History

After forty years of researching the human body to consciousness, this program (serendipitously) was created. The Wellness Through Movement (WTM) program was designed and tested in the trenches of five elementary schools (2006-2014) with the Kohala communities of the Big Island. Kohala Elementary, a pilot school, is a public school of below-poverty classes in the rural areas of the Big Island.

Catherine Rosasco-Mitchell’s research, before working in an elementary school, involved forty years of treatment with chronic conditions. Muscular-skeletal patterns were analyzed (through the Feldenkrais® Method entitled Functional Integration®) in relationship to behavior and systems. Though speculative, people with chronic conditions improve when awareness of body ownership and motor patterns related to condition was reintegrated.

Methods

The WTM movement lessons of Part II are based on the Feldenkrais® Methods and developmental movements. The main idea of the movement lessons is to learn to sense guidance from the Sensory Body. Games were put into an elementary school level physical education program. Part I and Part II physical education programs meet the standards. These standards are set for United States Elementary School Physical Education programs.

Three WTM Programs

• Part I • A book, A New Sensory Self-Awareness
• A school-wide program, Get Sensational Attention
• A physical education program Part II, WTM Physical Education

Yes. Method implemented in the movement program were tested for eight years in elementary schools. Focus of the programs was to enhance both body ownership and re-educate sensorimotor patterns. Strategies were tested and revised between 2006-2018 in a public elementary school with children from multicultural and below poverty backgrounds.  Over 500 children (in groups of 6-22 participants) and ages 5-10 years old experienced these strategies:

1. Developing awareness in the organic nature of the body and what it wants to do without interfering 
2. Developing awareness of the presence of a physicalness in relation to hearing
3. Developing awareness of a synergistic attention, sensing your body while attention is outside yourself
4. Developing awareness of the details in parts and spaces of bodily organization 
5. Developing awareness of how physical changes relate to psychological and cognitive changes
6. Developing awareness in the relationships between the organization of movements in the body and behavioral patterns

The Intelligence of Motion

Some people must run to think, walk to listen, or move to talk. Movement is not merely a mechanical action; it is the vehicle of intelligence. Movement cultivates perception, attention, and executive functioning. (Clark, Schumann, and Mostofsky, 2015). It is the movement that creates the cultivation of perception. Some scientists may label the cultivation an aspect of “body ownership.” (Erhsson, H. H., 2012) In this context, the “intelligence” will be called the “Sensory Body (SB).” Movement of the breath is the ultimate intelligence. It images creates the synergy between perception, attention, and motion. 

To Use Movement as an Intelligence

First, development maps out the body through motion and attention. The human being uses movement to explore spatial awareness. Spatial awareness is often thought of as external, yet in movement, it is both internal and external. Structure and motion maps out sensations into a living presence, that it a sense, an action of character. The character of this action forms the self.

“Signals from this sensory orchestra are sent by afferent nerves through the spinal cord to the somatosensory, motor, and parietal cortices of the brain, where they continuously feed and update dynamic sensory-motor maps of the body. This major intelligence of the body [this inner teacher] has missed the attention it truly deserves.” (Smetacek & Mechsner, 2004, p. 21). 

The structure and sensations “maps” motor patterns (Ehrsson, 2005) created by behavior. These movement maps develop a sense of self is known by the Sensory Body (SB), however, is hidden from awareness. Even though hidden, the level of sensation frequencies in the motor patterns molds the trajectory of development with intentionality. 

How to start a lesson with movement

To begin a lesson, start with spatial awareness outside of the body. Through movement, narrow the attention in space through the senses. First, attention is outside the body. Then it moves to inside the body. When inside the body, movement is used to feel on how body parts move in relation to each other. 

Compare Changes in Attitude to Changes in Physical Structure

In WTM programs, through movement games, children’s attention is pointed towards changes in their bodies to changes in their moods. In other words, they feel where in the body the attitude changed. Movement is not an exercise to achieve an action, but a tool to explore awareness.

The SB bridges information from the motor, sensory, and memory association areas of the body and brain. This is crucial to understanding how one thinks and behaves. The experience teaches awareness of how this synergy shifts and alters perception. The result is that brain function improves. More importantly, the heart expands, peace returns, and the SB helps navigate responses to circumstances.

