If you’re looking to live a life of health and vitality, you’ll want to be flexible and learn from experience. The world is changing constantly and we want our bodies to adapt. If we get stuck in a narrow range of behaviors, movements or ideas, we stop growing. Unfortunately, stress defeats this objective by causing distinct neurological changes to the brain. The more stressed we get, the more we’re prone to falling back on repetitive, stereotyped ways of living that are unproductive or even destructive. Today’s New York Times has a great piece on the details of this process: see Brain is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop. This research has enormous relevance for anyone who works with bodies and health.
Behavioral flexibility, ruts and phys ed
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Brain and body are one!
I really got a lot out of Chris McDougall’s book, “Born to Run,” but the one thing that struck me the most was the scientists talking about the battle between brain and body for caloric intake over the course of the evolution of human beings. Our growing brains demanded huge amounts of calories. We could only grow these big brains because of our ability to get meat. But it caused a decrease in overall musculature…and brain eventually won out over brawn (so the fall of the Neandertal).
Could the Cartesian “body/mind” separation actually be the verbal expression of a physical intuition of this “battle” for calories between our brains and muscles?
Regarding the above article you posted, Frank…it should come as no surprise that a system or type of behavior propagates itself. All systems by definition are self-reinforcing. Just as getting stressed repeatedly leads to the brain developing a “habit” of stress, exercising repeatedly leads to a response in muscle…