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Performance Through a Polyvagal Lens: Part One
1k Plays10 days ago
This episode of Wired for Connection is about the physiology of performance. In Part One of this discussion with Michael Allison, we'll learn more about Michael and his background in performance consulting, and how polyvagal principles help inform performance in the workplace and in building relationships.
In Part Two, coming early January 2026, we'll discuss athletic performance, and deconstruct dominant narratives about performance and achievement -- using the nervous system and Polyvagal Theory as a guide.
Michael Allison is a globally recognized performance consultant, educator, and author who applies Polyvagal Theory to optimize health, resilience, and excellence under pressure. He is the creator of Autonomic Agility®, his registered framework for teaching individuals and teams how to recognize, respect, and guide their physiological state in high-stakes environments. Michael also developed the Performance Hierarchy and the Play Zone methodology, two core models—endorsed by Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D.—that translate Polyvagal principles into accessible, real-world performance tools.
Through his accredited Play Zone Pro® training programs, Michael has certified more than 500 consultants and coaches worldwide. His curriculum is translated into French, German, Polish, and Spanish, with additional languages forthcoming, supporting an international community of practitioners applying Autonomic Agility® across performance, health, leadership, and education.
Michael trains elite performers—including professional athletes, sports psychologists, executives, creatives, and teams—and his expertise is sought across major sports organizations, including MLB, NBA, ATP, WTA, FIFA, ITF, NCAA, AVCA, AVP, and USATF.
He writes the Pressure Paradox column for Psychology Today, where he examines the physiological, psychological, and relational demands of performing in modern pressure-based environments.
As a keynote speaker and educational partner with the Polyvagal Institute, Michael leads globally recognized educational programs for performance and health professionals. His courses are accredited by the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaches and are supported by Dr. Porges. He is also a core educator for the Polyvagal Institute’s flagship training, helping bring Polyvagal Theory into competitive, organizational, and high-stakes environments.
Michael is the author of State of Play: Guiding Flow Through the Vagus Nerve for High Achievers (New Harbinger, 2026) and co-author of Polyvagal Parenting (New Harbinger, 2026). His work appears across multiple Norton Professional volumes, including “Turning Competition Into Co-regulation” in Somatic-Oriented Therapies and “Empathy to Compassion: A Two-Step Physiological Process,” co-authored with Dr. Porges, in Polyvagal Perspectives. His performance case study was published in Safe and Sound (Sounds True).
Through Autonomic Agility®, the Performance Hierarchy, and the Play Zone, Michael bridges cutting-edge neuroscience with real-world application—helping individuals, teams, and organizations guide their physiology with clarity, confidence, and connection in environments defined by pressure.
To learn with Michael, enroll in his Play Zone Pro course with the Polyvagal Institute here: https://learning.polyvagal.org/pages/course-offerings-from-polyvagal-institute
CONNECT WITH PVI:
polyvagal.org
@PolyvagalInstitute on Social Media
CONNECT WITH MICHAEL:
https://theplayzone.com/
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Transcript
Physiological State Preparation
00:00:00
Speaker
Often we prepare by rehearsing what we're going to say. Right? Like, and and even beyond a job interview, if like I'm going to go have a really challenging conversation with my wife, my first thought is, okay, I need to prepare what I'm going to say.
00:00:17
Speaker
And what we're getting at here is there's a different preparation and it's preparing the physiology.
Introduction to Michael Allison and Polyvagal Performance
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back to Wired for Connection, a Polyvagal podcast. Today, Michael Allison joins us to discuss performance and play through a Polyvagal lens.
00:00:33
Speaker
Michael is a globally recognized performance consultant educator and author who applies polyvagal theory to optimize health, resilience, and excellence under pressure.
00:00:44
Speaker
He is the creator of Autonomic Agility, his registered framework for teaching individuals and teams how to recognize, respect, and guide their physiological state in high-stakes environments.
00:00:56
Speaker
Michael also developed the performance hierarchy and the play zone methodology, two core models endorsed by Dr. Stephen Porges that translate polyvagal principles into accessible real world performance tools.
