Learning Through Feeling – “The Mirror” on AikiWeb
Learning Through Feeling – “The Mirror” on AikiWeb
I’m one of a group of writers on AikiWeb.com called “The Mirror”. We write a column every month. This month was my turn again. Learning to feel, and learning through feeling, through the body, have been some of the most important and valuable things I’ve gotten from my Aikido training. I hope you enjoy the column: http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19818
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You see when a baby animal experiences stress, its brain changes so that it’s subsequently less sensitive to stress hormones. This means that, as an adult, the critter recovers more rapidly after a hair-raising experience (21). And we know that play (which normally consists of exciting ‘flight or fight’ behaviors) activates the same neurochemical pathways as stress (22). So maybe young animals are using play to prime or fine-tune their own stress response.The other very important thing we’ve learnt from the humble rat is that when they’re reared with lots of companions and interesting objects, they develop larger brains than rats that grow up in austere surroundings. These enriched rats not only have heavier cerebral cortexes, with more neural connections, they learn more quickly too.
Researchers teased apart the factors that promoted this brain growth and found that sensory stimulation and arousal (even together) couldn’t increase cortical growth unless they were coupled with interactive behavior (i.e. play or training). And it was play that had the biggest impact; in fact, the more a young rat played, the more rapidly its brain grew (23).
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Very interesting article covering lots of potential reasons for play (rough and tumble interaction). Read the whole thing here: Lynda Sharpe, a wonderful blogger, in a guest column on Scientific American website on the role of play. Thank you to zanshinart for sharing this!)
Wake up calls
This is kinda funny, especially relative to the “wake-up call” quality of atemi discussed in class last night. Today I was listening to the Working … Read more …
Year Three – Another Beginning
Today marks the beginning of my third year in Aikido. When I first started training, I meant to become a better horseperson. I have, but … Read more …
Training with My Whole Heart
About this time next week, if all goes according to plan, I will be packing up Rainy’s things, feeding him a few last carrots, and … Read more …
Going to Summer Camp!
This summer, June 12-18, 2011, I’m going for the first time to the Aiki Summer Retreat at Menlo College, in Atherton, California (in the Bay … Read more …
It was like a lighted match had been tossed into my soul.
It was like a dam had broken in my heart.
From The Song Remembers When
Trisha Yearwood
The lyric is about a song unexpectedly bringing back long-forgotten memories of someone. But these lines really capture for me the experience of discovering Aikido. Something clicked internally. Perhaps, like the song, it is a kind of remembering, too. Not memories of another, but of who I am.
