How does our body do things without us thinking about it consciously? Examples: Breathing, Blinking, replying when not paying attention.
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We have a nervous system, which controls our nerves, which are the “control cables” for our brain to control the body. However, our nervous system is actually two pieces: the autonomic (~automatic) and somatic (conscious) nervous systems.
When you’re purposefully doing things, you’re using the somatic nervous system. When you think to raise your arm and your arm raises, that’s because the brain sent signals through those nerves to trigger movement in the muscles around your arm.
In the same way that you think your arm into motion, the autonomic nervous system thinks the rest of the body into working. It’s thinking “breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, blink, swallow, breath out, etc., etc.” It can be overridden if you consciously choose to do it (like holding your breath, or trying to win a staring contest), but it will almost always default back to autonomic function once you’ve stopped paying attention.
And this post just made everyone who read it briefly aware of their breathing and blinking, too.
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