Bodylessons Book

This book is about a new kind of learning, or rather an old kind of knowingâ?"the knowing of the body. It means knowing ourselves as physical beings, the knowing that we derive from movement. Human beings are physical entities. From conception until death, we live in physical bodies. This does not mean that we are the same as our physical shells; it means that we wear our bodies like suits of clothes and that those clothes shape the way we move, act, feel, and think. The body is the physical counterpart of our entire life history. All the problems and pleasures of the inner life coexist with the life of the body. The body is the instrument for many of our most intimate relationships and experiences. Encounters with exultation and of pain are clothed in physical sensations. Building a dialog with the body can establish access to its natural wisdom and provide a way to apply that wisdom to every aspect of our lives. Human life means movement. From the day we are born to the day we die, our bodies move, in one way or another, to keep us alive. Movement transmits sensory information about where body parts are and how they feel. When you are hurt, ill, or stop moving for some reason, the neural circuits that transmit sensory and motor information becomes less effective. Muscles work best when exercised and allowed to move freely. Inaction is an unnatural state for living animals. Even when we are asleep the chest rises and falls, the blood circulates, the heart is pumping, and a myriad of other activities integral to human survival are taking place. We not only tend to neglect physical knowledge but, even when we recognize a neglected ability, we also tend to categorize and isolate it from other ways of knowing. in our society, for example, athletes are not considered to be introspective people. Artists are categorized as airheads and more or less incapable of logic. Intellectuals are said to lack street smarts. All of us, athletes and intellectuals alike, would be better off, if we engaged in more activities that allowed us to use and develop our intelligences in tandem. The purpose of this book is to illuminate the many lessons that the physical body has to share. It can help integrate neglected body wisdom with more conventional understanding about ourselves and the world. Life of the body parallels the movement of inner life. The life history of our psyche and soma mirror each other, though each retains its unique perspective and style. Body and psyche share the experience of the whole human being. The successes or frustrations of one are reflected in the strengths or illnesses of the other. Building an understanding of ourselves as physical organisms helps reinforce all our intelligences, and incorporating body wisdom into our worldview makes us smarter and more vital beings.Read More