Learn the Clarinet

Learn the Clarinet

Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD, Developer of the Polvyagal Theory, shared with us that the theory has two origin stories. One is the professional, academic origin story of his research on Heartrate Variability. The other, more personal story, is his history with the clarinet. He explained to us that during highschool he played clarinet, and practiced for an hour a day. Unbeknownst to him, at the time, he was engaging in a profound pranayama practice (pranayama, from the Sanskrit, is prana (life force) and yama (life extention). Traditionally taught as part of yogic philosophy, and known to yogis and other meditative types throughout the millenia, pranayama exercises utilize breath to transform awareness.

Dr. Porges explains to us that the clarinet, which harnesses our breath, and the way in which a player applies the mouth to the mouthpiece to generate sound (embouchure- from the French- em (in) bouche (mouth)) combines it with movement of all of the muscles of the face to both generate sound (intended purpose) and tune and tone your Connection System. The combination of breath, voice, and face is, literally, the perfect recipe for stimulating the ventral vagus, aka the social engagement system, aka the Connection System. So it turns out that learning the clarinet is, in fact, a Connection exercise par exellence.

If you are musically inclined, and looking for a restorative practice specifically to turn on the Connection System, this may be the practice for you.