Rewire your Brain by Moving
Empirical science is always around the corner. Researchers have looked at how the brain reorganizes itself and what new complexities remain after time. Now you know why you never forget how to ride a bike.
Movement specialists know that movement patterns become embodied. That’s why some skills become so engrained we can hardly remember not knowing how to, say, drive a car while talking, chewing gum and fixing your hair in the mirror. (kids - don’t try this at home!)
Somatic Psychotherapists and yogis use this feature of the brain (is there more?) to work through and with emotions, psychology, and spiritual development through the body.
From an integral point of view, I am also interested in where this research will take us into understanding the link between who I am (values, beliefs and worldviews) and how I move (in this case, with motor patterns).
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Share Alex Iglecia
December 11th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Thanks for posting, Alex! One of the questions that's come up for me since I've started exploring embodiment is: If you can't move (quadriplegics), what happens to who you are? Are there still "openings" in the body to develop yourself?
December 18th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
That's a big sticking point I keep running into when thinking about transformative practices. Thanks for asking it! One big question I work with is: what is the relationship between how I move and who I am, in all possiblie meanings?
Movement, then, can be done physically, emotionally, or more subtly. Someone who can do little but shift awareness and attention (and that is still saying quite a lot!) as well as modify the quality of that awareness, can indeed create openings in the body. The question then is what is an opening in the body? Openings go beyond just joint openings and might be observed as a release of tension, an increase of suppleness, or a dissolving of a trigger point.
The opposite is true as well - massage, heat and other forms of releasing tension physiologically can affect the development of our consciousness. They go together.