What do we mean by reflexive?

Pattern Generation and Meaning Making

If you have even a few neurons in a petri dish they will start to form circuits and and generate waves and patterns of activation. But then these patterns have no relevant meaning in the outside world until an appropriate receiver turns it into movement and gets sensory feedback. When we decide to stand up we must select and sequence the movement units needed - ie: shift center of weight over feet, press feet into earth, shift the pelvis forward, extend the hips, align head over base of support... We can be(come) aware of the little pieces (consciously) or simply act and somehow the selection and sequencing happens 'automatically' (unconsciously). A complex chain neural centers from the motor cortex, to the cerebellum, through the pons and brainstem, down the spine, and finally to those parts of the spine where the central pattern generators (CPG) distribute impulses to muscle fibers. CPGs act rhythmically and are either suppressed or amplified by both higher centers and their own golgi tendon and muscle spindle reflex arcs. At each level there are complex feedback and feed forward loops that monitor incoming information and adjust the output based upon mental images and goals. Any given neuron is binary in that either it fires or is doesn't, what is not binary is what decides whether it fires - how much and how fast it receives what ratio of inhibitory and excitatory stimuli. "Proprioceptive reflexes are not hard-wired but rather are context- and phase-dependent, with the central nervous system selecting input-output pathways appropriate for the task at hand." (quote) How neurons behave and organize is 'hardwired' into the physiological nature of the 'wires' themselves but what a signal 'means' in the outside world is programed upon action-based body maps in the spinal cord which emerge during development. These body maps are only 'good enough' and the best we have worked out so far in our efforts to cope with the environment.

An impulse leads to movement, resulting in sensory feedback, allowing the impulse to 'know itself'. The current calibration of this system is a record of our entire developmental process from the embryonic to the present moment. How we have come to experience self, agency, and options at the intersection of an inner and outer environment. The health and diversity of this system will determine the state of the physical structure as it ages and its ability to function. By exploring different facets of movement, we can provide our nervous system with data by which to optimize and open to new possibility.

The First Year and the Rest of Your Life

Just read this book and Loved it - quite technical and written specifically for an audience of psychotherapists but still accessible to the lay person. It offers a way of understanding pre-verbal communication - both an infant's as well as your own - and how to use this to deepen your process of co-creative meaning making

With an infant, with a partner, or with anyone you may encounter.

thought flow

Among other projects lately I have been writing an index for a somatic text. Staring for hours at a spreadsheet of words with over 1700 entries they start to run together into poetry.

syntaxless Information creates its own context

2 movement

2 focus

3 muscular system

3 qualities

vitality

3 qualities

power

3 resistance

3 organs system

3 breathing

3 nourishment

3 elimination

3 contents

3 container

3 volume

3 emotions

3 endocrine system

3 endocrine glands and bodies

3 intuition

3 mind

universal

3 nervous system

3 alertness

3 thought

3 fluid system

3 fluids

3 qualities

flow

3 presence

3 transformation

3 fluids

fascia

0 facial system

see fluids, fascia

3 connective tissue

3 boundaries

3 support

internal

3 activity

3 rest

3 inner and outer

3 feeling

3 expression

Earth Membrane Receptor

My heart pulses and kneeds freely as lungs fill a soft flaring rib-basket.

the 5 lungs (3rt, 2lft are heavy smooth bloodfull sponges - sliding against each other, the membrane of the thoracic cavity, and the undulating heart embraced between. stacked on top of each other. Those below resting upon the diaphragm - sucked down and pressed up. Those above pressed and sucked by those below. All pressing and sucking against their lubricating, protective sacks and suspended from the trachea, through the thyroid butterfly and hyoid bone, to the glotis and anchored into the sinuses.

Notice how soft and easily, long tides of breath can flow out and in - lungs condensing and expanding, Breath spiraled by nasal turbinids down into the microscopic alveolar sacks.

