How body-mind learning works
What does movement have to do with the brain and central nervous system? And how do body-mind learning methods access the connection between body and mind?
As human beings, our physical structure and skeleton are designed for easy, agile movement. But the way we move isn’t ‘hard-wired’ into us. At birth a human baby cannot move independently. Children take several years to discover a range of movement suited to their existence, including for example standing, walking, running, sitting.
As human beings, our brain and central nervous system are designed for lifelong learning. The ability to learn movement (or anything else) does not stop when we reach adulthood. We continue to learn new skills and new behaviours throughout our life. Each learned skill demands adaptation of our brain and central nervous system.
The brain and central nervous system are fundamental in determining how each of us moves. Any movement begins as an intention in our (conscious or subconscious) mind, which gets converted in the central nervous system into signals which create the movement by activating muscles. Human beings have some 650 skeletal muscles any of which can, in theory, be activated individually or in combination with others, giving us boundless possibilities in how we organize our self to move. During movement we perceive what we are doing through signals in our central nervous system: signals that tell us about the world around us (we see or touch things) and about our self (we can feel where we have moved a part of our self, relative to the other parts; we can feel our orientation to the pull of gravity; and we can feel how much work we are doing).
While growing up, we discover movement suited to the functions we need to perform in daily life, in the activities that we undertake. Those patterns of movement become habitual. We do not systematically explore all the possibilities that our skeleton and physical structure allow us. And as we reach adulthood—or possibly before—we tend to stop exploring altogether. This means that for most of us, a large part of our movement potential goes unused. Moreover, some of our habits may inhibit our freedom to move in other ways.
To access that unused potential and recover our freedom, we need to tap into the innate learning mechanisms that result from the ability of our brain and central nervous system to continue adapting throughout our life. We do that through frequently:
becoming aware of our self in detail and in general, over time improving the quality of our picture of our self
practicing unfamiliar movements slowly and mindfully so we can feel how those movements are formed inside our self.
This emphasis on self-knowledge and on breaking with routines is what distinguishes body-mind learning. It is a practice which enables us to (re-)educate our self in movement, reshape long-held habits, recover lost abilities, and develop new skills.
Whenever we practice the act of (re-)learning movement, we are exercising our brain’s ability to adapt. Keeping this ability active has effects beyond our ease of movement. We come to know we are able to create new possibilities for our self. This embodied knowledge makes us feel hopeful and capable, which in turn helps us be more present and mindful for our self and those around us.
How have you experienced the link between self-awareness, learning, and mindfulness? Please leave a comment.