Play State and Performance Pressure
00:01:10
Speaker
During our conversation, we discuss the state of play. When we're talking about play, it's not that it doesn't matter. It's not that we're not putting in the effort and the work.
00:01:21
Speaker
It's that we still somehow, and that's not easy, Somehow we have to help convince the nervous system that you're not in a state of threat, even though there might be a lot on the line.
00:01:34
Speaker
We talk about applying these performance principles in day-to-day life. We create things in our life that we can create, relationships, practices.
00:01:46
Speaker
some routines, environments that we put ourself in deliberately that feed our nervous system those cues of reassurance, of connection, of I'm okay, I can let my guard down. We cuddle with our pet, my dog's lying right next to us, right? Like a really reliable cue of it's okay.
00:02:05
Speaker
And in part two of our conversation, we'll discuss these ideas in an athletic context, touching on some of the greatest athletes and sports teams of our time. But before we get there, we'll talk about the basics of his state of play and methodology and discuss performance in the workplace.
00:02:22
Speaker
My name is Mack with the Polyvagal Institute. Here's our conversation with
Michael Allison's Journey and Polyvagal Theory
00:02:26
Speaker
Michael. Michael, thank you so much for being here today. Would you mind just telling us a little bit more about yourself and your background in the world of performance consulting?
00:02:38
Speaker
Well, I came into Polyvagal Institute and this whole area of what I'm working in now, which Performance consulting would be, i guess, the correct term, but I came into it really from a fitness and wellness background.
00:02:56
Speaker
And I had owned ah personal training, Pilates, yoga, physical therapy, a real well-being facility here where I live in Santa Barbara for 25
00:03:11
Speaker
When I first started reading Polyvagal Theory and and Steve's brilliant work, it was very clear to me that in addition to it being the pathway to healing and navigating you know trauma and all of that, which is is really important, it also was to me a template.
00:03:32
Speaker
It provided a template for well-being, a template for... ah why the facility I was running was actually working. it was it was It was creating these relationships that were grounded in safety and through movement and exercise, they were actually playing together. It was the state of play, right? And so it became very clear that polyvagal theory was a template that I was doing parts of and that I had discovered in my own healing journey.
00:04:00
Speaker
And I was orchestrating everything around my life around finding safety, I wasn't using that language, but that's really what I was doing.
Meaning of Play in Performance
00:04:10
Speaker
And so it just became very clear that this to me is a template. And at the same time, I was working with a professional tennis player and I started to morph polyvagal language into a language he would understand.
00:04:26
Speaker
And it turned into what I do now at the Institute, which is teach these courses on more performance aspects. And instead of feeling overwhelmed or moving into states of fight or anxiety, how do we find the state of play while feeling the pressure to perform?
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. And you know you you touched on it, the the term play, your course with the Institute, Polyvago Institute is called Play Zone Pro. just I'm wondering if you could just expand on what play means to you, that word and why that... I think that that word is so important when it comes to performance, because a lot of people, myself included, wouldn't necessarily think of having to go up and perform as being...
00:05:14
Speaker
you know, associated with the word play. But what does that word mean to you? And why did you choose? Yeah, it can sound soft, right? It can sound kind of silly, goofy, not taking it seriously. And that that's not the state of play that I'm referring to. It's still, you were' very we're very committed.
00:05:31
Speaker
We're very connected to what we're doing. It might look like they're not that silliness and goofiness aren't play. They are. But what we're talking about in performance, whether it's in sports, whether it's in business, whether it's just in having a successful relationship with someone you care about.
00:05:48
Speaker
This state of play is technically when you feel safe in your body enough, you feel connected and present and you're cueing and receiving from the other or the audience social cues of connection, of support, of trust, of we're together in this. And even if you don't have an audience or you don't have your teammate with you, there is still in this state of play, there's still connection.
00:06:19
Speaker
There's connection to why you're doing this, a deeper purpose. There's connection to who you're really doing this for. It's not just self. It's more than that. And that might be an image, that might be actual, you just feel it, right? But that's the state of play. And when it's in a team, it's interactive, right? It's the chemistry when we see a sports team and they're just in sync, that's the state of play. They're all in it together and they they anticipate each other's movements.
