Applications of WTM utilize physics, development, and psychology through movement. This kind of movement means life. What is alive moves. And life is nature’s way of teaching wholeness developed through action. There is a crucial interdependence between the body and the mind, and between the mind and its environment. What happens between movement and perception lies at the heart of how we learn. 

We are not creating a new way of learning. We are creating a new way of learning with more parts of the self. 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?

A passion for discovery drives researchers, while teachers are dedicated to nurturing young minds. We found that neither group has the time to shift the paradigm. However, life is demanding a shift amid increased challenges in education, healthcare, and mental health. Each group is too busy causing the enslavement of old practices to the point of lethal destruction.

Wellness Through Movement suggests a powerful methodology that integrates functions connecting the two fundamental elements of human nature, the physical body and learning. The WTM methods offer captivating games and practices grounded in 20 years of research. Movement is the guide to discover the guidance of sensations through a sense happening between learning and physical form. WTM methods aim to introduce lifelong tools that enhance awareness of this sense (the SB) through the understandings of renowned physicist Moshe Feldenkrais.

What is Missing in Education is the Body as a Form of Intelligence

If you are doing research with movement and neuroscience there are a few easy tips to implement with any study. Use some sort of measurement in the understanding of changes in the body to awareness of character. With children under ten the conscious awareness of details in the body is not necessary. However, children older than ten years of age will need to experience the awareness of changes in their bodies to sense the connection of their ways of thinking.

Using movement as an intelligence was especially beneficial to children with attention disorders. All children we worked with with attention deficit tendencies had no body awareness from the waist down. There was in awkwardness in these children’s movement in the legs, pelvis and lower back. This “awkwardness” gave us vital insights in how to help their behaviors. What would it feel like to be off center, disconnect from the ground, or an imbalance from the legs into the pelvis? Attention “out there” would be masked.

How we addressed the “awkwardness” in a child’s movement with cognitive disorders was extensive, yet Advanced Lessons of the programs will give some guidance on designing movement sequences. Advance Lessons are Feldenkrais® movement lesson games, and core to the teachings of WTM.

Ways to Use the SB in Research

a. Speed of a Movement

Slow Down

Speed is another way to use movement as a teacher. Behavioral patterns have a familiar speed of action. By changing the speed of a movement, the SB has an opportunity to get familiar with unfamiliar ways of action. Slow down the action, and it will change the quality of the behavior. To experience this technique, walk somewhere you go often, like from the car to your office or grocery store, however, walk at one-tenth of the speed. Notice if there are any differences in your mind-set or attitude, especially if you are in a hurry.

With the children we applied speed and a developmental movement. We had the children crawl on their bellies in a relay race. Then we repeated the movement while blowing a feather in front of them along the floor. (For more information of the background of using the feather see “Notes and Background,” p. 65, Mitchell, 2013) Slowing down the movement helped the participants feel what parts of their spines were rigid, what features affected other body parts, and new ways of moving. The quality of a movement often has a quality of character and mindset attached.

b. Perception of the Movement 

Are you, as a reader starting to get a sense of this SB? Help children look at differences in the orientation of perceptions and their movements. How? Imitate in directions the movements they are doing that aren’t following your directions. Are the children’s perceptions looking “out there” for guidance. Tell them to close their eyes. “Perception” is defined as pointing towards the outer world. With the SB, perception relates to both “out there” and within the self. 

Insights from Perception and Actions

The participants will interpret the movement directions by how they are perceived. For example, the first movement instruction may be, “Move the knee forward several times.” Children without body awareness might think, “Forward? Oh, that must mean the direction toward the front of the room?” We watched to see how the children moved their knees. Were their movements toward the front of the room or toward the front of their bodies? If they moved their knee toward the front of the room, the second instruction would mirror their actions, such as “Move your knee towards the front of the room.” 

Imagine hearing the changes in directions and feeling the relationships in the actions. The words in the instructions give sensations on what to move, the way they move, and not necessarily what the instruction intended. The movement sensation teaches them the differences in how they perceive.

