Why Do I Need to Care About my Reflexes?

You have likely heard of reflexes before: dodging an object coming towards you or the test the doctor does when he hits your knee to see if it reacts. However, this is a very small window into what reflexes actually do for us.

Simply put, a reflex is “a conscious or unconscious behavior (output) occurring in response to a change (input).” 1 It is an automatic response to certain stimuli in the environment around us. As time passes, we are only discovering how reflexes affect us more and more. Through research we have found that there are certain reflexes that work with the muscle system within our body resulting in different movement patterns, and there are also reflexes that affect our organ, gland and vascular systems.

You are likely more familiar with reflexes that involve the muscles of our body like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this article. However, there are many more than this that are happening in your body throughout the day that you may not be aware of. Let’s give you just a couple of examples of when these types of reflexes are fully developed/integrated.

• When you lean forward and your toes try to grab the ground

• When you quickly get off an object that hurt to step on

• When a child goes from crawling to walking

• when you react to the uneven ground underneath you to keep yourself standing upright

Now let’s give you a couple examples of when some of these types of reflexes may not be integrated and need to be addressed. Although, if the ones mentioned above are not happening for you or your child those are also examples of nonintegrated reflexes.

• when you spy a child or adult walking on his/her toes

• when you a child is delayed in any of the developmental milestones (walking, crawling, talking, etc.)

• when you put too much pressure with your pen/pencil when writing or drawing

• when you are always leaning to one side while standing or constantly using your hand to hold your head up

• when there is more pressure in one foot (or part of one foot) than the other

Now for the types of reflexes you may not be as familiar with: the ones that are happening inside your body at all times. Here are some examples of when these reflexes are integrated:

• when you go to the bathroom and know to release when you get to the toilet

• when your blood vessels dilate when you begin a strenuous task to allow for more blood flow

• when you want to swallow when your tongue initially touches the top of your mouth (yes, you can try it)

• when you start to shiver because you are cold

If any of the above does not happen, then you know that those are not completely integrated. Here are a couple more examples of nonintegrated reflexes:

• when you do not have control of your bladder/experience bed wetting

• when you lack goals/motivation

As you can see, there are many instances of reflexes throughout our day - many of which we are not consciously aware of. All of these reflexes need to work together to get us smoothly through our day. All the reflexes going on in our body must work together. If one of them is not fully integrated, then the body will need to compensate. While the body is very good at doing that, this is not the ideal way to get through your day as you will start to notice negative side effects (back discomfort, tension in your shoulders, bloated after meals, etc.). Working on these reflexes - the neurological basis for almost everything we do - could help relieve some of these side effects. Now that you see how vital reflexes are in our day to day life - make sure you are getting through your day as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Use the Masgutova Method to see just how solid your foundation is and could be.

Resources:

1. www.masgutovamethod.com