Uncovering one's true self through self-awareness -
a key to living fully
"Our internal processes, provoked by present external influences, or by forgotten, painful, previous experiences of the outside world, change our intentions to act as well as the way we act. You are as good as you wish; you are certainly more creative in imagining alternatives that you know. If you know “what” you are doing and even more important “how” you use yourself to act, you will be able to do things the way you want. I believe that the world’s most important advice “know thyself” was first said by one who learned to know oneself."
Moshe Feldenkrais ​​​​
If there is one thing we should place greater importance on, it’s our connection to ourselves.
Why? Nearly everything that makes us “us” has been learned and “wired in” after birth with the help of our engagement with our environment.
In general, we go about our day not giving much thought to how we do what we do or even if what we do is what we really want to be doing. More often than not we behave from a place of what we believe is expected of us, what helps us feel that we fit in. This is grossly affected by our upbringing, culture, environment. Suddenly we find ourselves becoming irritated for no apparent reason, where it’s the deep reflections that reveal to us the true reason behind our unhappiness - our actions are not aligned with our true self.
Other times, what invites us to arrive at this place of inquiry is chronic pain, injury, a sudden medical condition that asks of us a radical change.
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Neuroplasticity is our brain’s ability to change, reorganize and create new neural connections. It is what gives the reins back to us for the change we are looking to see within ourselves. It involves all of you and it requires awareness.
​“When two sensory or motor events occur repeatedly and simultaneously in the brain, they become linked, because neurons that fire together wire together, and the brain maps for those actions merge.” Norman Doidge, The Brain’s Way of Healing.
As such, we have learned to attend to ourselves in a very unique way and our movements are based on the current self-image we have of ourselves. As Norman Doidge puts it in The Brain’s Way of Healing: “Movement problems often arise because areas of the body are not well represented in the brain maps.”
When we start attending to our movements with curiosity and slowness, which allows for deeper awareness and ability to notice changes in our musculature and breath, we come to know if our movement patterns hold any unnecessary effort that we might have not been aware of. To undo or rewire the movement patterns that are in fact unnecessary, we need to first come to sense when we activate the habitual pattern so that we can learn to differentiate it and assign a new pathway to the movement. With moving, thinking, feeling and sensing being present in everything we do, you will also begin to sense shifts in other areas of your life as a result.
“A fundamental change in the motor basis within any single integration pattern will break up the cohesion of the whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns of their established routines. In this condition it is much easier to effect changes in thinking and feeling, for the muscular part through which thinking and feeling reach our awareness has changed and no longer expresses the patterns previously familiar to us. Habit has lost its chief support, that of the muscles, and has become more amenable to change.” Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement.
With self-awareness, we hold a much greater power to make a change in our lives than we have perhaps thought to be possible. Movement is a wonderful in-direct way of supporting us in the shift we have thought not to be possible. And because movement involves understanding our entire self, it has a function. Our brains want efficiency and only when something is deemed more efficient in its functionality does it get accepted as a new healthier neural connection.
For that reason alone, engaging in the process of self-inquiry holds within it infinite possibilities for growth - for a better quality of life that radiates from deep within us.
If you want to dive deeper, please read the two books referenced here:
"The Brain's Way of Healing" - Norman Doidge
"Awareness Through Movement" - Moshe Feldenkrais
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