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shawnsmith
Czech Republic
2048 Posts |
 Posted - 06/10/2012 : 04:45:25
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The False Mind / Body Divide
Carolyn Elliott | June 6, 2012
http://moodtraining.com/2012/06/the-false-mind-body-divide/
There’s a common misconception that lies at the foundation of much of our modern way of thinking about our selves and our mental and emotional health. Phrased simply, the misconception is something like this: “The mind and the body are two separate things. They hardly affect one another. Who I am, what I think and how I feel is unrelated to my physical state.”
This misconception in modern thought can be traced back to the 17th century rationalist philosopher René Descartes, who in his works Passions of the Soul and Descriptions of the Human Body put forth the idea that mind and body are two entirely separate things. Descartes argued that the body is a merely material machine and the mind is a nonphysical substance and does not obey any physical laws. He suggested that the mind intersects with the body at the pineal gland, which is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres. In Descartes’ thought, the mind controls the body and the body only has minimal influence over the mind. Descartes never explained in a satisfying way exactly how the nonphysical substance of mind would ever be able to interact with the physically existing pineal gland. This failure of explanation is part of what’s known as “the mind-body problem” in philosophy: the problem of how mind and body interact.
Philosophy still hasn’t resolved the mind-body problem, but there is an increasing awareness in our culture that Descartes’ dualism is untenable. The notion that the body is a mere machine that can’t much affect the mind is becoming increasingly unconvincing in the light of ongoing research that shows the mind-body relationship to be very deep and reciprocal.
Nonetheless, many people still walk around with the idea that they can eat whatever they want and treat their bodies however they want and somehow magically their neurons, thoughts and emotions will remain magically on-point and unperturbed. This simply isn’t true. The way we nourish and nurture our physical form bears a direct relationship to how our mind and our feelings manifest.
Here’s one very interesting way in which our minds and our bodies interact: research shows that our thoughts occur through connected networks of neurons in our brains and that these neural networks are actually shaped and conditioned by the thoughts we have. In neuroscience there’s something known as Hebb’s rule which explains the adaptation of neural cells in the brain during the learning process.
Hebb’s rule goes like this: “Cells that fire together, wire together.” In other words, repeated and persistent simultaneous stimulation of neural pathways causes those pathways to link together. This theory explains how associative learning happens. So, for example, if when you’re a little kid your much-loved Grandmother wears lavender perfume all the time, you’ll automatically feel warm and fuzzy as an adult whenever you smell the fragrance of lavender because the pathways of “Grandma’s love and hugs” and “the scent of lavender” wired together in your brain. In this way your thoughts and your feelings literally shaped the physical make-up of your brain.
Because the interactions of mind and body are dynamic and complex, Moodtraining takes an integrated approach to helping you understand and manage your emotional state. |
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The False Mind / Body Divide
