A paradox: our culture is rabidly preoccupied with physical form, and we bully our forms mercilessly so they’ll conform to truly weird standards…and yet we don’t respect or even have much understanding of the central role our bodies play in shaping our basic experience of life. Here are five empowering insights into how our bodies fundamentally shape our lives; use them to literally be happier, and to help your children thrive in an era in which our disrespect for the life of the body may be putting them at great risk.

1. The body is the first to know — The first three facts here were inspired by a fascinating RadioLab episode entitled “Where Am I?” featuring famed neurologists Robert Sapolsky and Antonio Damasio. For sake of dramatic illustration they use the example of walking into a friend’s house and finding him…dead. Many nanoseconds before your brain registers what’s happening and you experience feelings (terror, disbelief, sadness, etc.), your body (with the help of your most primitive, reptilian brain structures) reads the situation and undergoes instantaneous physiological changes: heartbeat and respiration quicken, pupils and capillaries dilate, blood pressure goes up. This produces instant sensations. The brain responds to those sensations with corresponding feelings. {Read more at mothering.com}