Myelin - the key to emotions
Myelin is a material made from protein and fat in your body. If you have never heard of it, this article is for you. If you are an impulsive, emotional, stressed, or anxious teenager, or, frankly, adult, this is even more important for you. Let's dig in.
Your body orchestrates everything using its nervous system. Signals run back and forth from the body to the brain. Your body therefore has a network of nerves to ensure that it both knows what is going on in every inch of the body and can send commands on what to do.
In order to do this, your body has to send electrical signals, much like a computer. In fact, it even uses the same logic function of 0 and 1, with 0 meaning off and 1 meaning on. I will spare you the boring stuff about how this actually happens. For now, it is sufficient to say that myelin plays an important role. So what does this have to do with impulsiveness, stress, and anxiety?
A newly born child does not have a fully developed nervous system with myelin coating the nerves. In fact, it takes decades for your body to fully develop its nervous system. In the meantime, your body is unable to completely regulate its decisions.
Imagine your body being unable to send a 0 signal. Do not act this way, or do not do this. It meant to send a 0 but was unable to do it. You experience this as impulsiveness. The inability of the body to regulate its actions or emotions
What we call growing up or maturing involves the development of the myelin in your nerves. As you get older, your ability to regulate your actions and thoughts improves. It is called the plasticity of your nervous system, or the ability to regulate the manner in which it works.
In fact, the more I worked with people to help them change their lifestyle, the more I realized that stress and the inability to regulate their emotions was driving lifestyle choices, resulting in weight, poor sleep and disease. So much so that we had to offer a stress management solution.
Looking for a shortcut? Teach your child or yourself meditation. It regulates mylenation, or the development of your nervous system.
