By Amy Tan | 12 June 2010

“We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” – John Berger, Ways of Seeing.

Here are some excerpts from a Saturday evening’s experiential movement workshop I taught to several teachers from a learning center for children with learning challenges on the relationship between our senses, our perception and the way we move and how they all influence the way we learn, communicate and experience the world we live in. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to explore and learn with wonderful teachers and colleagues all over. To share and to learn through sharing it with others challenges and teaches me once again in an entirely new way.
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“Continuum Movement seeks a relationship to our own sensation and movement possibilities that lead to states of greater awareness and more resonance with self, other and the fluid. Movement is what we are, not something we do.” – Gael Ohlgren.
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The way we move, how we live in our bodies and how much we are tuned into our inner complexities of aliveness in our own bodies are closely related and influenced by our senses – eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Our senses become portals and pathways in which we receive and communicate information with our environment and surroundings. As the information enters into us, how we move and carry our bodies is then a response, an answer which we communicate to others.

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The more we are attuned to our own bodies, the more accurate we can negotiate a comfortable boundary for ourselves and also able to sense and respect the boundary of others.

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Our posture, structure and movement influence our breathing pattern and the ease of a full exhalation can affect our ability or quality of speech and expression through our voice – an important piece when communicating with others.

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Skin is our largest organ and is mechanoreceptor rich to send and receive information. The feedback loop it provides by receiving information of our immediate environment and surroundings enables us to response in a suitable manner. And it has the ability to influence how we feel and hence how we orient with our body – in movement and in the space around us.

I wish you have the space and time to reconnect with yours too.