To Regulate is to Be Human

Over ten thousand years ago, a prehistoric human artist in Bhimbetka, India, touched their hands to cave walls and painted their loved ones. Humans are shown arm-in-arm, lined up, and across from each other, arms and legs in the air. It is one of the earliest known depictions of dancing in human history. 

The history of dance is believed to have evolved in tandem with music and singing as a way to facilitate social bonds and potentially signal mate preferences. Dance possibly originated in “ordinary, non-communicative movements, and later were used to non-verbally communicate with others ( (Fink et. al, 2021). Humans naturally moved their bodies in expressive ways, hummed, vocalized, and made sound. These practices naturally fit in together, and co-evolved to help socially connect. It allowed us, as our tribes grew and connected with other tribes– most often, ones who did not share the same signals and vocalizations– to communicate our desires and intentions. Our own needs could be expressed entirely nonverbally. 

Ten thousand years later, music and dance is still a central part of the human experience, even casually– we sing in our cars, go out dancing with friends, dance while we clean the house. Even if we are not “good”, singing and dancing is often done in spite of ourselves– it comes out of us unfiltered. We go about our days and, later, ask our housemate what they are humming. “I don’t know,” they respond, “Whatever you were singing to yourself earlier.” 

It is only recently that we have come to understand the full neurological benefits of singing, dancing, humming, and movement within the human body via polyvagal theory, a neurological theory that helps us gain “insight into the role of the body in stressful situations, the role of co-and self-regulation” (Haeyen, 2024). Polyvagal theory is centered around the power of our vagus nerve– a cranial nerve whose role is, among other things, to regulate our involuntary “rest and digest functions”. It regulates our blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and even our immune function. The vagus nerve is centrally involved in our capacity to self-regulate during and after stressful situations. It allows us to feel safe again, and better protect ourselves from the effects of ongoing stress. 

Vocalization (such as humming and singing) and expressive movement are key ways to stimulate the vagus nerve and increase healthy vagal tone. This means that singing and dancing not only helps us self-regulate through natural rhythmic movement and sound, but it aids us in better processing stress, releasing trauma, and tolerating high levels of distress in the future (Elizabeth Barbera, 2024). 

The implications of this are beautiful: dance evolved from natural, ordinary movements, ones we were instinctually doing as humans. Were ancient humans always subconsciously working to regulate themselves? Did they simply recognize that they felt more relaxed after they physically shook out their stress, and returned to it, again and again? Did they feel more at peace after humming and singing together, and naturally repeated it? 

The ancient world was not a kind one– filled with natural predators, disease, and cold; unsheltered from wind; yet untouched by modern medicinal cures– but it was an expressive one. Our ancestors sang and danced together to co-regulate following a long day. They danced to communicate and to connect. They hummed and sang prior to any structured language. They had– it seems– almost an inherent understanding of what they needed to do to regulate themselves from a deep, neurological basis. 

To physically regulate is to be human and express oneself as our predecessors did.

Before this was known concretely, it was seen and experienced by all of us– our younger selves, dancing with our siblings and friends, or alone, after school, in front of our mirror; nervous, singing to ourselves as we bring the bins in on a cold winter’s night; humming a few notes while we wait for our email to load so we can show our boss we definitely, totally sent that email. The urge to self-regulate is within us, and has been for at least ten thousand years. We are naturally pulled towards it; we feel better when we engage in it. 

To do human things– ancient, quintessentially human things– is to regulate our body, and to regulate our body is to be quintessentially human. It is paramount to reconnect with these venerable practices and reap the benefits of doing so on a nervous system level, even if we are “no good” (though there is an argument that there is no such thing). 

Thus, in the name of good vagal tone and connecting to hundreds of generations before us: hum, dance, sing, move, connect.