Why did we develop brains? A small ocean creature provides a clue.
The lowly sea squirt begins its life with a rudimentary brain. It swims around until it finds a suitable rock to call home. Once the sea squirt attaches to its rock, it digests its rudimentary brain.
Brains require a lot of energy. When the sea squirt is on the move, it needs a brain. Once it affixes itself to a rock, the sea squirt has accomplished its one necessary strategic movement. Having a brain is no longer worth the effort.
Brains developed to help us move strategically, not to help us think lofty thoughts.1
For homo sapiens, the relationship of movement to cognitive health isn’t simply a matter of improved blood flow to the brain. When we engage in movement, our brains add capacity. And when we are sedentary, our brain capacity is reduced.2 Like the sea squirt.
Our thoughts usually tell us that brains developed to help us think. Thoughts are like that. They seek to capture all our attention and convince us of their great importance. But thinking is secondary to moving. According to the neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas, “that which we call thinking is the evolutionary internalisation of movement.”
When we remember, we are moving backward with our thoughts. When we imagine the future, we are moving forward. The difference between thinking and moving is that moving necessarily takes place in the world whereas thinking can remain stuck in our minds.
Out of My Mind—In a Good Way
When I spend less time focusing on my thoughts and more time focusing on how I feel in my body, I make better decisions. My thoughts can confuse me. The signals I receive from my body have greater clarity.
This isn’t to say that the messages I receive from my body are infallible. My thoughts and my body’s signals are both subject to error. I find it helpful to use them as a check and balance for one another. But for much of my life, I was over-reliant on my thoughts.
It’s a bit ironic, but as my body ages, I’m working to correct this. My body and thoughts working together are a much better tool for decision-making than my thoughts alone.
And it’s not just decision-making. The word emotion is related to the word motion.3 The Latin word for breath, spiritus, is at the root of the word spirituality. How I breathe and how my body moves have a direct relationship to my mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Move
The exercise regimes I have immersed myself in most deeply, yoga and pilates, synchronize movement with breathing. In earlier stages of my practice of yoga and pilates, my thoughts guide my breathing. As I advance, my movements follow my breath.
Hunter-gatherers probably didn’t spend a lot of time doing yoga. Their lifestyle was naturally connected to movement. As they moved, they paid careful attention to the terrain. Their lives depended on it. Movement and thought were closely aligned.
Evolutionarily speaking, we are probably pretty close to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. But our lifestyles are very different. For many people, “work” involves more sitting than moving.
My father used to say that the brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. And there is certainly some truth to that statement. But it’s also true that many of us need to make up for the mismatch between our culture and our biology. We need to move our bodies.
I make time in my week for exercise because if I didn’t I wouldn’t move nearly enough. And for me, movement is necessary. It’s necessary for my physical health. It improves my mental health. And movement lies at the foundation of my cognitive health as well. As Rodolfo Llinas tells us, “I move, therefore I think.”4
Remember the sea squirt.
A quick “thank you!” to everyone who has read my book, Where Are You? A Beginner’s Guide to Advanced Spirituality. The more people that read a book, the more the ideas spread. And as I wrote about above, thoughts without movement quickly disappear. And I’d love for my book to do some good before it disappears.
If you’re interested in reading more about the ideas in this post, and the science behind them, I recommend Caroline Williams’ book Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free. She has an entertaining writing style which makes the book an easy read.
Caroline Williams, Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free
D.A. Raichlen and G.E. Alexander, Adaptive Capacity: an evolutionary neuroscience model linking exercise, cognition and brain health
The etymology of emotion from Merriam-Webster: Middle French, from emouvoir to stir up, from Old French esmovoir, from Latin emovēre to remove, displace, from e- + movēre to move
Rodolfo Llinas, I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self
This is very accurately put, Dan. I really like this paragraph here: "My father used to say that the brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. And there is certainly some truth to that statement. But it’s also true that many of us need to make up for the mismatch between our culture and our biology. We need to move our bodies. " I agree with this. I do wish there are a revamping of the way people commute and go about their day as well. Your father was a wise man, Dan, don't you think?