00:06:52
Speaker
They're communicating not necessarily through voice, but they're communicating through posture, body language, eye contact, sounds, breath, rhythm. And that is the state of play. So the state of play, technically, if we're playing together,
00:07:07
Speaker
What's really happening is those heart rate and breathing patterns come into
Methodologies in Writing, Coaching, and Workshops
00:07:11
Speaker
sync. And that's that vagal mechanism. So when Steve was articulating this ventral coordination of sympathetic and even dorsal, that is the state of play.
00:07:23
Speaker
And it's it's really quick changes in that vagal break to allow different levels of metabolic output and social interaction.
00:07:35
Speaker
That's what it is. And it's it's awesome. yeah Yeah, it is awesome. And I know like for me personally as a sports fan, you know I can think of the great teams that I've seen across all the sports being in sync, kind of like what you were talking about. And you know more times than not, it does lead to success on on the field or on the court. um you know Team and individual success kind of converge to make you know these great sports teams that we've all seen across sports.
00:08:02
Speaker
across time. And I do want to get into athletic performance at some point later in our conversation, but I do want to bring it kind of back to just some of the basics with this methodology and the people, the the clients that you've served.
00:08:19
Speaker
You know, you said that you've worked with professional athletes. You teach this course here at the Polyvagal Institute. I'm just curious, you know, how have you brought this methodology, you know, outside and into the world? but what What does your day-to-day look like?
00:08:34
Speaker
Day-to-day is all over the place. So I spend a lot of time writing and and really honing these ideas. I have a book coming out next year with New Harbinger called State of Play.
00:08:48
Speaker
That is this whole methodology into the book. i've I just submitted the second revision. ah I do have a handful of private clients that are in different fields, whether it's athletics or business.
00:09:02
Speaker
I will come in and do workshops or do trainings for teams. And again, that team could be in sport or could be in in business. And I also do a lot of things with parents and parents of athletes or athletes who are student athletes in college.
00:09:22
Speaker
and And I work with several college sports teams in volleyball, in tennis, in golf. And currently actually, I'm helping the athletic director of a college here in Santa Barbara really create this whole methodology within their entire athletic department for the entire their division, too. So I go wherever I'm asked and i do a little. That's why I laughed when you said I have I like to describe I have a lot of balls in the air that I'm juggling that are really they're really all important to me.
00:09:57
Speaker
They're all grounded in the same methodology, what I call the play zone, ah but they're all they're all a little bit different, whether it's coaching, whether it's writing, whether it's presenting,
Personal Realizations Through Polyvagal Theory
00:10:08
Speaker
whether it's running a workshop. But the common core is the play zone, and which is all rooted in polyvagal theory. So it isn't complex, although I'm keeping a lot of balls in the air.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, and you've touched on this a little bit and just briefly there at the end, but polyvagal theory in specific, how has that informed your work? I know that it's kind of the foundation, but just share a little bit about how you came to polyvagal theory and what it's doing for you.
00:10:38
Speaker
Well, when I first read Steve's deep dive book, so the the one that very few people read, the first one, And I was reading that, and that was many years ago.
00:10:52
Speaker
And it became very clear that my childhood I, without this being the whole rest of our interview, which it could be, but my childhood, like many of us, was very unstable.
00:11:08
Speaker
So I came from a home in fairly rural Pennsylvania. We lived ah with about six acres of land, lots of trees and woods and and lots of outdoor experiences and and and freedom in that regard.
00:11:24
Speaker
But my father was was abusive and very unpredictable. And so I grew up in a very unsettled household. And there was an experience where I recollect where I actually went into my into a shutdown response. So this is polyvagal, so we all know what what that means. So I had a collapse.
00:11:45
Speaker
And from that point on, I i was different. I wasn't as playful. I wasn't as engaged in the world. And then as I was getting into high school, i therere funny story, but when I was 16 and I was in a class, ah ah there was a freshman. So I was a junior, there was a freshman, she grabbed my arm.