Methodology of WTM Lessons

The Wellness Through Movement (WTM) physical education lessons (Part II) are based on developmental movement and the Feldenkrais® methods. The Sensory Body (SB) sense is a type of “perception.” The SB is a sixth sense aware of the three-dimensional structure of the body-mind. Some scientists call the sense, “body-ownership.” The SB senses body-form that causes identity of self and perception. For children, this motor sense is not just a feeling of muscles and bones. It involves physical conversations of emotional and mental processing.  

The effective ways to use the Sensory Body: Six Body-to-Brain Strategies.

A Window of Opportunity • Ages 5 – 8 years old • Ideal

Learning from the Sensory Body (SB or movement intelligence) is easier for children, five to eight years old. Once the ego is developed and intellectual intelligence is present, learning the SB can be more challenging. As mentioned above, the more severe the cognitive disorder, the more easily improvements were observed. For example, the ability to verbalize their thoughts was measurably different before and after SB integration. They were also better at following directions. Additionally, developing executive functioning showed significant improvement.

Closing the Gap Between Researchers and Community

Researchers around the world know the importance of the physical body. They understand its movement is crucial to development, perception, and cognitive function. However, in the social systems of our communities, they have no idea their bodies hold such intelligence.

If people were trained to sense their bodies to understand their behavior, there would be less dependability on outside “fixes” and more self-responsibility.

Movement in physics means life. Life is nature’s way of teaching that wholeness is developed through action. There is a crucial interdependence of the body to how the mind reacts to its environment. In other words, it is not just movement, but what happens between the movement and perception that is the treasure. What lies between movement and perception creates the way children listen, communicate, and perceive. 

Scientists explain that the movement of the body to the brain happens through afferent nerves.  Afferent nerves convey sensory information from the environment and throughout the body to the brain. Scientists know that the body’s sensations and movement impulses sent to the brain are crucial to understanding learning. Why doesn’t the community, specifically Education and Healthcare, know about this?

Researchers are driven by a passion for discovery, while teachers are dedicated to nurturing young minds. We found that neither group is willing to connect their insights from Movement Research. They also don’t connect these insights to the educational protocols. Each group is too busy and more interested in what they are doing with their research or classrooms.

Wellness Through Movement, in its methodology, is a powerful process that can seamlessly connect the two fundamental elements of human nature, the physical body and learning. The WTM methods offer captivating games while implementing a methodology rooted in the principles of physics and human development. WTM programs use a method developed by a renowned physicist (Moshe Feldenkrais). It synthesizes the wisdom of motion shared from scientists and educators.

What is Missing in Learning is the Body is Not Used as an Intelligence

Researchers know that movement helps the brain, but why can’t we feel how movement creates the process of learning? People know about what they think, but they don’t know how their bodies think (learn, grow, and change). Movement and the body are crucial for cognitive development (Boring, 1930). We, in community, need to learn how to feel the relationships between cognition and movement. 

Research on “Body Ownership” explains that the body can be elusive. If the body is unclear to consciousness, this could be why the awareness of SB is missing in Cognitive Sciences. (Burin, D., Pyasik, M., Salatino A., and Pia, L., 2017) If we could feel body ownership, we could begin to sense how the body and perception are interdependent.

Motor Patterns are Different than Muscle Memory

Motor patterns are integrated into behavior. Muscle memory comes from a repetitive movement. It is important to clarify the differences between muscle memory and motor patterns. Muscle memory is a movement that knows how to repeat itself. Motor patterns are repeated records of motion related to behavior. In other words, behavioral patterns must be thought of as motor patterns. In our research, changing the motor pattern of a behavior (in children) related to stress, frustration, and anger changed behavior. Changing muscle memory did not change any emotional states of conditioning.

