Why does movement matter?
Our body is part of our brain - our brain is part of our body; the body-mind connection goes both ways and is always evolving in response to changing conditions.
The body creates the brain, not vice versa.
Throughout our lifespan, from gamete to grown up, our brains are cued to mature and develop - by movement. We likely all have gaps in our development (big or small, noticeable or not), delays, areas which are unfinished or in process, or areas which have sustained some sort of damage through illness or injury. We all have unexplored physical, psychological and emotional potential. What somatic movement therapy offers are ways of working with gaps or unfinished processes through both passive and active movement - we do this through intentional and unplanned movement.
One reason that practices such as yoga, pilates, Feldenkreis, dance, etc. yield so many unexpected benefits is that they have a lot of overlap with developmental moves that help us strengthen and grow the neural pathways necessary to continue the ever-evolving process of development. Continuum takes this concept to another level, using our own breath, sound, and inherent movement to dive into the realm of creativity, healing, unwinding, novelty, and connection to self and others.
When working with babies, children and adults, I may use yoga as an umbrella term, and yoga is usually involved, but what we are doing is developmental movement, rhythmic movement, sensory and reflex integration.
The body creates the brain, not vice versa.
Throughout our lifespan, from gamete to grown up, our brains are cued to mature and develop - by movement. We likely all have gaps in our development (big or small, noticeable or not), delays, areas which are unfinished or in process, or areas which have sustained some sort of damage through illness or injury. We all have unexplored physical, psychological and emotional potential. What somatic movement therapy offers are ways of working with gaps or unfinished processes through both passive and active movement - we do this through intentional and unplanned movement.
One reason that practices such as yoga, pilates, Feldenkreis, dance, etc. yield so many unexpected benefits is that they have a lot of overlap with developmental moves that help us strengthen and grow the neural pathways necessary to continue the ever-evolving process of development. Continuum takes this concept to another level, using our own breath, sound, and inherent movement to dive into the realm of creativity, healing, unwinding, novelty, and connection to self and others.
When working with babies, children and adults, I may use yoga as an umbrella term, and yoga is usually involved, but what we are doing is developmental movement, rhythmic movement, sensory and reflex integration.
“"Brains didn’t evolve for rationality...They did not evolve for you to think or to perceive the world accurately. They didn’t even really evolve for you to see or hear or feel. Brains evolved to regulate a body so that it could move around the world efficiently.”
The core task of a brain working in service to the body is allostasis: regulating the body’s internal systems by anticipating needs and preparing to satisfy them before they arise. Interoception — your brain’s representation of sensations from your own body — is the sensory consequence of this activity... and is central to everything from thought, to emotion, to decision making, and our sense of self.
“Your body is part of your mind, not in some gauzy mystical way, but in a very real biological way,” she said during an Integrative Science Symposium at the 2019 International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS) in Paris. “This means there is a piece of your body in every concept that you make, even in states that we think of as cold cognition.”" - APS President Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University
The core task of a brain working in service to the body is allostasis: regulating the body’s internal systems by anticipating needs and preparing to satisfy them before they arise. Interoception — your brain’s representation of sensations from your own body — is the sensory consequence of this activity... and is central to everything from thought, to emotion, to decision making, and our sense of self.
“Your body is part of your mind, not in some gauzy mystical way, but in a very real biological way,” she said during an Integrative Science Symposium at the 2019 International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS) in Paris. “This means there is a piece of your body in every concept that you make, even in states that we think of as cold cognition.”" - APS President Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University