The Neuroscience of Being Human and How Open Floor Practice Can Help!
We are human animals. As humans we are mammals. We have body hair, suckle our young, are warm-blooded, vertebrates, and have large cerebral brain hemispheres. Being humans, we have expanded prefrontal cortexes which increase our cognitive functioning.
Our complex nervous systems are a superhighway between our feet to our brains, and dictate and coordinate all our bodily actions. Our neurons send signals faster than the speed of light, approximately 2 million miles an hour and fire about 50 times every second!
The function of our brains is to process information, our brains store, represent, operate upon, and communicate. Our brains take up about 20-25% of our energy input, but only account for 2% of our body weight. (It is why if someone has suffered a concussion or brain injury fatigue results and high amounts of rest are needed to heal.) “The human cerebral cortex adds about 70% of its final DNA content after birth” says Dr. Schore from UCLA. Our social environments and learning impact the development of our brains.
Humans have the longest childhoods of any mammals. Our current species, homo sapiens, has existed for about 200,000 years. (Fun fact for all you blue-eyed friends, blue eyes were a mutation that first showed up about 5,000 years ago in the area that is now known as Denmark.) When we are born, we are completely reliant on caregivers for our survival. Relationships and belonging are an integral part of being human. According to Louis Cozolino, “Relationships are our natural habitats.”
Our nervous systems have an automatic adaptive stress response system that is designed to keep us alive. It is where our flock/flight/fight/freeze/faint response comes from. The opposite is our social engagement system where we can be present, calm, and feel safe. If we are withdrawn or aggressive, we are not in our social engagement system. As humans, we’re hardwired to orientate towards the negative, it is a survival mechanism.
Open Floor International practice allows us to learn how to be in our bodies and in relationships well. Open Floor International teaches principles that are core to being human. Open Floor International practice increases attunement with self and others, awareness, neural pathways, thought/emotion circuits, mindfulness, and empathy. It provides a safe container to work with our nervous systems and those of others. It encourages shifting out of our stress response system and into our social engagement system. It creates opportunity for challenge and comfort, both of which are needed for human growth.
Intrigued? Ready to give Open Floor a try? Come join Open Floor International Teacher-in-Training, Cori Hildebrandt, MA, LPC WI, LPCC MN for a 3-Part Open Floor Series starting October 8th, 2023. Come join us and workout your system from the top of your brain to the bottoms of your feet!
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OF: Embodied Brain Video with Caitriona Nic Ghiollaphadraig
When the Past is Present by David Richo
