Planet Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. For 3.5 billion years, the causes and conditions for life supported single cell organisms. Cells started to come together into collectives or systems over the last billion years. The reptilian muscle groups trapezius, lat dorsi and obliques are 4-500 million years old. The estimate on upright mammals is 6-7 million years. The agrarian age lasted maybe 10000 years and continues today with the aid of machinery from the industrial age (500 years). The informational age started in the mid 1970’s and the computing power is doubling every 18 months!!
The causes and conditions affecting the basis for stabilising and moving are de-evolving to our detriment, yet our ability to balance the forces acting on us are largely ignored. The time spent sitting is one of the greatest challenges facing our moving system and this challenge needs to be understood in work-places, educational settings and to reduce the exponential costs to our health and medical systems.
When you consider change from an evolutionary perspective, you see change in Form over time. This change in Form is actual trans-formation. It turns out that development is envelopment and follows the principle of transcend but include. Atoms/Molecules/Cells/Organisms is a simple example of the higher order (Transcend) emerging as a result of the ingredients of the lower order (Include).
The above statement is supported by the first law of thermodynamics which states;
Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.
The intelligence of breathing, moving and stabilising started in the respiration, shape change and movement of single cell organisms and has reached its zenith in the upright mammals we call humans being. This post will explore living facts about the functional and neurological basis for being upright and stable.
When I speak to people about the intelligence of UP, I can see that they are curious, but that this Living Intelligence is Unfamiliar. As you read this, can you say with any confidence that you understand the Intelligence of Up and Down?
Our Living Postural-Stability system has two basic requirements;
Lengthening in the field of Gravity.
Space in the Body irradiating from Centre caused by Intra-Abdominal Pressure, which is the Stabilising Function of the Deep Stabilising System.
Consider the implications of this Education for Ideal Function through your entire life-span.
Postural Length and Space influencing the function and recruitment of your Body at Rest or Capacity with the common Experience of Ease.
In order to function optimally in the experiential containers of Body, Mind and World/Task, we need to be free of the grip of Conditioned Thinking. We cannot attend to sensation, breathing, or enjoy the beauty of nature, if the thought factory is running full-time.
Lengthening in Gravity requires Attention. The Attention to do this is Global. In the Experience of this Globality, there is an organic oscillation of Attention to That which has priority in the Moment. In other words, the Living/Postural/Stabilising Intelligence knows itself Energetically, and in order to Function Optimally, the Energetics need to be clear. In nearly all cases, this requires Skilful Guidance, in order for the experience to accurately target our cortical map of the pattern in the brain.
Global Attention does not grasp at any particular result, but rather functions to Understand the current Arising in the context being explored. This is where Knowledge of the Postures from your neuro-developmental unfolding are essential, because it is the consistent practice of these postures, which keep you established in ‘functional ideal.’
One of my main coaching cues in classes is to attend from A-Z, not A-B, with A-B being the tendency to rush to the end-point of the exercise, often with a poor foundation at A. A-Z requires attention to the speed and fluency of the exercise coming from attending to the Deep Stabilising System (DSS). If my competency is limited to the set-up of the exercise, I stay with this active experience, while waiting for permission to move through from the CNS. This permission turns up as knowing where you are from the energetics of the posture, and realising that movement is possible from the Global perspective.
The cellular systemic intelligence making up the body is intrinsically ideal, but is breaking down rapidly as we deal with massive epi-genetic changes to our living environment, while the information we are receiving straddles the old metabolic paradigm, the influence of Paleo, and the still emergent Living Systems Understanding.
Where do you sit as you consider your growth and development? What indeed is Reliable? If your goal is full-function through a life-span???