In the 1980s, American psychologist Howard Gardner conducted behavioral research to conclude there are multiple intelligences and that all humans process information in different ways. 

Often our educational institutions and workplaces will favor those related to cerebral (ie. Logical-mathematical, linguistic) and emotional (interpersonal, intrapersonal) processing, where emphasis in skill-based learning have developed. Fast forward to the 2000s and beyond with the advancement of fMRI technology and budding field of embodied cognition diving us deeper into the actual scope of how our ‘distributed brain’ plays a causal role in shaping who we are, how we process external stimuli, and how we can change. 

Our capacity to pick up on external stimuli is a lot stronger than that of internal stimuli (known as interoception) — and in an increasingly “loud” external world of excess stimuli, there’s greater need to turn the dial up on our somatic fluency if we want to hear our embodied responses. In the same way seeing anatomical maps on the walls of doctor offices helps us understand our ‘parts”, or TCM meridian maps helps up grasp the interconnectedness of systems when healing, so can experiential maps of our 5 intelligences so we can better navigate how our embodied self is interacting with the world. 

With distinctions in varying levels of embodied intelligence, we can understand the things that get us physiologically (and mentally) “stuck” and how they continue to hold and shape us through a felt sense. Then can we use this new sense to release their hold on us, and get unstuck to flow forward.