Learn to use your body to change your brain - "Embodied Cognition: How the body affects thinking and behavior"

Daniel Kahneman, a thinker and psychologist with dual citizenship in Israel and the United States, pointed out the magical power of association in his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow", This kind of associative thinking is not only reflected in the discomfort we feel after seeing someone frowning, but also manifested in our common actions that unconsciously affect our thoughts and feelings. For example, if we keep smiling, our mood will change. good. This is what the body does to our thinking and behavior.

We all know that when the brain sends a signal that we are hungry or sleepy, we will look for food or go to sleep. This is the brain instructing our body. Just like people will laugh when they are happy, but if we laugh for a while first, we will also feel happy. This also shows that the body affects our feelings and emotions. The body and the brain are not a one-way relationship, but influence each other.

The book "Embodied Cognition: How the Body Affects Thinking and Behavior" explains how various changes in the body affect the content of our minds, which is also our further understanding of our bodies. , and learn to use the body to influence the brain, and then behave in a way that is beneficial to oneself.

The author of this book is Sean Belloc, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago, a brain science expert and cognitive scientist who focuses on the study of human performance. He received dual doctorates in kinesiology and psychology from the University of Michigan, and received the "Revolutionary Early Contribution Award" from the American Association for Psychological Science in 2011.

Let’s take a closer look at how the human body affects the brain:

The human brain is closely related to feelings, feelings, and emotions. In other words, we Feeling relaxed and happy, our thoughts are also pleasant. Physical pain can also cause psychological pain and bad emotions. Just like a broken arm or leg, it can cause emotional discomfort.

The book introduces a neurotoxin, the active ingredient in botulinum toxin, which can be injected into people’s eyebrow lines to make wrinkles disappear. When the eyebrow lines disappear, people’s unhappiness or Sad expressions disappear too, because our neuronal circuits don't always clearly distinguish between what's real and what's fake. This method is also used in the treatment of patients with depression. It can be seen that specific physical activities can help us change our emotional and spiritual experiences.

Physical experience will enhance our cognitive abilities. Babies enhance their cognitive abilities through constant exposure to new environments. In their experience of contact with the outside world, they gradually realize what others are doing and why they are doing what they are doing. When an eight-month-old child climbs to the edge of the sofa and is about to fall off, adults tell him that it is dangerous. After experiencing this situation several times, he will experience what he can and cannot do. . Children's actions such as falling and crawling help the brain understand the world and improve cognitive abilities in a certain sense.

Regular exercise will open up our brains. In other words, exercise will activate people's creativity. Google will set aside spaces for employees, like indoor treehouses and tennis courts, to encourage employees to get up and move more. Because thinking requires movement, not only the mind, but also the body.

Our movement habits often control the brain. Many people don't know that the keyboard we use is called the QWERTY keyboard. It was invented by American Christopher Latham Shores to reduce typing speed. Because in the mid-19th century, the use of typewriters would be tangled up because two adjacent words were struck too fast, so keyboards were invented to make it more difficult for typists to operate the typewriter and reduce the typing speed. But later, the Dvorak keyboard designed by Professor August Dvorak of the University of Washington in 1932 solved the above problems, which not only increased the typing speed, but also reduced the workload of the fingers. But more than 70 years have passed, and people still generally use QWERTY keyboards, because people are used to typing words with their right hand, and this keyboard is just right. It can be seen that our body affects and controls the brain in unusual ways.

Repetition of body movements helps enhance the brain's memory. Athletes in many sports continue to repeat actions and strengthen their practice to deepen their memory, because repeated training will form neural circuits in the brain. Gymnasts competing on the balance beam know in their heads where they will land before they jump up and down. This is also a mental representation formed during deliberate practice, gradually formed through dynamic repetition over time. Just like taxi drivers who have worked in a city for many years, their understanding of the road conditions has been deeply imprinted in their minds. When they hear the passengers say where they are, the stored traffic information will immediately appear in their minds, and they will know which road is closest and which road is the smoothest. Because they will deliberately write down relevant traffic knowledge about the destination to prepare for use next time.

Our body language not only helps us think and understand our own thoughts, but also helps us communicate and understand other people's thoughts. Understanding other people's abilities requires understanding, and understanding is learned by doing.

When we feel that it is difficult to understand a foreign language, we can speak it and understand the foreign language by making the sounds and mouth shapes of the mouth. Because when we speak, we can create a map of somatotopic areas of the motor cortex. Just like when we hear the verb "kick", the legs in the action system are activated, and the arm and wrist areas are driven by the word "lift."

When we want to communicate with others through speech, we can achieve the desired effect through physical participation such as gestures, stance, and facial expressions. Just like when Steve Jobs gave a speech, his hands were always in the shape of a ball to show confidence.

When we feel lonely or our friends feel lonely, we can give each other a warm hug, or go to a warm place for vacation, drink some hot drinks or wine, and dress warmly. Because the body temperature can reach the warmth of the heart.

When faced with children’s difficulty in learning mathematics, we can allow children to improve their understanding of mathematics by learning music and dance, and participating in situational exercises.

Above, we have explained the influence and control of the body on the brain, improving cognitive abilities, experiencing emotions and feelings, and improving interpersonal relationships through changes in the body. So, where else should we, as individuals, start to enhance our mental strength through physical changes?

First of all, we try to maintain a positive mood and smile every day to give our brain optimistic feedback. Because good emotions are not only good for yourself, but also serve as a good role model for children, especially children. Good emotions are contagious.

Secondly, when we are depressed or prone to depression, we can adjust it in time through changes in our body. For example, proper aerobic exercise, writing your own story, learning to meditate, traveling frequently to feel the charm of nature, etc.

Finally, we must consciously exercise our bodies and make them move, because changes in the body affect the thoughts of the brain, that is, many factors outside the cerebral cortex affect the thinking within the brain. And this kind of thinking can enhance your own mental strength. For example, creativity and sports are closely related.

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