The body becomes a physical record of movement patterns based on physiological drives. From desires, circumstances, and activities, motor patterns evolve. Children’s desires crave to be fulfilled, thus successful behaviors get established. As strategies succeed, fine-tuning of motion develops and muscular-skeletal action gets programmed into automatic patterns of actions. This action can be felt in the body, especially in chronic conditions or cognitive disorders. Actions get enslaved and become an integral variable to perception. Over time, these movement strategies carve out ways of acting and become the carriage of what is called the “self.” There is a three-dimensional patterns of action that becomes a physical image of tendencies. They influence how we act, behave, and speak. 

We analyzed children’s movements (posture and gait) their dispositions in character can be more explainable. The organization of movement had to find ways to negotiate between an intention, attention, and action. If this bridge of functional integration between intention, attention, and action was not built, behavioral problems existed.

It is essential to mention some patterns of movements that need to be disregarded often can’t be just let go. Actions that strive to reach success need to be felt to be changed dysfunctional movement patterns.

More information of how to reeducate motor patterns can be found here: Movement Teachers and “Tips for Research,” under “Research.” (Scroll down, under “Research Support”)

The methodology examines the physical structure of musculoskeletal system activity to diagnosis perceptual functioning. The bodily sensations don’t just accompany the psyche; they are the psyche. Multisensory impulses from low-level sensory and motor circuits feed cognition and are cognition. (Scientific American Mind, Jan./Feb. 2011, p. 39-45). The demands within physical form (the body) are designed to become trapped in patterns of motion. Multisensory sensations form a reflection that represents a likeness into an image for the understanding of identity to the self. 

The body is a mediator between the understanding of self and movement. Together with movement and repose, a type of hidden wisdom strives to be known. Senses and the arrangement of movement cause the impulses of actions to combine with the senses. These combine with the structure and arrangement of form. This process shapes the perception of the self and others. 

Participants are taught to sense this synthesis of body-mind impulses through what is termed the Sensory Body (SB). Sensing the imaging in the physical structure, lessons aim to help participants become aware of a hidden sense, the SB. The SB is not the body or the psyche, but what lies between them. 

Note: Children ages seven years old seem to have the ability to feel the synergy of mind-body the easiest (2009 Results). After over eight years of working in the schools, it became apparent that the qualities of actions to consciousness were increasingly difficult for children to perceive (2025 Results).

The organization and arrangement of movement play a significant role in shaping the sense of self. SB awareness can only be learned by experiencing it within the physicality of the body. This hidden sense enables one to feel the sensation of physical form. It intertwines with motor patterns related to behavior. The image and motion of the form are what influence and create perception. The “who” inside meets the “who” outside. Once the two selves have different levels of awareness with each other, subconsciously, each self negotiates with the other. In younger systems, the SB and systems integrate more easily and favorably. Children may not be fully conscious, but their integration is smoother.

The SB is the form sensation that directs ways of development in perception. From the choices made, the Sensory Body (SB), an internal GPS occurs between the mind and body. A type of intelligence develops from a biofeedback-based feeling. This feeling comes from the image of structure, function, and attention composed through motion. It grows according to choices made and circumstances. Long before the mind notices, the SB can sense psychological patterns of behavior in form. Actions wired into the muscular skeletal systems trigger impulses of biological sensations, long before the consciousness mind is aware.

Becoming aware of these biological sensations helps the children pause and then make different choices than familiar patterns of reactions. This awareness is the primary intention behind teaching the SB to children.

To change behavior, the idea of “exercise” or the need to do specific movements is sacrificed. Instead, consciousness is developed through the SB, attention, and motion. Fine qualities of sensations the bypass conscious perception can clarify by the SB. The SB, unlike the brain, knows when the mind and body are working in sync or in different directions. With the SB, automatic unhealthy behavior has a choice to pause and choose a different way.

The Sensory Body

Benefits of the Sensory Body (SB)

After forty years of research involving tens of thousands of people with chronic conditions, it is clear that learning the SB can significantly improve emotional health. It also enhances mental and physical health, regardless of the specific condition. However, there were instances when learning the SB proved difficult. This was especially true for children who had undergone multiple surgeries. It was also challenging for those who were on medications.

Children benefited the most from the SB when the WTM protocols were integrated into the school culture. They also benefited when parents applied these techniques at home. In the school setting, not only did children’s behavior improve, but incidents of bullying also disappeared entirely. What was particularly surprising was that these improvements were sustainable. The enhancement in behavior was linked to children operating from a place of honesty, integrity, and aloha. This kindness was fostered through self-discovery.