Using Movement as a Teacher

The first direction gave a movement. The second direction mirrored the participants’ intentions. The third instruction will now clarify the sense of the bodies by changing to “Move the knee forward towards the front of you.” The directions intentionally did not clarify the movement so that we could analyze the functions of their perceptions. 

Through movement intelligence, participants can notice their perceptions, their relationship with themselves to the outer room, and their bodies. If children’s orientations are solely turned toward the external world every day, all day, this instruction often feels confusing. And these children are only aware of the room and not themselves in the room. 

Extra Sensitive Children

These techniques were essential for extra-sensitive children. Giving them a sense of where they are in space helped them feel where they are inside.

By the way, have your gotten up lately? Are you breathing? Can you wiggle? Rolled your neck? Awwwwwwwe

c. Configuration of Structure in Action

Start with Spatial Awareness Inside and Out

As another way to help children understand body awareness, we directed their attention inside their bodies to the subtle qualities of spatial organization. For example: While children were lying on their backs, we playfully asked, “How big a mongoose (or squirrel) can run under your neck?” Then we asked them to feel (with their hands) behind their necks and asked, “Were the spaces as big or small as you thought?” Imagining the mongoose’s height helped the children understand the actual size of space between the back of their bodies and the floor. The ability to feel with their hand behind their necks allowed them to compare their bodies’ actual structure with their perceptions. 


How Much of the Body and Perception is in Awareness?

Notice the movement instructions also taught children the connection between perceptions, intentions, and actions. “Perception” was what the children thought they felt inside their bodies. “Intention” was the direction of their attention versus what was asked, and “action” was the feeling of the body on the floor, the sense of the floor, and the feeling of touching behind their necks.

Pressure Sensors as Pointers

The areas of the body heaviest against the floor are often the body parts used most regularly that tense up over time. We used the floor, like a biofeedback machine, to sense details in the body with the lesson “Pancake Body.” (p. 40, Mitchell, 2013) “Pancake Body” was done before and after every movement lesson. By comparing changes in the body before and after an activity, awareness begins to carve out insights about the effects the body can have on physical, emotional, or mental states of being.

d. Gravitational Fields and the Self

The Self Develops from Movement

Movement is the primal function of all development. Movement bridges sensing, feeling, thinking, action, and the immediate environment through the gravitational field. In physics, changing the body position in an action relative to gravity helps change the children’s organization of motor patterns. In different positions, pressure, weight, and sensation shift. Positions help change what is familiar to what is not in the motor pattern. When the gravitational field shifts, the flow of an action initiates movement from different places in the body. When bodily positions change gravitational alignment, the participants get to feel other sensations (in their body awareness). For example, the sound of words can seem illusive to a child; however, when put into movement, they gain tangible qualities. Refer to the lesson ‘Home Breath’ for more information.

The awareness of oneself and one’s actions improves as body awareness improves. For example, sit in a chair. Feel where weight and balance are organized within the pelvis, gut, and spine. Now lie on the floor in the same configuration. When lying on the floor, adjust the thighs to be perpendicular to the spine. The lower legs are at a right angle to the thighs. Note you are in the “sitting position” now lying on your side. Notice what parts of the body are tense while on your side. Could you feel these areas in your body while sitting? Go back to sitting to compare. Positions in different gravitational fields improve awareness of the SB.

Note for Researchers using Movement

Part I of the WTM movement lessons allows participants to explore the relationships between attention, intention, and action. This exploration ultimately enhances the Sensory Body. For more information, see “Part I : A New Sensory Self Awareness” by Mitchell, published in 2013.

Advanced Lessons of the WTM program utilizes movement games to reeducate sensory-motor mapping. There are three approaches to reeducating movement:

-Analyze the levels of gracefulness in an action
-Clarify the perception of one’s body, self, and the external world
-Reeducate the motor patterns associated with behavior More on Part II

Summary

Part I holds immense significance. It helps to bridge the gap between the mind and body. It is readily accessible for learning on our website. Part II is more complex, and the series of movement games that improve cognitive disorders.

Refer to Introductory lessons, or the book, A New Sensory Self Awareness, for Part I. Your exploration of this material could lead to transformational insights into body ownership and the development of perception. More importantly, it is guaranteed to help many children.