In preparing my upcoming book, I endeavored to explore the autonomic nervous system as integral to the increasingly bigger waves of stress and anxiety forming within our culture. What I discovered was that sound and primarily breath were strong remedies, principally through the tonification of the vagal nerve ( aka  the vagus nerve).   My go-to guy for just about everything sound is Dr. Tomatis. When looking at the vagus nerve, I realized that Steven Porges and his Polyvagal Theory, was also...

At an Asheville concert, a rap group lifted the crowd in a way classical pieces didn’t. It reminded me that rhythm isn’t intellectual—it’s embodied. In anxious times, predictable beats ground us, entrain us, and help the nervous system settle. Music matters now because it connects, calms, and brings communities back into themselves.

“ There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there A-telling me I got to beware ” - Stephen Stills and Buffalo Springfield In 1966, these words didn’t feel all that much different than in present time – some 60-years later. And here we are, doing it again. Really? What is it exactly, that we are doing again? Oh yes, we’re outraged and in the streets, “ Singing songs and a-carrying signs, mostly say hooray for our side ,” but in 2025, protests...