Eight years after implementing the program at our pilot school, Kohala Elementary (2006-2013), Principal Garcia testified about its success. Bullying had ceased across the school. This was evidenced by the decreased number of students sent to the office. He continued to reflect on the most challenging students from 2006, who had severe verbal and physical harassment issues.

Long-term Benefits Happen with Community Involvement

Years after the program had concluded in the schools, these children exhibited remarkable behavioral improvements. They were unrecognizable compared to their former selves. Similar positive feedback was received from teachers and parents regarding longer attention spans and improved overall well-being. (Chart on reports)

The most critical benefit for both children and adults was the heightened awareness of their actions. This awareness was particularly evident regarding behaviors they were previously unaware of. As children became more attuned to their bodies, they gained insight into what hindered their ability to listen. They also understood what caused disruptions in the classroom.

We can teach children something very valuable. However, if they do not utilize it in daily living, children won’t remember it. We taught the program at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. It was the school where we created the program. Three years later, we returned and asked the children what they remembered. The same thing happened in Kohala Elementary, our pilot school. They didn’t remember anything except in the WTM class. The problem was our fault. We needed to teach them how to apply the insights from the SB lessons to their school day and home.

It is worth noting that our pilot school, Kohala Elementary, is located in a Hawaiian community. Hawaiian communities prioritize community. It is an indigenous culture to value the interconnectedness of mind, body, spirit, nature, and one another. The indigenous culture influenced the children’s improvement. The parents and teachers at Kohala Elementary School made efforts to aid this progress. As a result, the children continued to improve over the years.

Teachers were Surprised to Learn

Some elementary teachers mentioned that they never considered the children’s bodies influencing their listening skills. Traditional education teachers need to draw attention to them. For example, a common saying is, “Eyes up here. Ears up here.” Teachers using the Wellness Through Movement (WTM) methods and research know listening is more than just with the ears. They know it involves the whole self, including their inner and outer selves. When children achieve SB listening, a change in perception occurs. This happens when their sense of self is in awareness. As a result, children’s unique and personal processes of how they learn blossom. Cues from the body help children understand what is getting in the way of their ability to listen.

An example of a child getting cues from her body: A third-grade girl felt anxiety. The anxiety arose when the reading lesson would begin. She didn’t know she held her breath, which increased her anxiety and difficulty comprehending the lesson. After the child learned the SB, she noticed that she stopped breathing. This happened whenever the teacher said, “It’s time for our reading lesson.”

After she learned the lesson, No Place Like Home Breath*, she could sense what was happening inside her mind. She felt it through the sensation of her body. This helped her understand why she couldn’t learn to read. (p. 46, Rosasco, 2013) In other words, the awareness of the sensation in the SB allowed her to sense why information was not getting processed. She raised her hand and told the teacher. They reviewed the “No Place Like Home Breath” lesson. They asked the student to listen now from the “Home” (the place inside). She did and learned to read for the first time. She was eight years old. This Overview Interview explains more about how to do the lesson, or you can follow the lesson plan of Get Sensational Attention.  
*It is important to note, we taught the children the Home Breath through the game Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance first. It is important not to teach it in a stressful situation if you can help it. More is explained in the “Long Track” of the Get Sensational Attention program.

• There is No Wrong Movement: The most difficult challenge is to understand that there are no wrong movements. Movements, even the most awkward, are used to discovery what is not in awareness.

• Fumble About: Like an infant, fumble about. Fumble about means play until you discover something new in yourself with the action. There is no judgment in the infant when they can’t feel something. There is only innocence of exploration. WTM movement, like in nature, is always intended to use movement to explore.

Try Another Lesson

• Try this Adult Lesson at the beginning and end of each day. Notice how your body changes from morning to night. Then ask yourself, “What activities were affecting different parts of my body?” For children, we do the Pancake Body lesson. Pancake Body is similar to the “Adult Lesson,” mentioned above, and a foundational lesson to learning the Sensory Body.