Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning

InTouch on the Brain – ‘Reactions to Stress’

Posted on October 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Left Hemisphere Reactions

distancing, moral superiority, logic, sarcasm, denying, educating, judgments, blame, comparison, addictions, compulsions, mild derogatory self-talk, withholding privileges or resources, letting go of agreements, fantasizing about other partners, other lives, rigidity

Right Hemisphere Reactions

fight or flight

gossip, criticism of others behind their back, clinging, retelling our story, mild confusion, medium levels of derogatory self-talk, verbal attacks, asking for reassurance, chaos

freeze

shock, paralyzed

Find out more on how integrating the arts of movement, communication and space compliment your experience and encompasses a holistic approach to wellness.

‘Empathy and our Brain’

Posted on October 28, 2010 | 2 comments

by Renee Lindstrom, founder, Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning

Empathy can transform reactions at the core conception that forms a cognitive perspective. An example of a shift is a change in feelings of shame, anxiety, or irritation into feelings of understanding, patience and regret.

Responses to outside stimulus are based upon left- brain or right-brain dominance

When the brain is triggered beyond windows of tolerance, the response is fight, flight and freeze

Some of the physical, mental and emotional experiences when going beyond our windows of tolerance could be:

discomfort, distraction, confusion

Some cognitive reactions when we’ve gone beyond our limits of tolerance could be:

denying responsibility, advising, diagnosing, educating, making demands and moral judgments, blaming and comparing

Some short-term emotions could be:

anger, fear, yelling, violence, slamming doors, hanging up, leaving

Some long-term reactions:

overwhelmed, mortification, terror, dissociation, numbing, going into a trance, leaving your body, going deeply into confusion, being unable to feel your body, shame, not caring what happens to you

Read more on: Physical reactions and the reactions of the left and right hemispheres, to the stimulus of gossiping, sniping, criticizing, moral superiority and logic.

Cultivating effective empathic responses can be learned and experienced mentally, emotionally and physically

Ways of learning and integrating empathetic responses are:

Awareness through Communication
- Values & Empathy integration in communication transforms disconnection into connection
Awareness through Movement
- Learned posture responses mimic tolerance or lack of tolerance, translating into unconscious behaviours
Awareness through Environment
- Cultural patterns create habitual or, lack of tolerance behaviours
Awareness through Eating
- Brain, body, emotional and cognitive function response to food and drink consumed

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Copyright 2014 – 2026 Renee Lindstrom, GCFP

Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North

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Posted in Brain, Function

Tagged advising, Amygdala, Anger, being unable to feel your body, blame, Body & Brain Function, Brain, Brain Activity, comparison, confusion, demands, denying, diagnosing, discomfort, dissociation, distracting, diverting, Education, Empathy, Fear, Fight, Flight and freeze, Function, going deeply into confusion, going into a trance, hanging up, Hippocampus, judgments, leaving, leaving your body, mortification, not caring what happens to you, numbing, overwhelmed, Physical Reactions, Prefrontal Cortex, Reactions, shame, slamming doors, Social Engagement, Stress, terror, Tolerence, Violence, yelling

InTouch with the Brain – Right and Left Hemispheres

Posted on October 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

by Renee LIndstrom, Founder of Inside Awareness Center of Integrative Somatic Learning

Qualities of Left and Right Hemispheres

Universally accepted qualities of the right and left Brain Hemispheres

The theory of the mind’s function suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different “modes” of thinking. It also suggests that each of us prefers one mode over the other.

Left Hemisphere	Right Hemisphere
_{Awareness through Communication}	_{@insideawareness.com}
Logical	Visual
Linear	Attunement
Literal	Voice quality
Practical language	Eye gaze
Making sense	Touch and gesture
Social self	Circuits of attachment
Spoken/lived narrative	Integrated map of body
Detail monitoring	Effective experience
Analytic problem-solving	Experience of self
Fact accumulation	Beginning of regulation
Chalkboard of the mind	Empathetic resonance
Working memory	Implicit memory
Adding to regulation	I felt autobiographical narrative
Handling familiar	Intuition
moderate levels of stress	Morality
More defined neocortical columns	Metaphorical language
	Rapid processing of novelty
	Severe levels of stress
	Integrated neocortical columns

Have you read The Brains Way of Healing by Dr. Norman Doidge?

_{Listen to Dr. Doidge’s short introduction to the Brain’s plasticity. He shares the value of the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education in supporting shifting the brain’s behaviour for enhancing functional abilities, physically, mentally and emotionally.}

Find out more on how integrating the arts of movement, communication and space compliment your experience and encompasses a holistic approach to wellness.

Book a personalized Coaching session for self, work, group or create a retreat – 250-361-7508