How We Habit is How We Heal (Part I )
We humans are natural born map makers. We make physical maps, topographic & road maps. We make political and thematic maps. We make weather, land use, air flow, and population density maps and tons of others.
BUT…
BY FAR…
THE most important map that humans make is not any of the maps we make of the OUTSIDE WORLD…
Nope!
It’s the INNER map of your own human body that your brain is constantly updating every moment of every day!
THAT MAP is called your Body Schema. A most amazing map. Just look at some of the things it keeps track of:
• Spatial position and movement
• Body boundaries and size
• Movement planning and execution
• Object interaction
• Calculating reach distances
• Adjusting posture for different interactions
• Postural control
• Body position relative to gravity
• Weight distribution
• Muscle tension
PLUS…
It does a really cool thing when it comes to our using tools…Your brain can extend the body schema so that it actually incorporates the tools we use over and over again (from scalpels to violin bows to baseball bats) so that they effectively become parts of your body.
BUT EVEN COOLER…
The parietal lobe, premotor cortex, supplementary motor areas and the cerebellum all work together in a way that enables a kind of action simulation which allows us to accurately rehearse movements in our mind before having to execute them!
In short, the body schema signals when you’re ready to move and it “remembers” the times you did it previously which inevitably determines what feels wrong and what feels right to you.
It’s a map that’s constantly being re-jiggered & reconfigured based upon our moment to moment experiences and the manner in which we choose to move which, of course, means that it has a massive effect upon…
1) The way we do the things we do...
AKA…Our Use
And ultimately…
2) Who we believe we are…
AKA…Our Identity
Muy interesante…N'est-ce pas?
(to be continued…)