"Movement is inextricably controlled on the basis of ‘feedback’ from our bodies and brains, and movement control is guided very directly by the cognitive resources that guide all of our behaviors. They are weaker or stronger, enabled or disabled TOGETHER. Neurological processes that control the flow of cognition and thought are not really different from those that control the flow of movement — and in fact are complexly, inextricably inter-twined!"
- Dr. Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus UCSF, pioneering researcher in brain plasticity
author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life
9 Reasons Why Your Brain (and You!) Improves Through Refining Your Movement*
Before examining why refining movement is the method of choice for performance improvement, let us first look at the components of the waking state.
There are four components that make up the waking state. In every action that we take, all four components exist to a certain degree. Those components are:
1. Thinking – This includes all functions of our intellect. Included in this is knowing good from bad, right from left, understanding, the recognition of rules, knowing what is sensed and felt, remembering, etc.
2. Emoting (showing emotion) – Not only does these include the familiar emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and so on, but also included are self respect, inferiority, and other conscious and unconscious emotions that are a part of our lives.
3. Feeling – Included here are not only the 5 senses, but also proprioception, or our kinesthetic sense. This component also includes pain, our orientation in space, the passage of time, and rhythm.
4. Movement – This includes all changes in the state and configuration of the body and its parts such as breathing, eating, speaking, blood circulation, and digestion.
Why then, when given a choice of working with the above components, do we choose to refine and differentiate our movement to affect performance?
1. The nervous system is occupied mainly with movement
Movement occupies the nervous system more than anything else because we cannot sense, feel, or think without a multi-faceted series of actions initiated by the brain to maintain the body against the pull of gravity. In order to know our position in the field of gravity, we must make use of our senses, our feeling, and our power of thought.
2. It is easier to distinguish the quality of movement
The advantage of approaching the unity of mental and muscular life through movement is rooted in the fact that the muscle expression is simpler because it is concrete and relatively easier to observe. It is also incomparably easier to make a person aware of what is happening in their body, therefore approaching it through movement yields faster and more direct results.
3. We have a richer experience of movement
We all have more experience of movement, and more capacity for it, than of feeling and thought.
4. The ability to move is important to self-value
A person’s physical ability to move is probably more important to his self-image than anything else. If you were to watch a child who has found some imperfection in himself or his appearance that seems to make him different from the other children, it would easily convince you that this discovery will affect his behavior considerably.
5. All muscular activity is movement
Every action that we take originates in muscular activity. Speaking, seeing, and hearing all require muscular action. When we refer to muscular movement, we are in fact, referring to the impulses of the nervous system that activate the muscles, which cannot function without impulses to direct them.
6. Movements reflect the state of the nervous system
Everything that we do is a result of an unending series of impulses from the nervous system. Because of this, the muscular pattern of our upright posture, facial expressions and the voice reflect the condition of the nervous system. It is obvious then, that the position, expression, or voice cannot be changed without a change in the nervous system that mobilizes those outward and visible changes.
7. Movement is the basis of awareness
Most of what goes on within us remains dulled and hidden from us until it reaches the muscles. We realize what is happening within us as soon as the muscles of our face, heart, or breathing apparatus organize themselves into patterns. We know these patterns as sadness, fear, happiness, anxiety, or any other feeling that we’ve experienced in the past.
8. Breathing is movement
Our breathing reflects every physical or emotional effort and every disturbance within us. It is also sensitive to the vegetative processes of our nervous system. For example, disturbances of the thyroid gland cause a special kind of breathing that serves to diagnose the disease. A strong and sudden stimulus will also cause a halt in breathing. From our own experience, we are all aware of how closely breathing is linked with every change of feeling or anticipation of a strong emotion within us.
9. Hinges of habit
As we stated earlier, all human behavior is a complex of mobilized muscles, sensing, thought, and feeling. Because the part played by the muscles is so large, any fundamental change in the movement patterns within any single pattern of integration will break up the cohesion of the whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anything to anchor to in the patterns of the established routines. In this condition, it is much easier to effect changes in thinking and feeling, as habit has lost its chief support, that of the muscles.
