Sublime

is through face-to-face interaction, and only face-to-face interaction, that our bodies can determine whether or not we have fulfilled this quota.

When two people are socially engaged and communicating face to face, they pass information about their emotional states by small movements of facial muscles. This also stimulates the nerves in the muscles of each person’s own face, so that their fifth and seventh cranial nerves give them ongoing feedback and a clear idea of what they are feeling

Somatic Experiencing developed by Peter Levine, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy developed by Pat Ogden, and the work of Bessel van der Kolk.

We use psychological constructs, and those psychological constructs do not map well into biological adaptive responses.

One of the most potent triggers of neuroception, or at least the neuroception of safety, is through acoustic stimulation.

Porges coined the word “neuroception” to describe the capacity to evaluate relative danger and safety in one’s environment.

And while prosody may seem like an inconsequential feature of the human voice, it is, in fact, incredibly important to our nervous system. That’s because prosody signals to our neuroception that somebody is safe. Such sounds act as a parasympathetic trigger and coax us into a state of calm.**

As we have learnt from Dr Porges, we can use our neuroception - we know when we feel safe with someone. And we know when we don’t.