Our Brains Are Not Separate from Our Bodies

In the previous post, Chris wrote about how your body, not your brain, is actually making decisions for you. Which, upon reflection, we decided is partially true, but not entirely. Let me clarify…

Our brains have 3 basic layers: The reptilian brain, the mammalian brain, and the cerebral cortex. These nest inside one another like Russian dolls, have different functions and processes, and are integrally connected. They are all also connected to the autonomic nervous system, which runs through the entirety of our bodies. 

The reptilian brain houses the oldest parts of our brains – meaning, the ones that have, evolutionarily, been around the longest – and is responsible for our most basic reflexes: breathing, heartbeat, feeding and digestion, and reproduction.

The mammalian brain, or limbic system, is one we share with all mammals. This is where the fight, flight, and freeze responses arise as well as attachment and emotions. The mammalian brain filters the world into two basic categories – pleasurable (get more of that!) and painful (make it stop!). It makes those decisions and acts on them, sending and receiving intricate messages to and from our autonomic nervous systems, usually before we are able to consciously recognize what’s happening.

Finally, we have the cerebral cortex. Generally, when we as a culture refer to our brains, this is the part we are talking about. Our cerebral cortex is the part of our brains where language, time, abstract thought, planning, executive functioning, and our personalities all occur. It’s the most flexible part of our brains, with the most capacity to learn and grow throughout our entire lives.

Different parts of our brains can be active at any given time. For example: If you are in a fight, flight, or freeze response, the blood flow to your cerebral cortex slows, essentially taking that part of your brain offline, making it virtually impossible for you to think logically and rationally, or to be curious or generous. But in that same moment, your mammalian brain is firing like crazy, receiving information from the rest of your nervous system, and sending messages out rapid-fire.

So, when we said last week that ‘Your body, not your brain, is actually running the show,’ a more precise way of saying that would have been, ‘Your nervous system + your mammalian brain, not your cerebral cortex, is running the show.’

These nuances matter. Nothing about our bodies, our nervous systems, or our brains is black and white. They do not function independently of one another, and what we need, what brings the most wellness and wholeness, is understanding, inclusion, and integration of the complexity of our systems. 

Our brains are not separate from our bodies – they are, quite literally (and obviously), within our bodies. Western industrial culture, however, is founded on the domination of our human bodies and the Earth's body – conveniently claiming them to be untrustworthy, unpredictable, and often inconvenient. 

How we view the world – including the thoughts and stories we have about ourselves, other people, and all other beings, from the ant to the whale, the prairies to the cosmos – are significant. These narratives filter and shape our experiences, to the benefit or detriment of all Life. 

This story, that our brains and our bodies are separate has paved the way for immeasurable harm. This dismembering leads to disembodiment, disregard, and dismissal of the whole of us as human beings, which ripples out into the ways that we treat one another, and all of the rest of the inhabitants of our world. 

Erotic embodiment is dependent upon the integration of our being, and our upcoming online program is designed to specifically explore and honor this fundamental integration. In it, we will not tell you to ‘get out of your head.’ We will invite you to include – and maybe even in moments prioritize – what is happening in your body. More than that, we will invite you into the possibility that you can have your brain – meaning, your cerebral cortex – fully engaged while you are also fully present in your body. 

None of this is simple. None of it will be neatly sorted out in 8 weeks. This program is a starting off point for a different and perhaps new way of relating with and inhabiting your body. Join us if you can.