All vital functions our body performs are subconscious. Breathing, circulating blood, digesting and extracting nutrients from food. They happen below the radar—beyond what we can consciously control.
The body has intelligence that our minds can conceive of. You feel pulled toward certain people but repelled by others; some circumstances attract you, others feel dull; you have a gut feeling (interoception in scientific terms) that a decision is the right decision. These are all ways in which the body communicates with us and guides us.
Have you ever let your mind override your intuition when they’d been pointing in different directions? And did that ultimately make life easier or more difficult for you?
We often have more creative ideas after intense exercise. This is due to transient hypofrontality—decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain where most of our logical, systematic thinking takes place. In other words, when our logical and analytical mind quietens, deeper intelligence, ideas and insights come through.
We process information with both mind and body. There are two different types of intelligence available to us – mind intelligence and body intelligence. We are normally mind-led in our decision-making. But the mind is prone to many perceptual errors, narrative fallacies and cognitive biases.
The mind, through years of evolutionary turmoil, is programmed to feel unsafe. Its overriding agenda is to optimise for survival and as such its intelligence is skewed and limited by the hyper-vigilance needed to ensure safety. When you feel threatened, you need to be on the lookout all the time. The body, on the other hand, optimises for thriving. Its intelligence is not filtered through any overarching threats and as such has no limits. We primarily rely on the mind for decision-making, but there’s greater intelligence in the body.
Because you don’t want to just survive—you want to thrive. And you thrive when you understand and override the limiting patters of the mind. The mind is a very powerful tool when used in congruence with its strengths. But it also works against you in many ways.
You align with the true and full extent of your potential, power and creativity, when you master both mind and body intelligence. When you harness the mind’s strengths and override its weaknesses; when you strengthen the body intelligence and lean into it; and when you know which way to go when mind and body clash.