"The entire purpose of the human brain is to produce movement. Movement is the only way we have of interacting with the world."
~ Daniel M. Wolpert, Zoubin Ghahramani and J. Randall Flanagan, neuorscientists
Even after study and leading movement for more than two decades, reading the words of Wolpert, Ghahramani and Flanagan surprised me with their profundity. The whole point of our brain is movement. And like many profound statements, there is a quality of both “Wow” and “Oh yeah, of course.” This is Part 2 in 5-part series, Movement is the Point on movement qualities and how they support the health and functionality of the body and the brain. You can find Part 1 here.
“The human brain has evolved to recognize patterns, perhaps more than any other single function. Our brain is weak at processing logic, remembering facts, and making calculations, but pattern recognition is its deep core capability.” ~ Tiago Forte
There is genius in the design of the body’s soft tissues. Muscles deliver both force and movement. Skin offers both protection from and connection to the outside world. Organs serve all kinds of life-giving functions through chemical and mechanical processes. And we are only beginning to understand the miracles of the soft gray matter of the human brain.
But without structure, all those genius parts would be a lump of flesh on the floor. The soft tissues would be of no use without the structure of bones.
Moving the human body requires both flow and form. Humans have been moving to music for millenia at least in part because music gives us structure on which to hang our movement. Our bones give us form on which to hang all our soft bits and music gives us form on which to hang our dancing bits.
Our body-mind uses sound to organize our movement and to connect us to each other. Think of being part of a crowd at a concert. The rhythm and melody might inspire your own body’s movement whether it’s your toe tapping, your body swaying, or an all-out mosh pit jam. More than that, though, the structure of music connects our body to the bodies around us: even if we aren’t doing the same movement, we are held together with the structure of the sound.
Rhythm, in particular, echoes the patterns of our heart and lungs and creates a way for us to be together. Imagine clapping along with a gospel choir or doing the stomp-stomp-clap of Queen’s We Will Rock You.
Our bodies love patterns and our brains do, too. As Robert C. Barkman, Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today:
“What distinguishes us from most of the animal kingdom is the desire to find structure in the information coming our way. In fact, we can’t help it. Our brain craves patterns (Bor, 2012). The talent to recognize patterns is something most people don’t know they need or realize that they already have. If we can turn data into a pattern or rule, then according to Daniel Bor, ‘near-magical results ensue. We no longer need to remember a mountain of data; we need to only recall one simple law’ (Bor, 2012).”
Give your body-mind form and pattern to play with. Here are some things you can try:
1. Whatever movement you are doing – whether it’s sitting and reading or scooping the cat box, taking a walk or busting a dance move – see if you can picture the angles your bones are in. No matter what you’re doing, play around with moving from your bones.
2. Listen to the beginning of a song like Happy by Pharrell Williams and neither clap nor move. Then after a bit (I dare you to stay still for a whole minute!) clap along. Maybe move your bones. See if connecting to the pattern feels different than staying still.
3. Try this short Hands Got Rhythm home practice from Stopgap Contemporary Dance. It broke my brain – in a fun way!
BONUS (because I love me some Queen): Watch this short clip about the genesis of We Will Rock You. If you like it, the whole movie’s worth a watch.
Thank goodness for all our soft, human parts. And just as much thank goodness for our structure, our bones, our brain’s propensity to find pattern. Our structured parts create a foundation, a place from which freedom flies, and connects us to each other.