Autonomic Nervous System

This is an umbrella term for our involuntarily bodily movements. Breathing, sleeping, digesting, our heart beating. Pretty essential things for a concert. This system tells our body what needs to happen in priority order - engaging either the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous systems. The bodies ideal is keeping both sides in perfect balance - known as homeostasis

Understanding biology: the autonomic nervous system

We know that most musicians experience performance anxiety. But how much do we understand why we feel nerves at all? That all comes down to biology and history.

Parasmpathetic vs Sympathetic Nervous System

Reframing state anxiety as a great thing!

Now we know how our bodies work and why - but how does this help us help our students?

Sympathetic nervous system - Our bodies aren’t updated enough to know that playing some music is not the same level of danger as being attacked by a lion. That’s why it can feel SO intense. But in the right environment, it can also gives us the energy to perform the best we have ever played whilst having the most fun.

Parasympathetic nervous system - Think about that feeling of being SO full. It’s like your body is dead weighting you to the sofa. This is the ultimate “relaxed”. Now, would you want to feel like this before going to do a concert? Absolutely not. You may have felt this way after doing a concert of music you really don’t care much for whilst missing hanging out with friends. Did you perform your best? Probably not.

Result? Balance: So, anxiety is NOT a bad thing. It is an incredibly useful human thing. We don’t want to have “no nerves” - we should strive to have them. The challenge is in find the right balance and manipulating our bodies to be at as close to the right level as possible.

Parasympathetic Nervous System. (rest & digest)

Think about a time you have a huge meal, maybe Christmas dinner. What did you want to do afterwards? I bet lay down, rest and nap right? That’s our parasympathetic nervous system telling us to rest so it can digest.

Sympathetic Nervous System. (fight/flight/freeze/fawn)

Now, our bodies haven’t updated very much in the past 300,000 years. Back in caveman days, our function was to survive. That means if a lion was running towards us - our bodies had to make a choice immediately.

Fight: Fight the lion with your barehands!

Flight: Run away and hope you lose the lion

Freeze: Just freeze in indecisiveness and hopefully you become uninteresting…

Fawn: Try to be friends with lion in the hopes it spares you