One of the benefits seen resulting from mindfulness practice is being better attuned to what your body is “telling” you.

(See my other blog post, Nine Ways That a Meditating Brain Creates Better Relationships.)

Here’s a great article from Scientific American about the gut, emotions, and accessing more of what you already know.

The emerging and surprising view of how the enteric nervous system in our bellies goes far beyond just processing the food we eat
By Adam Hadhazy

As Olympians go for the gold in Vancouver, even the steeliest are likely to experience that familiar feeling of “butterflies” in the stomach. Underlying this sensation is an often-overlooked network of neurons lining our guts that is so extensive some scientists have nicknamed it our “second brain”.

A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body. [click to continue…]

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