Activate Your Social Engagement System - Power Learning and Connection

Our social engagement and learning systems are powerful, dynamic, and adaptive. Once we understand the details of how they work, we can learn to consciously “switch them on” or “off.”

These systems have taken quite a hit in recent years—first from the pandemic and then from our increasing digital device use. I see the impacts everywhere as I work with groups, talk with educators, and observe the impacts with our youth and social service providers.

Our facial, neck, and eye muscles play vital roles in our social engagement system. That means there are a lot of fun and effective practices to power connection and learning. Remember making faces in the mirror as a kid? Our exercises are the smart-body version of that same kind of playful exploration!

These muscle groups also help us cue safety and connection to those around us. We send and receive cues through facial expressions, eye gaze, nodding our heads, vocal tone, and more. They are essential parts of our Superpowers of Co-Regulation.

Consider how birds use vocalizations to communicate safety or danger. Humans do the same. When our jaws are tense, our voices tend to drop in pitch and tone. When the jaw and neck muscles are relaxed, our tone becomes more melodic, with greater range and warmth. These melodic tones signal safety to others—human, birds, and animal alike. This improves our ability to process language and the “safety” prediction in relationships.

The clue is to observe how these muscle groups function differently when we’re in stress versus restore states. The goal is to strengthen and practice the restorative patterns more often.

Eyes

Imagine gazing at a sunset, looking up at the stars, or taking in the vibrant colors of a garden in bloom. In these beautiful moments, your eyes send signals of safety to your brain. Under stress, though, our eyes behave differently—they may dart side to side scanning for threats, narrow into tunnel vision, or open wide eyed in hypervigilance. Because our eyes are autonomically connected to our nervous system, We can move in an instant when there is a perception of a threat. What a gift!

Neck

Our neck muscles allow us to nod our heads, turn to see what is happening, or tuck our heads in protection. We duck to avoid hitting our heads or tense the neck when bracing to run away. We nod our heads yes or no. Discover how gentle neck mobility is also instrumental to restoration. Lengthening and mobilizing the neck helps support deep breathing, by lifting the upper ribs, and gets more circulation and oxygen to the brain.

Facial Muscles

Facial muscles express emotion, shape our breath and speech, move our eyes, relax or tense the jaw, and influence how we relate to others. They’re central to how we connect, communicate, and co-regulate.

Spend some time observing and playing with how your social engagement system works. Be curious, experiment, and explore—connection grows from awareness and play.

Join one of our experiential courses to learn more!

Power up your practice and discover Ease!