked down or having to spend most of your time with your partner and family is not isolation, it is a major disruption to family life and its routines. If domestic violence is a factor, the additional stresses provoke the batterer, and the battered partner can’t escape.
Lockdowns and isolation mean that many necessary medical procedures have been cancelled. I wonder how many people have died from the cancers they were unable to treat. I wonder how brutal it is for people who can’t receive their regular treatments for various illnesses.
And I won’t even go into the impacts on the various world economies and on family finances.
Now that my post has stressed and depressed you, let me suggest some easy polyvagal restoratives.
The first: Breathe. Note: You can vary the count. And, if you like, you can imagine breathing in peace or fresh mountain air.
- Breathe in through your nose — deeply, from your diaphragm — for a count of 10. Push your lower ribs and stomach out.
- Hold for a count of 5.
- Exhale through your mouth to the count of 5.
The second: Sing. Or hum. Both singing and breathing stimulate the vagus nerve to engage the relaxation response.
The third: Listen to relaxing music and songs. If the music has a strident beat or discordant sound, it will activate your system, not calm it down. There was a reason the English banned bagpipes from Scotland. The skirl of the bagpipe would stir the Scots up, and the English didn’t want that. So, bagpipes were censored. Listening to music boosts the social engagement system.
For more information on the Polyvagal Theory, I recommend Dr. Porges’ books, The Polyvagal Theory (6) and The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory (7). I also recommend the following YouTube videos: The Origins of Compassion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYXa_BX2cE8 and The Link Between Feeling Safe and Making Change at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvQrgf1SKeU. Not to forget Dr. Porges’ website at https://www.stephenporges.com.
Notes: (1) It also has significant impact on the understanding of and treatments for autism, PTSD, depression, and may other psychological conditions.
(2) Dr. Porges developed the Polyvagal Theory to explain the roles of the vagus nerve in how the autonomic nervous system responds to the world. The vagus nerve [aka Cranial Nerve X] is the largest nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system. It has two divisions: the dorsal vagus and the ventral vagus, each with distinctive roles in how we respond to the environment and relate to other people.
(3) See the definition of social engagement system at p.26 in The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, Stephen W. Porges (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2017) at amazon.com https://amzn.to/2JKdroQ
(4) Ibid., at p.78.
(5) A quick word to lawyers. Don’t have your battered client meet in the same room with their ex-. Or even Skype or Zoom a meeting. Follow the traditional lawyer negotiating mode, which gives your client time to consider what is being offered and counteroffered and countercounteroffered ….
(6) The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation, Stephen W. Porges (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011) at amazon.com https://amzn.to/2Lgry5o
(7) Op cit., note 3.