00:12:11
Speaker
And she said, I think my arm is more muscular than your arm. And and i and she was right. i was always this really lanky, skinny kid, but I was very athletic, very competitive. I was the star pitcher of our baseball team. I was very athletic, but I was really skinny. And so when she said that, I was kind of embarrassed.
00:12:30
Speaker
And the I started lifting weights. I started training that very next day with my best friend. And we from that point on, I've always been in a gym. like it's just what i It shifted everything for me. And it started off as a superficial quest of I want to get more muscular.
00:12:47
Speaker
But what it really was doing physiologically is it was actually mobilizing my body. Right. And i I didn't know it at the time. But once I started reading Steve's books, I was like, oh, it started mobilizing me out of that kind of withdrawn numb.
00:13:05
Speaker
And I started to get really angry, started to get really, really angry and even angry at people who I knew cared about me. Not my not my in my family, but friends, teachers, coaches.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then I met someone, I met a girl and her family that changed everything. All of a sudden, I remember seeing in their eyes, which is also interesting. I remember being, why did I like this girl? It was something in her eyes.
00:13:34
Speaker
It was her eyes. Well, now I get it. They were cuing me. It's okay. It's safe. You can be here. And it took that aggressive, all over the place, angry energy, and it turned it back into connection and it turned it into play.
00:13:50
Speaker
And it altered my whole trajectory all from that and changed my whole my whole life from that moment on And when I was reading his work, I'm like, oh, that's exactly what happened. I came back up the hierarchy, right? I went all the way in into collapse and shutdown. I was kind of hovering in there and I was bouncing back and forth between periods of getting mobilized, but I was never feeling safe.
00:14:16
Speaker
I never felt that connection until I found it in that family and it shifted everything for me. And they were cuing me connection and warmth and welcome.
00:14:28
Speaker
that just softened the edges and and brought that vagal system back online. That's technically what it did. And that allowed me again to trust in my language of today.
00:14:39
Speaker
it allowed me to trust that it was safe to feel safe again. That was what it what it did. Because i grew when I was little, I remember feeling very safe when I was really little. I remember running through the woods and playing and doing all kinds of games with my two brothers. And I just remember it was there it wasn't that all of home life was scary and and chaotic, but there were enough parts of it and there were enough actual experiences that kicked me into that defensive, locked in, in Steve's language, chronically locked in a state of threat.
00:15:13
Speaker
That's where I was, right? And so changed everything for me. It doesn't mean i don't ever have experiences of falling back into the abyss, shutting down, but it means now I trust that safety,
00:15:26
Speaker
and trust are really a shift away.
Fear, Protection, and Competitive Drive
00:15:30
Speaker
there's just They're just a shift away. Just like if I'm feeling really connected, I also recognize that I could also be disrupted, right? So it goes in both ways. And and the the part that's really reassuring is trusting that how we feel is a reflection of our physiological state.
00:15:50
Speaker
And we can go with it and and just ride that wave Or we can build skills, which is really what the course is about and what the book will be about. It's about recognizing those shifts and how our behaviors and emotions and our thoughts and all of ah and the way we act and interact, how that's all influenced and shaped by those states.
00:16:12
Speaker
But then if we if we need to or desire to, how might we guide ourselves through those states to best match the situation or the interactions?
00:16:25
Speaker
or to show up in the way we would really like to show up in that relationship. Yeah, no, I i completely understand and and can relate to what you're saying. And, you know I'm just curious if you can remember back to when you had that experience with the other family and kind of leaving the dorsal shut down and feeling like you're in sympathetic, feeling a little bit angrier.
00:16:47
Speaker
But when that co-regulation happened, you know, with you being a pitcher on the baseball team, do you remember how that affected your performance on the field? Did it have any sort of effect? Well, actually, what ended up if I if I look back, that was in high school, that was my junior year, and it actually softened my competition.
00:17:10
Speaker
Actually, for me, it became less important. So it didn't, it wasn't that it gave me a lift in performance. It actually took me out of caring so much about the performance, which again, makes complete sense to me now, because why I was performing, why I was playing sports,
00:17:30
Speaker
why I was really trying to be a high achiever in so many domains was I was trying to find a way to feel safe. I was trying to find a way to, because my dad was also very hard on me athletically and academically, but really athletically.
