However, there is a way to make the process of awareness more complete and thorough and that is through understanding and paying attention to elements and ideas of movement. For example, all movement exists through or in SPACE, takes TIME, and is performed with a degree of FORCE.
Let’s take a gesture with a different awareness each time. First move your arm forward in SPACE and focus your awareness on the spatial aspects of the movement. Do the same as you go back with your arm. Imagine you had lights attached to your shoulder, elbow and hand and you could see the visual pattern of the movement in space. Do it again and change TIMING … perhaps you could move your arm forward very slowly and fast coming back. Do this several times until you notice how the movement begins to take on a rhythmic pattern. Do you “feel” how the movement is changing? Now again, and this time try moving your arm forward making a fist and using intense resistance, and come back slowly letting the resistance go and your arms drop. Do you see how the dynamics have changed? You could continue to explore changing the ways that you use SPACE, TIME and FORCE in this movement and come up with a variety of qualities. As you learn to focus more keenly on the “feeling” of these qualities another set of responses will be generated. These responses of feeling plug into very personal feeling states that are directly associated with your life experiences. For example, reaching forward and drawing back fast with your arms may have all kinds of associations and feelings attached to the movement. Try it again and pay attention to those associations and feelings. When I do it, I imagine I’m reaching to give and suddenly pull back in fear. When you do the same movement you may feel something quite personal and different. Although the movement is OBJECTIVE we each have a SUBJECTIVE response. We can explore any movement and this same process, inherent in all movement, will occur. It is a NATURAL process and is the basis through which we can communicate and create with movement. This process is the basis through which we can empathize, communicate and share feelings with others.
To summarize this process:
1. The kinesthetic sense is your special sense for being aware of your movements and empathizing with others.
2. Your movements take place in SPACE, are measured by TIME and performed with a degree of FORCE. These elements determine the QUALITY of your movement.
3. When you pay attention to the QUALITY of your movements, FEELING STATES are aroused.
4. These FEELING STATES are what constitute your ability to experience yourself in movement.
The movement may be OBJECTIVE in that many people can do the same movement and SUBJECTIVE in that each person will respond according to personal associations and feelings.
I consider this a NATURAL process, having a biological base and being inherent in all human beings.
GRAVITY. INERTIA AND MOMENTUM
Another important source for developing a keener use of the kinesthetic sense is the consciousness of movement in relation to GRAVITY, INERTIA and MOMENTUM. These three elements operate on our bodies from the outside, whether we are in rest or motion. The human body is subject to the pull of gravity as is any other object on earth. When you move you are moving in two polarities—one is going with gravity, the other is going against gravity; there are all shades of yielding or resisting that lie in between. For example, let’s go back to your arm. Lift your arms shoulder height and hold them there until they get tired. Then let go and gravity will cause them to drop.
INERTIA is the desire to continue moving in the same direction. Try running full speed ahead and then suddenly turning to go the other way. This is difficult but also very exciting. Changing direction in movement is overcoming inertia. Have you noticed that when you are lying down at rest, it is often difficult to get up? You need to apply a great deal of will and often have to force yourself up—not just because you are tired but because you are overcoming and resisting inertia and gravity.
MOMENTUM is also constantly operating on the body. You can experience momentum by doing a swing with your arms. The higher your arms drop from space, the more momentum you will build up; the shorter the drop the less momentum you will experience. What I have found fundamental in using gravity, inertia and momentum is a keen sense of awareness of these forces. In this way you can use the energy from an inter-dependency of these elements to give your movement ease, pleasure and excitement.
For me, it is like giving my controlling mind over to these forces and letting the movement take on more energy. Running is much easier if you lean forward and go with gravity, inertia and momentum than if you are upright or leaning backwards and resisting. Try this out for yourself and see if it is true for you. Perhaps swinging on a swing is such a pleasant experience because of the harmony of the body giving over to gravity, inertia and momentum. Children feel this and love to swing. A rocking chair gives this same kind of comfort. In such movements gravity, inertia and momentum are moving you. I often say to myself, “Let the movement take over and move you.”
And so we have another set of universal laws that govern our movement which I call NATURAL. It is according to the nature within us all, the nature of how our bodies operate, that we respond to these forces.
Rhythm
The basis of a rhythmic movement lies in the alternation between contraction and release of muscle groups over bones. As you contract one set of muscles, you release another set in order for the bone to move. For example, get that arm out again for some more experimentation. Put your arm straight out in front of you. Now bend at the elbow joint. What happened is that your flexor muscles contracted, bending (flexing) your arm. At the same time your extensor muscles released, allowing the bend to occur. Now this time, resist the bending of the arm by contracting your extensor muscles too. If the opposing muscles match the degree of contraction the arm will not move but stay in place. This principle applies to every joint in the body.
Each joint has a different set of ranges: elbow and knee is hinge-action, the shoulder and hip is circular, the head is pivoting, the spine is rotating, etc. It is important in our consciousness of movement to be aware of the opposing forces and of how we manipulate the degree of resistance, or the release, as well as the particular joint range. The use of this principle is what determines your ability to move efficiently and according to the intention of the movement you wish to perform. An uninformed use of this principle causes strain. The implications of this fundamental principle are very great. Just one implication is that contraction and release in alternating intervals give a sense of RHYTHM. Think of rhythm as inherent in the balance and consciousness of activity and rest. Think of rhythm as the way in which you consciously organize these opposing forces within your movement, which is itself a basic and perhaps determining ingredient of rhythm. Once again go back to your arms. You need to experience and try these ideas out for yourself and through your own experience accept or reject what I’m saying as valid or not. Work with muscular contraction and release in your arms. Explore different relationships between contracting and releasing and see what happens.
This time use the trapezius muscles (the large muscles over your shoulder blades) and the pectoral muscles in front (the muscles over the front of your chest) as well as the muscles in your arms. Release the pectoral muscles and contract your trapezius muscles and notice how your arms are drawn back. If the chest muscles are tight and not capable of releasing, the movement is at an impasse. Now move your arms, paying attention to the intervals of contraction and release. Do you feel the inner core of the movement? Find a movement that you can repeat several times using the same dynamic or the same use of tension and release. Do you feel the rhythmic phrase established by the time intervals between contraction and release?
Rhythm and RELAXATION are interconnected yet different. Whereas rhythm is the dynamics of timing between intervals of contraction, release and various types of opposing forces, relaxation is the equilibrium and balance between rest
