Your Body is Functioning Perfectly; At the Level of the Tools Available to it

If you haven’t heard it for a while (and try telling yourself if you haven’t), your body is AMAZING! It has an intelligence inside of it that orchestrates the complex symphony of bodily functions that maintain your homeostatic conditions with such perfection that you may not even know that it’s there! This Innate/inborn Intelligence of your body acts through the Nervous System. 

Many of us think of the Nervous System as inhabiting different states that facilitate our survival under various conditions (whether we’re fighting/fleeing or resting/digesting). What’s important to know is that regardless of what state we’re living from, our heart keeps beating and lungs keep breathing. All functions of the body get done because the Autonomic Nervous System ensures they do. Each state we live from is the state that our Intelligence determines best serves us.

I’ve shared a story before where I noticed (without my conscious control) that I was using breath holds while taking a difficult exam in graduate school. I was a (beyond!) burned-out Chiropractic student and practiced daily Kundalini yoga as my saving grace. By practicing breath holds in my yoga practice,  I was equipping the Intelligence of my body to have this tool to draw on in times of need. I didn’t have to tell my body to suspend an inhale and, in fact, I wondered why it was happening! But the Intelligence of my body knew perfectly what needed to happen. 

Why might I have been subconsciously holding my breath while test-taking, then? I can only go back and reason after the fact to consider why. For instance, I know that by holding a breath in, I’m retaining more oxygen (and the organ requiring the most oxygen in the body is the brain). Or I could consider the neurological state shift that would occur under a held inhale. Slowing the breath and using breath holds activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which enhances cognition and recall by bringing the prefrontal cortex online. This area of the brain allows us to critically think and reason, which would certainly have been helpful in my exam setting!

Here’s the thing about your body’s Intelligence: It always does the best it can and is perfect in its execution. However, it can only perfectly execute functions at the level of the tools available to it. It can only orchestrate your power if it’s resourced first. 

The rapidly accelerating technological and otherwise landscape that we’re living in (and this truly is a unique time in history!) requires us to show up at a higher level. It’s asking us to resource ourselves and enhance the tools that our vast Intelligence has to draw on. It’s not that we’re “too sensitive” for the world or that the world is “too overwhelming” for us (I’ve been in these victim stories!)

To empower your body’s Intelligence with higher level tools, reach out! The Chiropractic adjustment has been demonstrated to effect change on the prefrontal cortex and allows for the subtle re-integration of stored tension in the body that interferes with the flow of your brilliant Intelligence. The purpose of the adjustment is not to “correct” anything that’s “wrong” with you, but to enhance the expression of what’s RIGHT with you! (Book an adjustment here)

To learn some Nervous System-supportive strategies on the yoga mat, flow with me at Lizard Yoga! We breathe deep, shake it out, and learn to listen to our body’s subtle cues. We can only meet the world as we’ve met ourselves and we do that by listening to the body and honoring its needs above all else. (Book a class here)

Have a question or just want to chat? Comment on this post or find me on social media @dr.hopemcloughlin! These are my favorite topics to philosophize on!