00:17:46
Speaker
That was a big part of this is he was never, it was never good enough. Right. And so I recognize that again, subconsciously, I recognize that that competitive fire was actually fueled from a quest of feeling safe and fueled with inadequacy in a way.
00:18:07
Speaker
Right. And so it didn't lift my performance. It made it made competition less vital. In a way. Right. And that that you're you're you're asking a really good question because.
00:18:20
Speaker
That can happen. Right. Like so when we go back to your question about who like how what's my day look like? Well, right at this very moment. I'm working with a player who has stopped playing tennis. Actually, two different players. who One was a high-level college player who is now taking a break.
00:18:42
Speaker
We'll see if he comes back to tennis. One was a college player who was a top college player, played professional for a year, and is also now taking a break. Okay? And then concurrently, I have another player turned tennis.
00:19:01
Speaker
that's 17 years old when she won the US Open as a junior in the juniors, okay? And immediately started playing pro and got inside the top 100 and then since has fallen and then has since back climbed back up into the top 100. So she's still in the game but has a different relationship to herself within the game.
00:19:26
Speaker
And then there's another player who was... When I first started with him, he was inside the top 100, got all the way up to number eight, dropped back down, couldn't win a match, and now he's back inside the top 30.
00:19:42
Speaker
And so there's these different trajectories. And reason I share that is because sometimes you do recognize that your drive and your hunger are not coming from a physiological place of safety and play.
00:19:56
Speaker
They're coming from fear and protection. And proving, right? You've got a chip on your shoulder. we We all have, we have those words. Oh, he's always got a chip on his shoulder or, you know, we all know.
00:20:07
Speaker
So sometimes you recognize that when you do start doing this work that, Hey, I, I, I'm not able to relate to that environment in a way that's actually feeding me a new pattern of connection and play.
00:20:23
Speaker
And so we might have to step away, right? We might. and And that can be a hard decision, but it also might be necessary. Right? Not everyone can, when we start doing this, not everyone can make the shift enough in that environment.
00:20:41
Speaker
Like it's just too much. There's too much history, too many associations, too much on the line. Right? This is professional. So their life is on the line. It's like, you do have to win.
00:20:55
Speaker
you You do, right? right And same within a business. You do have to meet a certain number, right?
Maintaining Play and Safety in Life's Demands
00:21:02
Speaker
So when we're talking about play, it's not that it doesn't matter.
00:21:07
Speaker
It's not that we're not putting in the effort and the work. It's that we still somehow, and that's not easy, somehow we have to help convince the nervous system that you're not in a state of threat, even though there might be a lot on the line.
00:21:23
Speaker
And what I'm saying is sometimes that's too far to go for someone who's been in that game for so long in that state of threat that they they have to they have to find it in other environments and other relationships and start building up that, what I call autonomic agility, this physiological capacity to then put ourselves into the challenging situation, but not be completely disrupted or triggered back into those patterns of protection.
00:21:54
Speaker
That's not easy. No, no, it's not easy. And yeah, it kind of leads perfectly into my next question, which is, it's more so about, you know when you think about performance, I think maybe people are you know immediately going to the stage or a sports arena, but you know for most people, performance looks like just showing up and being you know a spouse or you know a parent, ah specifically in business.
00:22:23
Speaker
you know we all have to provide and you know we're all in specific different careers. But you touched on a really important part, and especially in the US specifically, where our health insurance is tied to our career, our job. It can feel existential where you you do have to hit a certain number, you have to hit your you know key performance indicators. and your health insurance and your livelihood to provide for provide for yourself and for your family is on the line. Totally.
00:22:56
Speaker
So what what does performance look like? How do you how would you you know suggest to someone, you know, to get that performance out of themselves in that environment? Yeah, I'm glad I'm glad you're expanding it to that, because to me, it really the in a way the executive, the top athlete,
00:23:17
Speaker
They're already is as hard as the game is to maintain and and reach those numbers. They have a lot more support than a lot of us who are just in regular lives might also have.
