Reawaken Your Inner Animal:
Rediscover Your First-Year Movements
Did you know you can discover different aspects of yourself as well as reprogram your brain by exploring animal like movements.
It can also be a way of deepening your relationship to the other beings we share our beautiful world with.
You’ve probably heard of your reptilian or mammalian brain. That part of our nervous system which causes us to freeze (reptile) or fight- flight (mammal) but did you know that how we learn to move during our first year before we learn to stand upright mirrors the evolution of life on earth? These movements prepare us for standing upright, but they also support the development of our brain in many ways. All these movements involve primitive reflexes and by repeating them as an adult you can repattern your brain.
I have a guided visualisation on these animal movements
When you are in the womb, you live in water. You remember swimming in the sea, Already by two weeks after conception you are a wiggly flat line like a water snake. You are a two layer disc with a top and bottom, front and back. All form and all movement will development from this disc. In TCM this are the 2 Extraordinary Vessels of Conception and Governing.
As you receive blood from your mother through your umbilical cord around eight weeks, you organise around your centre, like a star fish, floating in the sea. You have six’” limbs” your two arms and two legs and your head and your tail: pelvis. These are the other 6 Extraordinary Vessels . Your centre is your gate of life in TCM.
During birth, you strengthen your midline. As you emerge from your mother’s body, your head and neck stretches, stimulating your mouth to prepare it for receiving food. After birth you develop your midline movements on land as you wiggle like a snake discovering the earth. You continue to strengthen your midline, spine and digestive system.
You develop your star fish movement into becoming amphibian like a frog, with a big belly and four limbs, and a head. You develop your arms and legs as you learn about the forces of gravity. They become stronger and can reach further into space. You integrate primitive reflexes, like the Moro (startle) which opens both your arms or legs simultaneously. You learn that you have an upper part and a lower part of your body. You can say “’yes” as you open and “no” as you close. These movements are integrated when you consciously place your hands or your feet together from around three to four months. They are known as homologous movements. You learn how to centre yourself.
As you continue developing you become more reptilian. You begin to recognise that you have a left and right side : an arm and leg on each side. This prepares you for more complex movements as you learn to consciously roll onto one side and another. These are homolateral movements. You may begin to sit.
As this is integrated you are ready to explore even more complex movements like a mammal. The nature of these movements is to be able to do a different movement with the leg and arm of the same side. In these movements you learn to cross over your centre and develop more coordination between the left and right hemispheres of your brain. These are contralateral movements.
Once these movements are integrated you can crawl in a cross pattern ways with the leg and arm of the opposite sides moving together.
Once you crawl you can begin to pull yourself up using objects around you. You prepare to stand. First like a primate and, as your brain matures along with movements and awareness of your relationship to earth and to space, you are able to stand upright and assume your fully human posture. Interesting you have returned to the straight line form, organising around your spine, with your head away from earth and your feet close.
I have a video on YouTube where you can engage in some of these movements from the fluid motions of a water snake to the upright stance of a human—to support brain integration and body awareness. I conclude with a short meditation to integrate the practice and foster a sense of inner peace.
Clapping exercises
It is fascinating that simple clapping exercises support these different movements. Do these with a partner or place your hands on your thighs instead. Children used to play clapping games, which help them integrate these body movements and it is even more important to encourage this body awareness, given the ubiquity of mobile phones, which overly engage our upper body.
Clap your hands together (centre, spinal and homologous).
Clap your hands to your partner’s hands in front of you, with your left to their right, your right to their left (left/right: homolateral).
Clap your hands together again.
Clap your hands to your partner’s hand on the other side of your body, crossing the midline (crossing: contralateral).
Clap your hands together again.
Repeat a few times and get faster each time.
Do it without coming back to centre; you probably feel dispersed.
Do it in random orders: you might also feel dispersed.