The Unleashed Power of Brain and Body Integration

Have you ever felt like you are just too weak to do anything? Have you seen yourself becoming clumsy and you think you are just getting older? Perhaps you’ve experienced ‘thinking’ about doing something, but your body cannot ‘perform’ it well? Maybe it is because you lack brain and body integration.

In elementary school science, particularly in discussion on the nervous system during biology class, we learned that brain and body coordination is vital. The secret link between the two are called neurons. Neurons send and receive signals to and from your brain and the rest of your body. When your brain tells your body to do something, it sends them electrochemical signals. The one responsible carrying those signals are called efferent pathways. In the same manner, your body also sends information to your brain like when you feel, see, touch or hear something, this process is called afferent nerve flow.

We all know that our brain and body work together as one, but sometimes we forget. We treat our brain and body separately as though they are independent from each other. However, treated as they should be, integrated, they allow us to achieve greater heights, increase our performance, and create overall wellness for our whole-being.

Just in case you needed some of the benefits of mind and body integration, I’ll give you some:

- Regulation of the Stress Response System

A person whose body is disintegrated with their brain is more prone to anxiety, depression, over-thinking and sometimes find it hard to stop worrying about things that don’t matter. These disorders may not only affect how you think about the situations you are in and how to deal with them but also result in the deterioration of your health.

By learning to integrate your brain and body, you develop the habit of being mindful on how you think and act. Mindfulness can help prevent those aforementioned disorders by focusing yourself on your present situation and knowing your self more. By doing so, you’ll be able to assess how your body should react and feel, thus keeping yourself away from stress and anxiety.

- Restoration and increase of prefrontal cortex activity

Having an integrated mind and body helps increase activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the cerebral cortex which covers the forwardmost part of our frontal lobe. It is located in the very front of our brain, just behind the forehead. Its functions include activities like decision-making, planning, learning, goal-setting, creativity, concentration, social interaction, emotional regulation and behaviour control. The prefrontal cortex is sensitive to sleep and benefits from it in important ways. By having great sleep, you can increase memory, learning, restoration of energy, physical healing and cognitive development.

- Controlled Amygdala

The Amygdala is a section of the brain that is responsible for detecting fear and preparing for emergency events. It is also responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, sadness and as well as the controlling of aggression.

By learning to integrate your brain and body, you can control the responses to behaviour when warning signals come from your amygdala. You'll learn to ignore things that are not relevant to your life, be quick to respond to danger, control emotions, process fear in a healthy way and enhance physical behaviour.

- Good Health and Fitness

Good health and fitness habits can accelerate your performance, productivity, flexibility and quickness to adapt. You may think that good health and fitness is only associated with your body, but good health and fitness covers all aspects of the brain and body. They emanate from a harmonious and balanced relationship of the brain, body and other functions of all people.

Having these great outcomes, facilitated by integration, will bring many benefits to every area of your life. However, it’s a process of learning and change of both mindsets and habits. You need to read more, perform well, exercise, eat healthy food and sleep well etc. It takes an environment of support and accountability.

To find out more about integration and get yourself on a journey of incremental improvement, reach out and ask me for help.

Cheers Grant