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How the body helps the brain think
 
David Brooks, author of The Way to Character, leads a column in The New York Times. In one of his articles, he discusses the brain-body relationship. That's the conclusion he came to.
Now scientists can scan the brain and see how it reacts to different activities. But this research feeds the illusion that the thinking process only occurs in the area above the neck. It is accepted to think that the rational part of our body is more advanced and "guides" the more primitive lower body. Interestingly, many modern scientists have begun to focus not on what happens in the head, but on what happens in the intestines. Every organ has neurons, but special attention should be paid to the vagus nerve that runs from the brain to the heart, lungs, kidneys and intestines.
 
The vagus nerve is one of the ways the body and the brain "communicate"
According to the Director of the Center for Brain and Body Studies at the University of Illinois, Stephen W. Porges, when we find ourselves in a new situation, our body responds. Heart starts beating more often, pressure goes up. The brain picks up signals and registers this condition.
If the situation in which we find ourselves is not dangerous, the brain and body prepare for a friendly conversation. If we feel threatened, then we enter a struggle mode. The body changes: for example, the ears start to pick up high and low frequencies so as not to miss a scream or growl, but begin to react worse to the average frequencies that are suitable for human speech. If fear is felt as a matter of life and death, the body and brain literally turn off, there is a stupor.
Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University in Boston and author of the book "How Emotions are Born" Lisa Feldman Barrett also agrees that the main purpose of the brain is to read signals of the body, as well as to regulate what she called the "budget of the body". For example, you met a bully. The brain will prompt the next action and accelerate heartbeat and breathing to prepare you for a fight or escape. These changes you experience essay reviews in the form of emotions - it can be fear or anger. Emotionally developed people react more flexibly to life circumstances, drink less alcohol and are psychologically more stable. At the same time, body reactions can both control people and heal them. Martha G. Welch from Columbia University talks about the importance of gentle physical touch, especially during the first 1000 minutes of life.
 
It lays the foundation for emotional stability in the future...
According to the outdated theory about the brain, people should regulate their emotionality through internal dialogue. In fact, emotional help comes through cooperative action. When mother and child physically contact each other, their bodies automatically harmonize, and this is reflected at the metobalic level. There is a transition from individual grief to mutual calm.
When understanding comes that the brain and body think together, the theory about the separation of mind and emotions loses its meaning. Your perception of the world is shaped by the brain's predictions of physical states. Everything in the body is interconnected, and the thought process is not just in the brain.