Author: Mary Ann Copson
"It's your body and it knows what is best for you."
This is a common mantra you may have heard. It sounds so
wholesome and natural but "following the cues of your body"
is often not a good idea and in fact can take you in
totally the wrong direction.
Following the cues of a balanced brain, a vital body, and a
peaceful mind is a good idea. But if you are stressed, not
naturally balanced, out of whack, or otherwise driven, your
body and brain actually push you to do the things that keep
you out of balance. They drive you in the direction of your
imbalance.
Think about addictions - both the notorious kind like
smoking, drinking, and drugs and also the soft addictions
like exercising too much, needing to socialize with people
to feel good, and working too much – these are all clear
examples of being pushed in the direction of an imbalance.
A couple of years ago I was working with a woman who was a
chiropractor. Someone you would think knows about the body.
She was also a marathon runner. She came to me because she
wanted to work on her nutrition during her marathon
training.
In our conversations, I discovered that she was only
sleeping 3 hours a night – and she was thinking that was
too much. We talked about the need for sleep to help her
body recover each night from the stress of her training
regime. Yet, she insisted that she felt great after 3 hours
of sleep - alive, awake, and ready to go. She was into
meditating and thought she probably didn't even need that
much sleep because meditating could take the place of sleep
- and she was looking for ways to sleep less.
I explained to her that the intensity and frequency of her
training was most likely driving her dopamine levels very
high. (This based on her absolute need to exercise every
day and how bad she felt before she exercised and how good
she felt after she exercised.)
It appeared that her serotonin levels could not keep up
with the rise in her dopamine levels to help balance out
her brain chemistry. (This based on her intense craving for
all kinds of sweets and baked goods.)
I told her about dopamine "being its own reward" and
because of this you tend to feel better and better - like
you can take on the whole world and win hands down - until
you crash. You can only push the body so far in one
direction before it attempts to swing back to balance.
I wanted to explore some ideas about bringing balance to
her brain and body but she insisted that listening to her
body was the way to go – and her body was telling her she
did not need to sleep because sleeping more than 3 hours
made her feel terrible. I said OK, but think about the need
for your biology to be respected and honored. Every body
sleeps and probably yours needs to sleep also – no matter
what you think you are hearing. If you keep raising your
dopamine levels, those high levels of dopamine will keep
driving you to seek more and more excitement and soon
intense exercise and little sleep won't be enough to
satisfy that need for excitement. I warned her that those
increasing dopamine levels can drive people toward more
excitement and more speed with things like cocaine,
gambling, high risk sports, fast driving, and sexual
affairs.
She assured me she was fine and trusted her body. Several
months later, I heard that she had stopped running her
marathons due to exhaustion and that she had had an affair
with her office assistant which lead to a divorce.
Was she wrong to listen to her body? Every person has their
own path to get where they want to go. Obviously, her body
was way out of balance and was driving her further in the
direction of the imbalance. But perhaps that was the only
way she could get out of a marriage that wasn't working for
her. But then again, maybe her marriage would have worked
better if she had been more in balance.
Whatever the reasoning – you don't have to drive your body
into imbalance to get where you want to go. There are other
ways to end up where you want to be without first crashing
and burning.
Here's the point:
Your brain and body are not passive baggage that you carry
around with you. Both your brain and your body have
operating requirements. These requirements are pretty
straightforward. But in our day and age – despite the
increasing incidence of chronic disease and the unnecessary
deaths of over a million people a year in the US due to
lifestyle factors – we seem to think we can do what ever we
want as long as it feels OK.
After giving you some initial warnings that what you are
doing isn't working, if you don't respond to what the body
is telling you then your brain and body switch over to
"just getting you through the day mode" - compromising
every step of the way to go along with what you are asking
it to do. Drive your brain and body far enough out of
balance by ignoring your biological needs and the imbalance
becomes the standard and the brain and body just keep
seeking the imbalance until at some point it all has to
snap back and you crash and burn.
When you get a new car, you probably make the effort to
learn how to take care of the car and keep in tip-top shape
- and you pledge to follow the maintenance recommendations.
You probably wouldn't just go by what you felt the car
needed. Give your body and brain as least as much
consideration as you might give your car.
There is nothing at all brilliant about denying your
biological operating requirements. The body always wins. It
is the smart choice to get in good with the body and give
it what it needs.
It is not really that hard to figure out your operating
requirements. Just use common sense.
Can it get more basic than this?
People have always slept and they still need to sleep.
Average need for sleep is 7-8 hours - no matter how much
you need to get done.
For most of history, people have been moving around most of
the day – and you still need to.
For most of history, people have been outside much of the
day – and you still need to.
For most of history people have eaten real food – and you
still need to.
Even if you knew nothing about the biological requirements
of the body you could just use common sense and do what
most people have been doing for ages – sleep, drink, and be
merry.
The more you take care of your brain and body by meeting
basic biological operating requirements the more your brain
and body can guide you and giveback to you the intuitive,
creative edge of body wisdom feedback.
If you seek expert advice you don't look for an obviously
stressed out, sleep deprived, emaciated, driven individual.
Rather, you look for signs of balance in your expert. They
have to seem to make sense to you and not feed you crazy
ideas. It is the same with the brain and body. Learn your
brain's and body's biological operating requirements,
supply those, give your brain and body time to come back
into balance and then you'll have a wonderfully wise guide
on your side.
If you are going to listen to your brain and body you'd be
wise to make sure that they are balanced with their basic
needs met.
About the Author:
Mary Ann Copson is the founder of the Evenstar Mood &
Energy Wellness Center for Women and a Brain Chemistry
Profile Clinician. Discover ways to positively affect your
neurotransmitter profile at
http://evenstaronline.com/