00:23:29
Speaker
Right. So a top athlete has a trainer. They have a coach. They have a physio. They have they have me. They have all of these different resources that are helping their body.
00:23:44
Speaker
Trust that it's safe to feel safe and trust that it's safe to trust others. And that even when they go off the rails, they they have others that can help them come back home. Right. and And that's what we are. designed That's what we've evolved to have is a safe co-regulating other, a sense of belonging, another that we can go to for support.
00:24:07
Speaker
but also those that we can laugh and play with and and and let go and be creative and exploratory. and And what I want to acknowledge in what you're saying is for a lot of us, we don't have that.
00:24:18
Speaker
And yet we're still being asked to perform in almost every role that we play. with Even if it's dating, there's evaluations, there's expectations we're supposed to meet. Every stage of life, school, work, once we're married, once we're in a family providing for different parts. So Everything about this American culture will stay with our culture because that's what we both know.
00:24:41
Speaker
It is very, very competitive. It's very comparative. It's constantly changing. And we can't just step off the treadmill. That's not what I'm suggesting either, because.
00:24:54
Speaker
it Unless you check off and go off the grid, we have to figure out a way to navigate all of these expectations and demands while still, again, how do we convince our brainstem, our body, our nervous system that actually the fight is over, that it doesn't have to be a constant
Building Reassuring Environments for Performance
00:25:12
Speaker
fight. And for some of us, maybe the work environment is toxic.
00:25:16
Speaker
Maybe the family doesn't feel safe for whatever reason. Maybe the environment and the community we live in is dangerous. Maybe we're being marginalized, maybe we're being talked over, all of those things. And so we have to acknowledge what's reality for us, right? What's the environment we're in or what are the environments we're in? And is there still a way in those environments?
00:25:43
Speaker
Is there a way to feel safe enough, connected enough? and And maybe that means we have to rely on internal resources, breath, posture, movement. whatever, right? Finding the cues that are available to us.
00:25:57
Speaker
Maybe it means we can't in those moments. And we when we have to find ways to step out of those environments through different periods in the day or after, right? And we and we have to look at it from my perspective.
00:26:10
Speaker
We just have to look at it as who or what will my body welcome as safe, reassuring, trustworthy, reliable. And we have to bring those things into our day to day. When I talked about this being a template,
00:26:24
Speaker
okay, for life, that's where I go. So my answer to your question is how do we as just normal human beings bring this in? and And it's not about performance on stage, it's about, and the word performance is still even, it's just, it's about optimizing your own experience in this world.
00:26:42
Speaker
Okay, and that's the Polyvagal Institute, optimize the human experience, which I really resonate with. And so how do we do that? Well, we create Things in our life that we can create relationships, practices, some routines, environments that we put ourself in deliberately that feed our nervous system.
00:27:05
Speaker
Those cues of reassurance of connection of I'm okay. I can let my guard down. We cuddle with our pet. My dog's lying right next to us, right? Like a really reliable cue of it's okay.
00:27:18
Speaker
It's all okay, right? And so we look for what each of us welcomes in that moment. in every There are universal cues, but we have to find what each body welcomes.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, and it it is going to be different for every individual nervous system, right? Every individual person is experiencing their own levels of threat and safety.
00:27:41
Speaker
And so i think it's I think it's important to acknowledge that that that that's that to me is being trauma-informed, nervous system-informed, being you know deeply aware that your approach, what you do to feel safe isn't going to work for somebody else because they might be going through a completely different set of circumstances.
00:28:00
Speaker
um But I do want to talk about one circumstance that I think most people have been in and i would love to get your take on how you would prepare using polyvagal principles, you know, play zone methodology.
00:28:16
Speaker
how would you prepare for something like a job interview where, you know, you're in that pressure environment and you're being asked to perform? Yeah, great, great question. So often, often we prepare by rehearsing what we're going to say, right? Like, and and even beyond a job interview, if like I'm going to go have a really challenging conversation with my wife, my first thought is, okay, i need to prepare what I'm going to say.
