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?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the above post.

*****

Chad Estes
Movement Specialist

Strengthen & Stretch or Learn How to Move?

I’ve often heard that in order to correct a bad back, you must:

- strengthen it
- strech it
- hold your belly in
- learn to lift with your legs
- keep your stomach muscles tight – all the time
- carry objects close to your body
- “brace” the entire area through muscular contraction
- lose weight

Blah, blah, blah…

An overwhelming majority of back pain is due to the effects of chronically inefficient movement patterns.  Movement patterns that cause us to not use our skeletons correctly.

Huh?

Yes, by not using our skeletons correctly.

Let me explain…

The most efficient way to use ourselves is to have our skeletons do the brunt of the work in keeping us upright.

You see, we are in a constant ebb and flow in our dance with gravity.

Our reactions to the daily stresses of life, along with poorly learned movement patterns cause us to get “out of alignment” with our skeleton.

When we get “out of alignment”, our skeletons aren’t carrying their share of the load, which in turn contributes even more to chronic, habitual muscular contractions that aren’t necessary.

Which causes those “tight" backs (and shoulders, and necks, and hips, etc., etc., etc.)

And it causes joints to be in awkward and inefficient positions, and bear more of the load than they were designed for.

Which creates more wear and tear.

Oh, and let’s layer even more stress over top of all of that, which, as we’ve discussed before, is a somatic experience.

Repeated stress results in even more chronic muscular contractions.

And let’s face it, life is stressful.

It's a vicious circle.

When you put those together, you have the ingredients for repetitive stress injuries.

Chronic back pain is, in a large number of cases, a result of repeatedly being out of alignment with your skeleton.

It’s … a … Repetitive … Stress ... Injury.

Or a cumulative trauma disorder.  You can pick how you want to label it.

The good news is, is that it doesn’t have to stay that way.

But initially, you don’t need to strengthen it.

You don’t need to stretch it.

You need to engage in a process that allows you the opportunity to learn how to use yourself better.

Start moving like a kid again – but take it easy initially.

Roll around on the floor for a small amount of time each day.

Listen to what your body’s telling you.

Get away from repetition and seek out variation - in everything that you do.

What you’ll notice is that those repetitive stress injuries start to fade.

Then if you want to strengthen, then strengthen.

If you want to stretch, then stretch (just a little, though).

But learn how to move first.

LET ME ASK YOU SOMETHING…
What are you doing to avoid back problems and repetitive stress injuries?

LET ME SUGGEST…
For an article on how deal with back pain, send us an email and we’ll send it to you for free.

*****

Chad Estes
Movement Specialist
cestes@etmconsultants.com