Hello friend, 

In the book “The Body Has A Mind of Its Own - How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better,” Sandra Blakeslee & Matthew Blakeslee discuss the role of brain maps - what they are, how experience creates plasticity of the brain, and how things can go wrong when the maps are inaccurate. This is the basis of Body Mapping. 

Google maps is similar in that it shows points on a map - you and your destination. These maps must be updated in order to avoid navigation disasters. (Any true crime fans out there?)

You are no different. More complex perhaps, but a similar concept. In the 1930’s, Dr. Wilder Penfield cataloged a map of the brain that he nicknamed the “homunculus” - the first ever map-like representation of the body in the brain. This map represents the brain real estate dedicated to the various parts of the body. Years later, we know there are maps all over our brains for numerous different things. And these maps are changeable, or have plasticity, so the amount of real estate dedicated to each part of me can increase, decrease, and otherwise change.

Body Mapping is the process of increasing sensory information to the brain in order to update your brain maps to more accurately reflect the reality of your body. When my brain has an accurate sense of itself, it has a better sense of how it relates to the external environment. This is key for your unconscious brain to determine if it is most appropriate to be in a sympathetic or parasympathetic state. 

Furthermore, body mapping in the context of movement allows one's movement patterns to adapt. Then if I have a sympathetic reflex in, for example, my elbow, movement of my elbow does not have to be something that triggers my fight-or-flight reflex. There are plenty of things to trigger this reflex. Reaching for my favorite coffee mug doesn’t need to be of them.

Body Mapping is our way of consciously tapping into the unconscious brain and thus influencing the state of my nervous system. 

Onwards, Amy

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