00:28:44
Speaker
And what we're getting at here is there's a different preparation and it's preparing the physiology. Okay. So I see it as two parts. We're preparing the physiology to feel what safety and connection feel like.
00:28:58
Speaker
Okay. And we're also preparing the physiology to shift what I call agility. Okay. So the preparation for an interview would be those two things.
00:29:12
Speaker
okay I want to actually prepare my body to get mobilized and still, to be engaged and to listen, to be even disrupted and to recover.
00:29:24
Speaker
And I want to prepare it to just be able to drop into presence and safety. And so it might look like, in my case, I mean, I have i have my own ritual.
00:29:35
Speaker
And so I would create with that person, I would create a ritual that they practice every day. And that then that and then maybe there's more little resources they add in as that specific prep resource, that prep ritual, but it would involve an I'll just give you my ritual. Okay. So I will do a breathing practice.
00:29:57
Speaker
Okay. And it might be depending on how much time I have, but I'll my, I'll do at least a 10 to 15 minute breathing practice. Okay. Then there's also a voice practice, which I learned from our educational partner, Maddie Shisco, right? And so I'll do specific voice things and you go, well, what if you're not using your, all of us are using our voice. Plus once we understand the social engagement system and its connection to this vagal breaking, using our voice and playing with our voice is also what I was talking about, not only regulating, but also challenging and moving that system up and down. So I do a vocal practice.
00:30:34
Speaker
takes a couple minutes with sound. I listen to specific music. I listen to sometimes I'll listen to the safe and sound, but sometimes I'll listen to specific, more upbeat, dancey music. a lot I like the Bee Gees. I like those kinds of things. I have certain go-to songs that again, trigger my state of play that start I move with, right? I have movement.
00:30:57
Speaker
I often do some type of movement practice. I do all these different funky little things and movements. So i my ritual involves breath. It involves voice and sound. It involves listening to some music or something.
00:31:10
Speaker
It involves movement of my body. and I haven't mentioned even thinking about what I'm going to do, right? And then I set an intention. So there's my deliberate part. I set an intention. And lastly, what I do is I connect to why am I doing this?
00:31:26
Speaker
Why is this important to me? What is this for, right? What is this for? And how can I then connect with that through this physiology? Because it isn't just to me, all physiology, the physiology is the basis, but there also is this essence. There is the, the why the connection to the intention, all of that. So that's my prep, right? And it's, it's essentially the tennis, the tennis player, which I'm going to show. So by the time this comes out, we'll have had our Atlantic beach or sorry, our Florida, our PVI conference.
00:32:01
Speaker
But what I'm going to show in that conference is four different players right before they step on court for the finals of the Australian Open.
00:32:13
Speaker
Okay. And we're going to compare and contrast from this perspective. And to me, because it's fascinating. So when I help someone prepare for something, it's about creating everyday rituals, routines, strategies, what I call a habit of safety.
00:32:28
Speaker
and then having a ah specific preparation ritual that involves a lot of those things, but also has more specific things related to being able to drop into the state that you want in that moment, but also the flexibility or the autonomic agility to adapt because there you have to be able to adapt, right?
00:32:48
Speaker
They're gonna ask you a question that you didn't expect, or you're gonna say something and you're gonna see in their face that it didn't land.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's perfect because you can't control the environment. Usually you can't control people's reactions to your performance, whether that's talking to a spouse, your children, a job interview, you know, business meeting, recreational pickleball.
00:33:16
Speaker
match. you know You can't control the environment or what's going to happen. But you know everything that you said about creating a routine, I think is really cool because you started with so many things that you can control, right? Your your breath, some movement, you can play some music and that's all physiology physiologically based. That's not you know at the top where you're rehearsing and rehearsing rehearsing. You can't say what you're going to do because you know most of the time you plan for something and then that situation doesn't really come up. and then It's not there. Yeah. If you haven't done practices, your physiology is not going to be in a place to be agile, you know, to use your term, autonomic agility and kind of move back and forth.
