body
The body is not just matter continually replacing itself. It is complex chains of physiological processes. These pages show how to orchestrate them for vitality and health using thought, emotion, movement and diet. We are our body, not just powerless inhabitants.
use it or lose it
Muscles and ligaments respond within days to lack of use. Habits of restricted ranges of movement (typical in industrial societies) become set in the body and brain..
When muscles, organs or areas of the brain cause physical or emotional discomfort they may get turned off by not being used or having their blood supply reduced. If they shut down long enough they feel unreal or unconnected to us. Their feedback and warning signals fade. And they can even atrophy and become a focus of illness. Closing down feelings and body functions is the opposite of awareness.
guarding reactions
Over activation can also shape or damage us. If muscles stay tense in a guarding reaction after a traumatic event, they may begin to permanently change face and posture. Spastic muscles can deform bone and contribute to problems like fibromyalgia and arthritis long after the threats that triggered the tension have disappeared.
These tensions arise from mind not muscles and exercises or massage that fight against the tense muscles might not reach the source of tension and can even be damaging.
exercises
Life experiences imprint our history and personality into our body - face, posture, gait and voice and show who we are and limit us. Enhanced physical and mental capacity are almost inevitable when we expand the use of our body with the exercises in the side-menu.
Yoga, Tai Chi, posture, bodywork, massage and Feldenkrais movements center around the spine and breathing. They give our body the chance to experience new postures and movements and learn how it feels to be released from habitual tensions.
Movement bring us to our senses in the real world and present moment where we can re-orientate and then integrate our inner with our outer experiences. We can live in both body and mind - not just one of them.
Awareness of feelings and sensations provides a pathway to healing by giving a voice to parts of the body that have shut down or are exhausted from over-activity.
Once the body gets this feedback it can let go of unnecessary activity and reorganise itself. Tensions can be discarded and posture realigned. Lost movements can be regained. New, exciting, comfortable, efficient and safer ways of moving can be brought to everyday life. Many people are astonished to discover they have a body after doing one of these exercises.
In industrial societies there is little opportunity to experience the knowledge and deliberations of our body. Writing and speech are so pervasive that we usually think in words. The side menus suggest some ways to reclaim the body and tap into its intelligence.
|
Bruce Lipton |
copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 22. Jan. 2012
