The autonomic nervous system is divided into two parts -the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems – which are both located in the spinal cord. Both of these are self-regulated, meaning that we can’t control what they do. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are basically exact opposites of each other when it comes to their function.
The sympathetic nervous system, commonly known for its “fight or flight” reaction, exists to help prepare your body for emergency or stressful situations that might require a rapid response. When it’s triggered by a stimulus, the sympathetic nervous system responds by dilating your pupils, increasing your heart rate, making you breathe faster, and causing you to sweat, among other things. These responses may not feel pleasant, but they allow your body to react more quickly and appropriately in an emergency.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for relaxing your body, and is often associated with the phrase “rest and digest.” This is in charge of regulating your body during normal daily activity, as well as returning your body to its natural relaxed state after your sympathetic nervous system takes effect. The graphic below demonstrates examples of how both the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems can affect the various organs in your body.
Like many musicians, I often struggle with performance anxiety – feelings of fear and extreme nervousness right before either a performance or an audition. One of my most memorable examples of this happened during my flute audition to get into the Penn State School of Music. As I walked into my audition, I started to get really nervous and freaked out. My lips started to shake uncontrollably, making it very hard to control my airstream while playing my flute. My hands also started to shake, and my heart felt as if it was racing. My palms were sweaty, making it hard to hold my flute. After my audition, I was able to calm down and relax. My hands stopped sweating and shaking, and I was able to breathe at a more regular rate.
This demonstrates the autonomic nervous system because my brain sensed that I was fearful and nervous and sent signals to my sympathetic nervous system to react accordingly, sending my body into a “fight-or-flight” mode. After my audition, my brain sensed that the fearful situation was over, it triggered signals to my parasympathetic nervous system, allowing my body to relax and function much more normally.
Works Cited
Haneef, Deena T. Kochunni, Jazir. 9 Differences between Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic Nervous System. https://www.majordifferences.com/2017/03/9-differences-between-sympathetic.html. Accessed 19 Sept. 2019.
I have had similar experiences going into interviews as you did at your audition. I previously thought that the ANS sympathetic response was entirely out of my control, which caused me to get more anxious, perpetuating the response. I found it very interesting when I was introduced to mindful breathing that we actually have a little control over these responses. Meditative breathing or diaphragmatic breathing helps slow the heart rate and calms the body. This mind-body connection is fascinating.
According to “The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults” the specific benefits of diaphragmatic breathing are still unknown. We do know that it helps to relaxation and is beneficially both physically and mentally. In many cases, it is used as a non-pharmacological treatment for anxiety, depression, and stress. Some researchers also believe this kind of treatment is helpful in the management of ADHD in children . I know from personal experience in Professor Countermine’s class that even 2 minutes of mindful breathing helps me focus better during lecture. Professor Countermine uses an “Arrival Practice” with deep breathing to help students ground themselves before the start of every class.
Ma, Xiao. “The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults.” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 6 June 2017, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455070/.
I also suffer from performance anxiety aswell as general anxiety. Judging by the fact I am reading ur post right now u must have done well on ur flute performance! Good for you I don’t think people seem to understand the fight that we go through everyday, unseen and mostly unnoticed. This performance anxiety u face I bet caused you to put in more work and prepare in more depth than others. While maybe ur performance wasn’t to the best of ur abilities keep in mind that this fight or flight feeling you get isn’t actually real, and it will make u stronger!. Its just a signal being sent to ur body from ur nerves that are more sensitive then some other because of a lower action potential.Use this to ur advantage when u start to get nervous about something, don’t let it slip and say I cant do this, just move forward this will make u more confident and will allow for u 2 prove u can do it. More often then not anxiety can end up making u a stronger individual in the long run just don’t let it control you, control it!
Best of luck- Bobby
In my current BBH class, we have been dissecting the effects of both the sympathetic and Parasymptatetic nervous system on the human body. Most importantly, on how the sympathetic nervous system affects our stress levels. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for our flight and fight response. Our ancestors used the flight or fight response when running or fighting through obstacles needed to survive. This would result in increased levels of cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in the bloodstream. This would cause an increased heart rate, slowed digestive system, increased blood pressure, dilating of the pupil, increased blood distribution to the muscles, and more. I know when I experience a “fight or flight” experience, I begin to sweat and shake with all the adrenaline pumping through my body. The sympathetic nervous system surely did its job when we were perhaps running from dinosaurs! However, today many of us experience the “flight or fight” response due to high levels of stress. Sitting in class, you may be experiencing the psychological effects of the sympathetic nervous system due to stress — but your body is stationary. You are not running from a man with a machete or a dinosaur trying to eat you. This can have extremely harmful effects on the body by being in a constant state of arousal. In my BBH course, we are learning that there are some levels of stress that can help you function at an optimal level, but experiencing stress levels that are too high can prove to have drastic effects on the human body. That being said, altering how we perceive stress can actually help to reduce the harmful effects of stress. For example, if we look at the exam tomorrow as an opportunity to show our knowledge rather than a challenging obstacle we can’t possibly overcome, our body can function and the optimal-stress-level! Next time when we are all feeling test anxiety, I hope to alter my thinking to view an exam as a chance to show my knowledge in hopes that my brain can function at an optimal level.
It is interesting how our evolutionary biological functions can affect us in the modern world. In your case, your body responded to stress and fear by turning on your sympathetic nervous system. This caused your heart to race through the roof and made your lip shake during your flute audition. However, these side-effects did not benefit you at all and, in fact, likely made your performance worse. In contrast, if you were a hunter-and-gatherer who just saw a bear running towards you, these side-effects would save your life. Your increased heart rate would allow your body to circulate blood towards your muscles faster, your increased breathing would allow your heart to pump this blood, the sweat would allow your body to cool, and the adrenaline that made your lips shake make you run faster. But sweating and panting during a flute audition only worsens the situation. The only situation in the modern world where I can see the sympathetic system being useful is in certain athletic events such as lifting and running.
I think that it is necessary to learn how to control the sympathetic nervous system, especially in events such as job interviews or presentations. It may have helped us thousands of years ago, but now it is useless in most situations.
I took my first public speaking course this semester and found myself feeling the same way you did before your audition. Right when I walked into the class on the day of my speech I could feel my heart rate speeding up and and my hands were getting sweaty. I have heard of techniques to help lower anxiety like taking deep breathes or counting to three but nothing was really helping. I now know that this was happening because my body’s autonomic nervous system knew i was feeling anxious so it sent my body into a flight or fight state. Then once my speech was over i could feel my self to start and calm down. This was because my parasympathetic nervous system was taking over.
I think that this whole process is interesting because it happens so fast and almost without you really ever consciously noticing that it is happening. When i was standing in front of my whole CAS class i wasn’t thinking about how my brain sensed that i was nervous and then sent signals to my sympathetic nervous system to react and then to my parasympathetic nervous system to kick in and help me calm down. It just all happened on its own.
Megan, this concept is very interesting and your response is something I experience personally seeing as I am a gymnast. The feelings of nerves you get caused by your sympathetic nervous system is something I experience right before competing. My body begins to shake and I sweat right before I solute the judge. After my routine is finished, my parasympathetic nervous system begins to calm my body down, resulting in my nerves going away. As you may agree, although these systems seem to be challenging to manage right before handling a task such as an audition or a competition, they’re are vital in the our safety.
The main idea I find to be fascinating about this is that our body sets into these “modes” automatically. Even when we don’t particularly want to be in “fight-or-flight” mode and nervous, we aren’t in complete control of what our body is doing. Although there are techniques such as breathing to calm yourself down, it is very interesting how our body will begin to spark changes with the intention of safety.