Overcoming Past Performance Issues
00:34:02
Speaker
um Yeah, I think that's that's like really, really good advice. And I think that's really actionable that people can just take away from this episode, from this podcast and just start to think about, OK, you know, our own physiology, what can we do that's under our control to set us set ourselves up for a good performance? And, you know, I want to talk about like the the flip side, too, is if if somebody is struggling to perform or if they've had a bad experience with job interviews and, you know, that's sort of an imprint on their nervous system that they're they're not good in these situations, you know, as a as a performance consultant, what what would be your first step in trying to improve that?
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah, well, first is just to acknowledge it and recognize it as not necessarily truth. in that it doesn't mean that's how it will always be it means you had that experience and now you've created a narrative and a story and a belief system that is feeding back into that experience right so to me the first part is just awareness and acceptance that okay when i go into these experiences my body really reacts this way okay that's that's okay that's true that's fact okay now
00:35:21
Speaker
I'm accepting that as this is what has happened and it's happening again. But where I would interrupt is what this, what that means, right? What does that mean? Does that mean I'm going to flub this? No. Does that mean that I'm going to have the same experience I had the last time? No, it doesn't mean that. It just means again, my body is preparing to move or my body is preparing to get me out of here or my body is overwhelmed.
00:35:49
Speaker
and wanting me to just hide in the corner. That's what it means. Does it mean that you're going to? Does it mean that you're not gonna be able to articulate? Doesn't mean any of that. Yes, it's suboptimal. You're not in your optimal state to connect or to engage or to pull out the information you know, but that doesn't mean you can't access enough, okay? And that can coexist for the moment. It can coexist with what else or who else can cue your body back into enough presence, connection, safety, whatever word you want to say, play.
00:36:30
Speaker
Okay? So you can have that experience happening. Doesn't mean the outcome from before, even though your brain's going to go there, just understand how that works. That's what, that's what'll happen. Like the brain will start to come up with that story. So I redirect toward attention.
00:36:48
Speaker
Okay, so it's awareness, it's acceptance, it's not following the story, it's just redirecting the attention to what else around me or within me or between us is available that may start to reassure my, it may not change how I feel, but even that coexistence may change What comes out of my mouth may change how I'm broadcasting.
00:37:20
Speaker
Right. And so it's that awareness, acceptance, attention to what is available or who is available. And then it's letting it, play letting it go, letting it play out, seeing what happens. And, but in my own experience, even when you still fall short, which can happen, it takes the edge off of the guilt.
00:37:43
Speaker
and the blame and the shame because it we start to recognize it as for whatever reason, I wasn't able to regroup enough. Okay. My body was overwhelmed or really, really fighting to stay alive.
00:37:56
Speaker
And okay. Okay. And so maybe I need to practice the, what we talked about in the preparation. Maybe I, maybe my so body still doesn't trust that it's safe to fully safe. You know, and so maybe I need to work on feeling more and more safe in my life in different ways.
00:38:16
Speaker
Or maybe I need more of that agility. So maybe I need to put myself deliberately into challenges that are within a context of safety, right? And that could be in any domain. That doesn't have to be in that same domain.
00:38:30
Speaker
That could be hot, cold. That could be breath holds. That could be exercise intervals. That could be putting yourself in a dance class. That could be taking an improv acting class, something like that. So you start challenging your physiology, that agility, but in contexts that don't have the association.
00:38:51
Speaker
Okay? But you start building that physiological flexibility. And then you come back into that so you have a little more resource without getting swept over by the association.
Conclusion and Future Discussions Preview
00:39:03
Speaker
That's how I would approach Thank you for listening to part one of our conversation with Michael on Wired for Connection, a polyvagal podcast. In part two, coming early January, 2026, we'll continue in the world of sports and discuss how our collective physiology plays into athletic performance.
00:39:24
Speaker
This show is produced by the Polyvagal Institute, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a safer and more connected world. PVI provides education, resources, and community to those interested in learning more about polyvagal theory and applying polyvagal principles in personal and professional contexts.
00:39:45
Speaker
To learn more about Polyvagal Theory and other offerings, visit us at polyvagal.org, where you can join our online community space and access our free learning library.
00:39:56
Speaker
You'll also find information about upcoming courses and community events. Connect with us on social media. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
00:40:08
Speaker
Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.