Chapter 10

When one is bound, truly bound tightly, and unable to escape, even if you trust the Dom, Nawashi, or Bakushi implicitly, the mind, the primitive lizard part of the mind anyway, still experiences fear and this sets off the body’s natural defenses in what is termed the “Fight or Flight Reaction or Reflex”. Studies and clinical interactions have shown that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context we are in at the time. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our primitive “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves being in a safe space with someone we trust, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high aroused state we find ourselves in. Going quickly from a state of fear to one of pleasurable enjoyment or even aroused sexual excitement.

When we perceive a threat the amygdala part of the brain activates areas involved in the preparation for motor functions involved in the “Fight or Flight Reaction”. It also triggers the release of stress hormones and prepares the sympathetic nervous system for an instant response to the perceived dangerous situation.

This leads to bodily changes that prepare us to be more efficient in those dangerous situations. The brain becomes hyper-alert, the pupils dilate, the bronchi in the lungs dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow increases and glucose is pumped to the outer skeletal muscles. Organs not vital to survival such as the gastrointestinal or digestive system slow down to a standstill.

The adrenal medulla produces a hormonal cascade that results in the secretion of adrenaline, catecholamines, especially norepinephrine and epinephrine. The hormones estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol, as well as the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin enter the blood stream.

A part of the brain called the hippocampus is closely connected with the amygdala. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex help the brain interpret the perceived threat. They are involved in a higher-level processing of context of the situation, which helps a person know whether a perceived threat is real or a false alarm.

For instance, seeing a tiger in the wild can trigger a strong fear reaction, but seeing the same tiger in a cage at the zoo is more of a curiosity than a threat. This is because the hippocampus and the frontal cortex process the contextual information, and inhibitory pathways dampen the amygdala’s fear response. Basically, the ‘thinking’ circuitry of our brain reassures our ‘emotional’ area that we are in fact OK and not in danger, but just the same we get a “Rush” from all the things that are now flowing through our blood stream. A natural ‘high’ as some describe it.

I found an article written by Geórgia Dias that elegantly describes what a Sub is basically going through on the Internet while doing my study. The Alexander Technique, named after its creator Frederick Matthias Alexander, was developed in the late 1890s, it is an educational process that was created to retrain habitual patterns of movement and posture of the body. Alexander believed that poor habits in posture and movement damaged spatial self-awareness as well as health, and that movement efficiency could support overall physical well-being. He saw his technique as a mental training technique as well. He credited his method for allowing him to continue to pursue his passion for reciting long Shakespearean speeches on stage in the theater.

Stage Fright, What Is And What To Do About It.

Stage fright is mistakenly considered to be something only amateur and beginner musicians or actors suffers from. Stage fright is something we have all felt at one point or another. In its mildest forms we experience it as ‘been excited’ before a performance, speaking before an audience, or the camera. A fear of under performing. Curiously enough though professional musicians also seem to ‘develop’ stage fright after many years of podium experience. One might wonder how is that possible?

Actually stage fright comes about due to a disturbance of our body’s usual use. The preparations for the demands of a performance are not only done on stage, during rehearsals, or training, it is mainly the way we use ourselves in our daily lives that prepare us. One needs only to be conscious of the way one uses his/her own body every day to bring a balance between actions and reactions of the body and mind. A balance between movements and thoughts, to be aware of the mind and body unity and consciously work with it.

The Alexander technique is a powerful tool which makes it viable to stay open and observe all reactions of the body and mind in relation to life’s daily happenings. Happiness, excitement, fear, mind wandering, tiredness, discomfort, pain, frustration, sadness, stress, etc., all are apart of daily life. Through the Alexander Technique one gains a conscious control of body and mind.

When about to give a performance it is natural to feel excited about it, the longer we wait the more excited we become. All that excitement can accumulate in the body in the form of unreleased energy. During the performance itself one is bound to feel a release of that enormous amount of energy which the excitement of anticipation has produced.

One can feel extremely strong and confident in his/hers capacity to deal with the ‘emergency’, yet for having a good performance the release of that pent up energy needs to be directed and controlled. On the other hand that unreleased energy can became such a frustration for the body that getting to the stage or to ‘the danger area’ can became an impossibility for some.

Too big a dose of excitement and all the unreleased energy can be translated to the body and mind as fright, which is a form of panic, and anxiety. Anxiety is an unpleasant combination of cognitive, somatic, emotional and behavioral components.

The cognitive part of our mind recognizes danger. Somatically the body is preparing to deal with the cause of the threat with the ‘fight or fly reflex’ or ‘panic reflex’. When in panic we instinctively rely on what has kept us alive throughout time, the ‘panic reflex’, also called the ‘fight or fly’ reflex. We either confront it or run away.