What it involves
Mind and body are interconnected and influence each other. For example, if we smile, we feel happier and vice versa. For all processing levels to function well (sensorimotor, emotional, and cognitive processing), it’s important to stay within an optimal activation window (neither too activated nor too little).
In this window of tolerance, all information we gather from the external and internal world can be integrated, as a good level of cognitive functioning is maintained.
In this state of integration, we can properly use our sensations and emotions as useful signals, not reacting automatically to them, but acting intentionally and in our chosen direction.
The Window of Tolerance and Activation Levels
When we are hyperactivated, cognitive processing becomes disorganized, we may feel overwhelmed by bodily sensations, experience increased emotional reactivity, and find ourselves hypervigilant and frozen, unable to reason or concentrate.
If we are hypoactivated, our cognitive processing ability is inhibited, we experience a relative absence of sensitivity and emotional numbness, accompanied by significant difficulty in taking action.
The width of this window of tolerance depends on the person’s characteristics (personality traits, past experiences), and the ability to stay within the optimal activation window also depends on the characteristics of the situations the person faces (there are events – earthquakes, major accidents… – that by their nature and intensity cause temporary departure from the window of tolerance).
When we are outside our personal window of tolerance, we can work with the body to restore a good level of activation, so we can rely on our emotional functions (recognizing emotions, regulating their intensity and duration, and expressing them in the most effective way for us) and cognitive functions (reasoning, thinking, awareness, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, …).
The Role of the Body in Learning and Well-being
Our brain learns not only concepts or knowledge but also behavioral habits that become automatic and economical modes of functioning. This procedural learning involves postural habits and automatic (neither voluntary nor conscious) action patterns and influences our way of reasoning and perceiving environmental stimuli.
Some automatic behavioral patterns can become ineffective, creating habits of relating to ourselves, others, and the context that make us feel stuck, insecure, and ineffective. Body work can interrupt these automatic procedures, promoting direct experience of new ways of feeling one’s body and new modes of action.
Working with the body means, first of all, training ourselves to feel and recognize physical sensations, gaining awareness of these sensations and action impulses, and recognizing the connection between sensations and self-perception (e.g., of one’s effectiveness or level of security). One can then learn exercises that, starting from the body, produce sensations of stability, grounding, and centering.
The more we recognize and consciously follow our bodily sensations, the more tolerable they become and the more our body leads us to states of calm and well-being (foundations for optimal cognitive functioning) that allow us to fully express our potential.
The body becomes a valuable source of information about our functioning and the environment we are in, and it is a resource to be used for self-regulation.
Body-based interventions can promote greater psychophysical well-being and have concrete benefits in the workplace (reduction in sick leave, better access to cognitive functions, …).
