Learning From Children

I was struck this morning by what a friend’s child said to her.

Her 8 year-old daughter said, out of the blue, “Mommy, every thought counts.”

It’s amazing sometimes when you stop a listen to the wisdom of children.

Children are pure, unadulterated, and they speak the truth.

They don’t yet have the stresses of life that most adults have layered one on top of the other.

They’re not interested in what they can’t do.

Their imaginations are FULL.

That’s right, little one - every thought DOES count!

Applying that statement to what I do, I would say that every movement counts.

Here’s why:

Many children are encouraged very early on to walk by their parents.

In and of itself, this is not a bad aspiration for parents to have – but to encourage it sooner than they are able to can, I believe, have long-term consequences.

When parents hold onto the goal of getting their children to walk early, children miss out on some very important learning.

They miss out on learning certain motor patterns.

You see, I believe that we (as children) learn to stand up lying down.

All of the fundamental motor patterns that are necessary for efficient standing and walking are learned while rolling around on the ground.

The first time a child stands up on their own, it’s purely by accident. They aren’t trying to stand up - they’re just trying to get to something.

This is why many children cry the first time they stand – they don’t know how they got there (and they don’t know how to get down)!

Only after the second time does standing become intentional for them.

So encouraging them to stand and walk before they’re ready means they’re missing out.

Not crawling (or not crawling for a long enough period of time) = missed opportunities for their nervous systems to experience certain motor patterns.

If a child is encouraged to go straight into assisted walking before learning to crawl, they develop inefficient ways of moving.

The reason that I am such a believer in this line of thinking is that I was one who went straight to assisted walking. I never learned to crawl, therefore I didn’t learn the underlying fundamental motor patterns that are necessary in order to be efficient in the way that I “use” myself.

And after dealing with chronic back pain for a number of years, I was told in my early twenties that I would eventually need to have a spinal fusion of the discs in my lower back.

Nuh-uh.   Not this kid…

So I set out on my own learning quest, and what I’ve found was this:

There is MUCH we can re-learn from children.

When we re-enter into the child-like movement based learning process and we “roll around” on the ground, there is a wealth of information for our nervous systems.

Using finely designed movements in a sequential order, we are able to re-learn what it’s like to move like a child again.

These methods are based on the body of work created by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, as well as one of his most well known students, Anat Baniel.

These movement sequences are designed to bring greater awareness to your movement capabilities while working through a series of gentle, comfortable steps that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and visualizing.

The process facilitates the development of an enhanced awareness of habitual muscular patterns and rigidities that may be causing limitations in movement.

Through slowing down, you’ll be able to feel those muscular patterns that are limiting you.

And, as Dr. Feldenkrais said, “Once you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want.”

We have the capacity to expand our options for moving with increased sensitivity, learning to eliminate unnecessary effort, attend to our whole self, and better mobilize our intentions into action.

Tension and tightness in our bodies does not exist because your muscles want to be tense.

Tension is controlled at the level of the nervous system – not locally. Your muscles don’t have a desire to be tight!

When seeking solutions to our movement limitations, we need to address movement where it originates – in the brain.

Slowing down and reducing the effort gets the brains attention.

And what has been demonstrated in recent neuorscientific research is that focused, directed attention is the gateway that allows you to take advantage of brain plasticity.

When you apply the possibilities that brain plasticity makes available in terms of movement, you have a recipe that will allow you to move away from those patterns that presently cause you pain into new ones that aren’t limiting.

So, learn to move by rolling around on the ground again.

Have fun.

Pay attention to what you feel.

And remember, not only does every thought count – every movement does to!

LET ME ASK YOU THIS…
What is it that you do that keeps you in a curious, child-like state of mind?

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Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the above post.

*****

Chad Estes
Movement Specialist

Refining Your Self-Image

Self Image – what is it? And what does it mean to refine it?

The most basic definition of self-image is that it’s a “mental perspective of yourself”.

How you take action and function in the world is based on your self-image.

And it’s interesting, that nothing in our educational system directly speaks to the development of our self-image. It’s as if it’s on the backburner.

Your self-image is made up of 4 components – all 4 of which are present at all times in everything that we do. Those parts of your self-image are:

1. Thinking self image
2. Feeling (or sensing) self image
3. Emoting self image (our ability to show emotion)
4. Moving self image

Your self-image can be systematically developed and refined to a much greater degree that it is at this point in your life. And in doing so, you will greatly enhance the way in which you function and take action in the world. 

And who doesn’t want to be able to take action more efficiently?

No matter where you are in life, how successful (or unsuccessful) you may be, you are presently at a point on a continuum. An ideal life isn’t about achieving a desired state, it is about the continued development of who we are and how we feel about ourselves. Through systematic development, you can accelerate your progress on that continuum.

The quickest way in which you can begin to refine your self-image (and increase the degree in which you function in the world) is through movement training. 

Movement training, you ask? 

Yes, movement training. 

Let me explain.

Movement is the original language of your nervous system. Well before we begin talking when we are children, our source of learning is movement. And all of us has heard that we learn more in the first years of our life than at any other time in our lives. This is because we are learning through movement.

Recent findings in neuroscience suggest that movement helps to organize the brain. 

Think about it: when you are moving (with awareness- this is the key - much like infants do while they’re rolling around on the ground prior to them walking), what do you have to do? You have to listen to your body (you have to focus on your senses). You have to feel, you have to think, and you have to notice where all parts of you are in space.

Notice how what you have to do while moving with awareness relates to the other parts of our self-image – it encompasses all of those parts!

The reason movement training is so effective at developing and refining our self-image is because we have such a rich experience of movement – when we focus our awareness on it. I’ve heard it said that 90% of our brain function during our waking hours is concerned with balance and the recovery of stability.

Methods exist to provide you with the ability to engage in the process of developing greater differentiation and refinement in: movement, emotions, thinking, and feeling.

The research behind this dates back to the 1930’s and 40’s – from a gentleman by the name of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Dr. Feldenkrais was a physicist, and engineer, a judo master (the first person outside of Japan to receive a black belt), and for all intents and purposes, a genius. 

That’s right, a genius.

He pioneered the concept of brain plasticity 50 years before anyone else believed it to be possible. Brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, refers to the brains ability to change as a result of experience.

According to the most recent data, actual physical changes have been documented to take place in the organization of the brain - in the form of new physical connections between existing brain cells, as well as the creation of new brain cells - based on experience

Just ponder on that for a minute...

When you take a moment to digest such a profound ability, you begin to realize the enormous potential for change that exists.

What are you doing to change for the better?

LET ME ASK YOU THIS…
What does your company doing that is enabling its employees to learn how to take better action?

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Send us an email and let us know what you are doing to further develop your own self-image.

*****

Chad Estes
Movement Specialist
cestes@etmconsultants.com