Introduction

How well do you feel your body? And how comfortable do you feel in your body right now? When was the last time you asked yourself these questions?

It is even vital for you to be able to assess your own body, your movement options and sensory perceptions. It's not just about sensitivities, but about being with yourself and your body - mentally and physically. This increases your body awareness and connects you with yourself.

Why is body awareness important?

Your nervous system checks every situation: if you are safe, your body is safe too. Put simply, it only has one task: to ensure your survival. This is what all human processes are designed for. Being able to perceive and feel your own body means safety and predictability. And that is your brain's top priority.

How does body awareness develop?

Person does exercise to increase body awareness
Different complex systems interact so that you can perceive your body. Your body receives information and sends it to the brain. There, all incoming information is processed and interpreted as input. After integration, a decision is made on what to do and a corresponding reaction is generated in the form of motor output.

For example, when you hear a loud bark, you take in the information via your ears, your brain processes and interprets the input and, depending on your personal interpretation, you freeze, you look forward to seeing your dog or you stand still in irritation. If you are afraid of dogs, you are more likely to stand still or freeze. You may also have had a bad experience with a dog. If you own a dog yourself, you might even stop and bend down towards the barking dog. The processing and interpretation is always individual and depends on your previous experiences.

What happens during body awareness?

In order for your brain to perceive your body, it needs information. It can receive this input in different ways. There are three possibilities:

Interoception
We can consciously perceive physical sensations and feelings, for example our heartbeat and heart rate or our breathing. In addition, certain visceral organs can send stimuli, which we then recognize as hunger or thirst. This internal perception information is called interoception. This also includes thermoregulation, i.e. our sensation of heat or cold, as well as our own body perception.

Exteroception
We can react to our environment. Sensory perceptions help us to take in information from outside. These include

• See
• Smell
• Listen
• Taste
• Feel
• Proprioception

In order for the body to interact in and with the environment, it needs orientation in space. Proprioception is responsible for this. Here, the brain processes information about where the body and the individual limbs, i.e. legs, arms and torso, are located. Without this information, we cannot move. Different receptors supply the data to the brain and then send movement commands to the body via nerve pathways. In proprioception, a distinction is made between surface sensitivity and deep sensitivity. The receptors in the skin are the connection to the outside world. Mechanoreceptors react, as the name suggests, to mechanical stimuli, for example different intensities of pressure. Other sensors react to vibration, chemoreceptors to chemical stimuli, thermoreceptors to temperature and so on.

Feeling and perceiving your own body means nothing more than processing the information you receive. To do this, you should take in lots of different information.

What happens if there is a lack of body awareness?

A lack of or limited body awareness can have profound effects on our physical and mental well-being. If your brain receives too little or incorrect information about your own body, it cannot make precise decisions - this leads to insecurity, instability and often also to incorrect posture or pain.

A lack of body awareness can mean that you no longer perceive signals such as tension, exhaustion or even hunger and thirst in good time or only to a lesser extent. As a result, your nervous system remains in a permanent state of alert or switches to compensatory protective mechanisms, which can lead to muscular imbalances, movement blockages or chronic stress in the long term.

In addition, without clear feedback, the body lacks orientation and control - movements become less precise and the risk of injury increases. Emotional reactions such as anxiety, restlessness or a feeling of alienation from your own body can also increase.

One example would be one-sided strain or overload. The body then reacts with various protective mechanisms. These are usually tension build-up and pain.

Can you improve your body awareness?

Yes, you can specifically improve your body awareness. Your brain is constantly rebuilding itself every day. The more information is processed and the more varied and new it is, the stronger the connections between the individual areas of the brain become.

You can make use of this in your training. It's about consciously perceiving the incoming information and trying new things. No matter what exercise or sport you do, whether yoga, Pilates, functional training, strength training, running, golf or whatever, simply pay attention to the following points to improve your body awareness:

• Do the exercise slowly and with concentration.
• Carry out the exercise in a comfortable environment.
• Breathe in evenly through your nose and out through your nose
• Be aware of your breathing.
• Don't move into the pain or discomfort.
• Find your comfortable pace for every movement
• Games with different step positions
• Vary your eye position during the movement
• Discover different head positions during the movement.
• Feel into your body and notice how it feels.

What can you implement directly?

Get started right away. For a super easy start, we at AIMO have created different training categories to help you improve your body awareness. Our goal is for you to feel better with AIMO and the scan-based workouts so that you can and want to move better and more.

Find out which form of body awareness is good for you and choose from the categories:

• 2-minute routine
• Everyday life
• Mindfulness
• Running
• Strength & Mobility
• Sweat

It's never too late for exercise and body awareness. Start with AIMO today.