Movement

1. Redefine Movement as “Life”
2. Use Movement as an Innate Intelligence
3. Use Movement to Teach Intentions and Actions

1. Redefine Movement as “Life”

In most physical education or muscle related classes there is a right and a wrong way of doing a movement. The biggest difference to WTM movement is we don’t want to make the body do the something it doesn’t want to do. Let me explain. Movement is used as a tool to gain insight on the synthesis of mind-body integration. The intention of WTM movement is to integrate all levels of the mind, body, and soul. Through attention and physical sensation, movement helps reveal how body parts and the patterns of consciousness work in relation to each other.

Why is this important? The benefits: WTM movement, SB awareness, helps sustain physical and mental benefits. An internal instinct starts to develop and guides the individual with better choices. Choice include ways towards relaxation, rejuvenation, improved blood flow, and increased vitality.

Because WTM movement works with the synthesis of mind-body, awareness helps release deeper, bottled-up energy, tensions, and stress related in muscles connected with behavior.

(Another suggestion is to look at the Cognitive Disorder page to understand “movement” from a WTM perspective.)

2. Movement as an Innate Intelligence

Movement is often referred to as an “exercise,” an activity that helps release tension, build strength, or relieve emotional stress. In this context, movement is also a teacher. It acts as a mother ship that births the offspring of reaction, attitude, and how the senses work with circumstances. Movement is the power that condenses to create the form of matter. The principles of movement are pleasure, desire, grief, and fear. These “principles” become visible, and within the framework of this wisdom it journeys the psyche into daily life. “Wisdom” is the synthesis of motion organizing to become perception. And the SB, a hidden yet yearning to be know, can feel this “synthesis.” Adapt the SB to movement lessons, and what is division becomes unity, what is disturbance becomes stability, and what is upheaval becomes rest. Adapting the SB to life is the goal of WTM.

Begin to learn the SB

a. Use movement without stretching. Flexibility increases instead by sensing the integrative qualities of physical tendencies become reactions related to thoughts and attitudes. Muscles release when the sense of the SB comes into awareness. When children experience their SB, the consistency, efficiencies of motor patterns changes. Alignment changes which influences emotions.

Even perception of the self begins with sensations. The compression of sensations establishes motor patterns, trying to provide a clear understanding of one’s inner world and how to process a given situation. (To understand more, see the section in the book, A New Sensory Self Awareness, “Notes and Background.”)

b. There is no wrong movement or behavior. Movements are not demonstrated. Lack of attention or comprehension of a direction is part of the lesson. It is the participant’s interpretation, revealed in their movements, that lends key insights into cognitive functioning.

The ability or lack of ability to lie still provides insights into how to guide the next direction. Misinterpretations of the directions reveal motor patterns that interfere with healthy cognitive functioning. (More is explained on the Scientist page and in the book, A New Sensory Self Perception) Movements are designed to be pointers, not exercises or stretches. The SB will take the necessary steps to improve the systems.

c. Experience awareness of how muscle suspension forms perception. Behavior is an action learned from a pattern of internal processes related to a circumstance. From physical sensations, the muscles develop a shape. They form a type of three-dimensional consciousness of behavior from behavior. This doesn’t sound very easy, but children seem to grasp it. The veil to the SB is not closed in children, and they can feel it. The veil is also hidden once cognition is fully developed. If taught, especially between the ages of five to eight years old, children can feel the conversations or stories of their bodies.

The important thing to remember is that children need to learn in fun ways. (Here’s an example of how: “Get Sensational Attention”) Once they feel the SB, a three-dimensional sensation of an attitude, the posture of “stories” changes. The physicalness gives them a tangible way to sense of their “internal processes.” The “story” is a physical pointer they can use to respond to the question, “How are you?”

d. Movement directions intend to develop awareness of the body to the mind, not to do the exact direction. Perception, attention, and interpretation of a direction are translated through physical actions. Their actions explain what they heard in the direction? If their bodies are unable to follow the direction, they will be confused and unable to do even the simplest movement. It is their bodies that can’t listen. For example, in the yoga posture “downward facing dog,” you can help them feel what they are doing instead of correcting their posture or position. The mimic direction hooks up the body to the brain. It tells the brain, “Hey, here I am. I am already doing the directions!” Then you can change the direction back to your lesson plan.