* This article summarizes Dr. Feldenkrais position as to why we approach overall improvement of the human organism through movement.
Before examining why refining movement is the method of choice for performance improvement, let us first look at the components of the waking state.
There are four components that make up the waking state. In every action that we take, all four components exist to a certain degree. Those components are:
1. Thinking – This includes all functions of our intellect. Included in this is knowing good from bad, right from left, understanding, the recognition of rules, knowing what is sensed and felt, remembering, etc.
2. Emoting (showing emotion) – Not only does these include the familiar emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and so on, but also included are self respect, inferiority, and other conscious and unconscious emotions that are a part of our lives.
3. Feeling – Included here are not only the 5 senses, but also proprioception, or our kinesthetic sense. This component also includes pain, our orientation in space, the passage of time, and rhythm.
4. Movement – This includes all changes in the state and configuration of the body and its parts such as breathing, eating, speaking, blood circulation, and digestion.
Why then, when given a choice of working with the above components, do we choose to refine and differentiate our movement to affect performance?
1. The nervous system is occupied mainly with movement
Movement occupies the nervous system more than anything else because we cannot sense, feel, or think without a multi-faceted series of actions initiated by the brain to maintain the body against the pull of gravity. In order to know our position in the field of gravity, we must make use of our senses, our feeling, and our power of thought.
2. It is easier to distinguish the quality of movement
The advantage of approaching the unity of mental and muscular life through movement is rooted in the fact that the muscle expression is simpler because it is concrete and relatively easier to observe. It is also incomparably easier to make a person aware of what is happening in their body, therefore approaching it through movement yields faster and more direct results.
3. We have a richer experience of movement
We all have more experience of movement, and more capacity for it, than of feeling and thought.
4. The ability to move is important to self-value
A person’s physical ability to move is probably more important to his self-image than anything else. If you were to watch a child who has found some imperfection in himself or his appearance that seems to make him different from the other children, it would easily convince you that this discovery will affect his behavior considerably.
5. All muscular activity is movement
Every action that we take originates in muscular activity. Speaking, seeing, and hearing all require muscular action. When we refer to muscular movement, we are in fact, referring to the impulses of the nervous system that activate the muscles, which cannot function without impulses to direct them.
6. Movements reflect the state of the nervous system
Everything that we do is a result of an unending series of impulses from the nervous system. Because of this, the muscular pattern of our upright posture, facial expressions and the voice reflect the condition of the nervous system. It is obvious then, that the position, expression, or voice cannot be changed without a change in the nervous system that mobilizes those outward and visible changes.
7. Movement is the basis of awareness
Most of what goes on within us remains dulled and hidden from us until it reaches the muscles. We realize what is happening within us as soon as the muscles of our face, heart, or breathing apparatus organize themselves into patterns. We know these patterns as sadness, fear, happiness, anxiety, or any other feeling that we’ve experienced in the past.
8. Breathing is movement
Our breathing reflects every physical or emotional effort and every disturbance within us. It is also sensitive to the vegetative processes of our nervous system. For example, disturbances of the thyroid gland cause a special kind of breathing that serves to diagnose the disease. A strong and sudden stimulus will also cause a halt in breathing. From our own experience, we are all aware of how closely breathing is linked with every change of feeling or anticipation of a strong emotion within us.
9. Hinges of habit
As we stated earlier, all human behavior is a complex of mobilized muscles, sensing, thought, and feeling. Because the part played by the muscles is so large, any fundamental change in the movement patterns within any single pattern of integration will break up the cohesion of the whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anything to anchor to in the patterns of the established routines. In this condition, it is much easier to effect changes in thinking and feeling, as habit has lost its chief support, that of the muscles.
* This article summarizes Dr. Feldenkrais position as to why we approach overall improvement of the human organism through movement.
