“Where does your mind end and your body start?” This was a question the Dali Lama posed to a group of neuroscientists at a conference that led to a full two-day discussion. The clearest answer the world’s best scientists could give was that they did not know if there was even a difference between the two.
The mind-body connection is a conundrum that shows up in our lives every day. Feelings of stress show up as tightness in your body and worry shows up in your gut. Notice what your posture is like when you’re doing confidence or excitement and what it’s like when you’re doing depression or anxiety.
Amongst all the confusion there is clarity to be found. While your brain and your mind are not the same thing, your mind does operate through your brain, and we can use this to decipher how we see the world and how we operate through it.
We have known for a long time that the left and right half of the brain operate quite differently and can even work independently of each other when the connection between them is severed. The right hand literally doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Interesting research that involved having healthy people look at random arrangements of dots on a screen shows that people who tend to be attracted to more chaotic patterns functioned more out of their right brain and those who liked more orderly patterns favoured their left brain.
It has also been shown under imaging studies that the forebrain tends to work in bigger-picture thinking while the hindbrain tends to work better with smaller details.
The brain preferences, left vs right and fore vs hind, have observed connections to different organ systems and even hormonal patterns in your body. The idea that your mind/body is an integrated thing rather than separate parts is one that natural health professions like Chiropractic have known for a long time and modern science is taking more seriously every day.
If you could know your brain preferences and how they related to your strengths and weaknesses, you could be more aware of how your mind works. This awareness means you get to play the game of life with a cheat sheet instead of stumbling around blindly.
The good news is you can know yourself more deeply. The In8Model is a powerful tool to help you map your preferences for how you do life. All it takes is 5 minutes and a free quiz at http://www.thein8model.com/free-questionnaire/