By the way, have you gotten up from your computer and touched your toes lately?

Put your finger tips under your toes and feel the connection of your hands, through your body to your toes.

e. Adapting the SB to Your Movement Class

To understand how to adapt the SB into your movement lesson, review the Five Levels of SB Awareness on the Scientist page. It is located in the dropdown under the title “Give Me Tips for Research.” Reviewing this section is designed to encourage you to take what you need and leave the rest, making the adaptation process your own.

We covered some of this above, however, this is an example for yoga teachers how to integrate the SB with yoga postures.

Mirroring what is done by participants versus what you want them to do. For example: In the posture, downward facing dog, the participant’s heels may be up off the ground, or their lower backs round and tails tucked. Your directions would then change to, “Lift your heels off the ground in the position, then back to neutral.” The next direction may be, “Round your back and go back to neutral, or tuck your tail then relax.”The intention is to let the participants feel what they are doing. Feeling the sensation of what is done in the body can reeducate the motor patterns. Look at the italic words, and wonder how the movement would clarify body awareness and reeducate patterns.

3. Use Movement to Teach Intentions and Actions

Recommended: When first teaching the SB, teach them about the intelligence of sensations in muscles. (See Muscle-Testing lesson, p. 34.)
*For people nine years of age or older.

a. We don’t use modeling to give a movement direction. We hardly ever say, “Watch me.” With WTM, within the SB, give a direction without modeling, and the movement becomes an opportunity for the children to sense their natural inclinations and be guided by their SB – and the teacher to observe.*

b. Direct attention to where a movement begins, how it travels through the body, and where it ends.

c.*Always put your breathing in the foreground during a movement

d. Witness the body through sensations to the character of the self in that moment.

e. *Do less. Make all movements easy, comfortable, and small. If the movement doesn’t feel good, do one-tenth of the movement. If you can’t do the movement, don’t interfere with how the body wants to do it. Sense the differences. Be patience. Your greatest virtue is learning the SB.

f. Notice at least two parts moving in the body at the same time. Sense how they move in relationship with each other.

g. Using Movement Directions to Integrate Thinking with Feeling
In the “Fish Roll” lesson (WTM Part II), children were directed to roll to cones that were spaced on the ground, with their feet and hands latched. However, children’s bodies rolled in different directions then towards the cones. Without correcting the movement, children were asked to notice where they were on the mat.

Then body parts were brought into attention. To teach through movement we latched feet and hands to integrate motion from limbs into the spine. There is no wrong movement. Use movement as a playful way for participants to feel the differences between how their bodies are moving compared to what they intended. (See Part I of WTM).

Children’s perceptions of a movement instruction and how they interpret the direction is insightful. The experience of their actions shows what is in and out of awareness.

For example, in the Fish Roll lesson we ask children to roll with feet together and hands clasped.

Analyze the details in the quality of their rolling:
- Their torsos and the spiral movement through the spine
- Where their eyes look
- Whether their heads are lifted or stay on the ground
Whether their feet stay together.

All these types of looking at movement are designed to give you insight into how they interpret the directions. How are their minds working with their bodies? And how are their bodies working with their minds?

1. Start with the most challenging movement
Teach through sensation. One method is to assist participants in comparing their body’s sense of organization from the lesson’s beginning to its end. (See Pancake Body lesson) Another way is to use movements sequences that go from simple to more complex. Movement sequences used related to the stages of developmental movements (See Part II of WTM. Caution: these lessons were not do to achieve the movement.

In Part I we introduce body ownership, which is the sense of one’s own body. One effective approach is to use the two halves of the nervous system. This involves comparing the sensation of one half of the body to the other. Or use movement to help sense the comparison of size, structure, and location of body parts.

