When Sigmund Freud, one of the most influential geniuses of the last century, was asked what he would like to have changed in his life, he replied, ironically, “I wished I had been given a better brain.”
My wish would be for a more organized
nervous system. Who wouldn’t wish that! The more balanced
and organized the nervous system, the steadier we are: on
our feet; in our moods; in our thinking; in our life.
All behavior relies on the organization of the nervous system. As the brilliantly insightful occupational therapist Patti Oetter, my mentor put it: “Behavior is a reflection of the organization of the nervous system at that moment and under those conditions.”
Those
words, spoken to me over lunch one day in Los
Angeles twenty years ago, widened the lens from which I viewed human behavior, a subject that, as a
psychologist I know a bit about, and
changed profoundly how I understand the impact
of body on mind. I learned that how we interpret and respond to sensory information underlies all human
behavior. Without knowing a person’s
sensory world, you can’t understand their behavior
Our
thoughts, actions, and feelings and how we express them—our behavior—begins with how the brain codes and processes sensory information. If we feel
bored, we seek sensation; if we feel
overwhelmed, we avoid sensation. Both states
drive us and divert our attention away from what’s
going on in the world.
For this reason,
behavior is not easily modified
until sensory needs
are met.
To
understand why, let’s explore sensory integration.
SENSORY INTEGRATION
How our brain
integrates and makes sense of incoming sensory information relies on how well
our brain processes sensory information.
Let me explain.
To move the body
effectively and to think clearly, the brain must organize and integrate the
bombardment of sensation impacting us at any point in time: sensation from
one’s own body—vestibular (sense of balance); proprioceptive (sense of body
awareness); tactile (sense of touch); and sensation from the environment—sound,
vision, smell, taste.
This process is called sensory integration (SI), the theory of which was first conceived in the 1970’s by occupational therapist A. Jean Ayres. SI forms the basis for how we make sense of the world.
Sounds straight
forward. It’s not.
How well our
brains interpret the sensory world varies, from those who see though a clear
lens and glide through the world with ease, to those who see through a
distorted lens and struggle with the slightest obstacle.
Well Organized Nervous System
If you have good
sensory integration, you make sense of what is seen, heard, smelled, and felt
and respond appropriately and adaptively. You easily block out irrelevant
stimuli, neither overly seeking nor overly avoiding sensation, control impulses
and persist in tasks, navigate space with ease and move as a compact presence in
the world.
As your brain
appraises sensation appropriately, you are sound in body and mind, alert and
adaptive, functioning well and thriving. You maintain a comfortable steady
state and regular body rhythms for sleep, rising, eating, eliminating. At the
same time, a steady state allows the higher, thinking brain to function
optimally and you feel competent, capable, motivated and in charge of destiny.
My friend Josie,
whom I’ve known since grammar school is an example of great sensory
integration. Smart, funny, competent, outgoing, even-tempered, a good athlete
with great posture (this has importance for nervous
system integrity), and a
good listener, she was one of the popular girls, admired by all. Steady and stable, independent and
self-contained still today, never
having shown, to my knowledge addictive behavior or neurotic musings, she has, throughout life, enjoyed warm and loving relationships, a satisfying career,
many friends and much joy.
Off Center
Unfortunately,
few of us have that well-organized of a nervous system. Most of us have average
SI. We may be a bit clumsy and uncoordinated; a bit distracted and spacey; a
bit messy and disorganized; a bit reactive to noise and bright lights; a bit of
a loner or a social nerd. In an article published in 2013 in Journal of
Neurodevelopmental Disorders, one research team led by Nava Levit-Binnun
found 17 studies that reported sensory and motor abnormalities in healthy
individuals.
A bit off
center, we get by—with a few glitches. We call these glitches stupidity,
anxiety, stress, depression, laziness, and so on, and the world generally
agrees with our assessment.
For some of you
reading this, such incidents ring a bell.
How have you
coped with your limitations? You compensated. Said Patti Oetter: “The majority
of us have escaped diagnosis but know our limitations well. We have learned
strategies to capitalize on our strengths and cover or avoid those things most
difficult.”
In other words,
a good chunk of the “neurotypical” population has sensory processing issues!!
Excerpted from Yoga Bliss, How Sensory
Input in Yoga Calms and Organizes the Nervous System.
www.sharonheller.net.
Email:info@sharonheller.net.