Areas of Focus to Build a Lesson

-Timing and spatial relationship in movement
-Design of the skeletal system to muscular suspension
-Physics (weight, balance, and action) as a muscular-skeletal system to behavior

One way to develop a lesson is to think about what movements are possible according to the skeleton. Then compare those movement to the motor patterns inhibiting its natural order. ( Here are lessons that help in the book, “Body Bubbles,”(p. 52); “Over, Under, Around” (p. 62); “Hokey Pokey Body Bubbles”(p.54), Hula Relay Personal Bubbles (p. 58), Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance (p.42), and Dancin Hula Hoops, (p. 56). Also see the lesson Gecko Relay in Part II)

2. Sense spatial awareness outside of the body to sense inside the body
Through movement and external spatial organization, narrow participants’ sense of space around the body. Place obstacles in the space to allow participants to refine their movements. As space is narrowed down, the boundary of the physical body becomes more apparent. See the design movement to go from outside to inside the body. (See twelve examples of lessons in the book. Specifically look at the section, “Lesson Sequences” section to incorporate all the tips given on this site. If you want to begin with a few lessons, start with the Big Tiny Bubbles, p.48, Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance, p. 42.)

3. Help participants notice how movement travels through the body
To sense how the travel of motion begins and end in the body. For example, stretch the back and feel if the movement begins in the ribcage or maybe the abdomen. As attention follows the sensation of motion to clarify where parts of the body change the feeling in the spine. Again, there are nine lessons that teach internal-external spatial awareness and dual attention in the book: Part I, A New SENSORY Self Awareness.

4. Compare your movement sequence in a lesson to the stages of developmental movements
There is an innate intelligence in the stages of movement development. Similarly, all WTM lessons utilize movement to teach from the inside out and the outside in. We play with movement to trigger sensations. However, this doesn’t mean to make the children achieve a developmental movement. “Copying” a movement is learning from “out there,” the head. Help their bodies find their way, just as they do with primal reflexes and developmental movements. Primal and developmental movements are designed to help the body learn how to organize its body parts. Do the same, but bring awareness to this hidden intelligence.

To begin understanding movement as a teacher, refer to the Gecko Relay lesson. Look at the sequence of steps in the lesson. The movement is designed to instigate possibilities from the toes into a belly crawl. The floor is used to sense a three-point pressure from the foot, knee, and hand into a climb. (Part II lessons are foundational to “movement as a teacher.” Refer specifically to the lessons Fish Roll, Gecko Relay, and Gecko Climb in Part II.)

The Feldenkrais® Method and Scientist page on this site has more information on movement organization.

5. Use the feeling of movement sensations to build memory and the guidance of the SB
To develop the SB, you have to retrieve it through sensation. As mentioned earlier, we use a specific technique to help participants learn the SB. One way to assist participants in finding their SB is to help them remember the last lesson. Have them assume the position of the previous lesson without telling them what the position is. This recall, achieved by listening through the body, begins to develop awareness of the SB.

Or ask the children to get in the position of the last movement they can remember. Then ask, “What was the next movement we did? Does your body remember?” The body’s position helps trigger memory. The “memory” comes from physical sensations, not a cognitive recall.

The sequence of movements in the lesson also gets triggered from body sensation. All movements in the lesson aim to expand awareness of body part positions. They also focus on how these parts work in relationship to each other.

6. Do the same movement into different positions
Shifting the gravitational fields through the body enhances the ability to perceive finer details of the sensory feedback. For instance, a movement performed while lying on the back can also be executed while lying on the side. Even though the body is in a similar position in both cases, the alignment is affected by how gravitational pull is experienced. By sensing these differences in gravitational forces acting through the skeleton, one can develop a greater SB awareness. The subtle sensations of the shifts in alignment and intricate positioning fine tune the SB.

Summary – How to Arrange Movement Sequences

Look at the sequence of movements in a lesson. Think about how movements are teaching the sense of the SB. The order of movements is designed to feel the intelligence of action. It helps distinguish between an action and an intention. Additionally, it observes the changes in the body to changes in attitude.

The “Arrange Movement Sequences” section is used to help understand how movement and attention contribute to building SB awareness. Additionally, start to gain a sense of how movement creates both internal and external experiences. Then apply the same processes in your movement lessons (Review the section in the book entitled, “Lessons Sequences” (p. 35-37) for more information.)