Osmotic forces press and suck gasses across the delicate mucus membrain into the blood. The spirilic flow of breath allows fluid drainage through small openings to swirl within spherical chambers to maximize dispersion.

The expanding lungs and rib basket and descending diaphragm all draw the paricardium large allowing the heart to suck in more blood.

The rising diaphragm, and condensing ribs and lungs press against the heart and help it pump more powerfully. . The heart is polirhythmic.

This pulsating living architecture rests upon and interacts with the digestive organs across the diaphragm. The stomach and spleen, liver, and pancreas rest upon the intestines which are piled into the pelvic bowl and contained by the peritoneal sack of the abdominal cavity.

Shifting the foundation sends undulations upward.

Fluids piled upon each other, resting in gravity.

A soft pulsating tower. Embedded upon Earths membrane

Connections & Contextuals

In the last post I spoke of three major themes without tying them together: cellular consciousness, system organization, and state dependent learning. I also paired it with a soundtrack containing inquiries and information about movement of the mouth, jaw, and eyes.

Information percolates through the layers. Causal connections (this shifts that affects that...) becomes networked non-linearly. I have been holding the question of relationship between these layers of language in my felt sense of body and self.

On every level, biology is behaving itself. Looking at our behavior at a cellular level helps identify and organize basic archetypal sensory-motor processes which we recapitulate in diverse and unique expressions - as ourselves.

The relationship of inner space and outer space separated across a membrane is fundamental to the human experience. Looking at how amoebas and bacteria interact with their environment can understand the movement of life and nature's genius for systemic efficiency.

Bacteria will move toward nourishment consistently and withdraw sharply from an adverse stimuli (ie: toxin / needle). These are its two basic choices as an organized center relative to everything 'other'. How it changes its shape to flow towards or away determines its success and survival as an organism.

Because most of our membrane has become stronger and more dense to contain our size, metabolic nourishment (ie: food) intake in the human organism is localized in the head along with the chemorecoptors of taste and smell, vibration sensing membranes of the ears (is well as balance in the labyrinthine complex of the inner ear with its otoliths) , photoreceptors of the eyes, and dense sensory motor innervation in the lips, tongue, jaw and neck. This allows for orienting as while an amoeba is omnidirectional, the animal is differentiated top and bottom, front and back.

Working with movement of the head, eyes, mouth, jaw, and tongue can allow us to access the patterning of how our vast multicellular organism makes decisions. Providing deep impulses and organizing how we relate with our environment.

soundtrack

Cells Selves Systems

Cellular systems have been a big theme lately. Living structure - units, multiplicities, unities. Membrane differentiating inside and out in diverse levels and planes. The cellular membrane is studded with thousands of receptors with which to interact with environment - different receptors paired with particular stimuli. Ectoderm wraps around and pinches off to form the skin, nervous system and senses. Microcosm reflecting macrocosm. Pressure receptors, temperature receptors, photoreceptors, chemoreceptors - and every structure being touched and moved by sound. Suspended in fluid. An ocean on land.
. Inside is teaming. Those cells making up all body tissues are outnumbered 10 to 1 by bacteria, fungi and a complex ecology of flora and fauna.
An orchestra of function expressing itself. Osteoblasts laying down bones - liquid crystal spiralic architecture - pulsing pink as vital new red blood cells well up from the marrow. Billions of cells bursting with life, enacting inner and outer processes, organizing in relationship to all the others. Image is of a neural stem cell.

Soundtrack: Furrling Undulat (Lesson Edit)

Ancient wisdom expressed through system theory to construct a biopsychosocial model - 6 properties of systems (Tapp and Warner, 1985) are proposed. Wholeness, hierarchical organization, interdependence, self-maintenance, activity, and self-transformation. On every level as well as on the grand-unity scale there are wholes - the parts are wholes, made of wholes. Life is holy. Hierarchy as a word has a bad reputation currently but is simply expressing relationship between micro and macro. I have more say as to what this whole (self) does than does any given cell. With that, all parts (wholes) rely on all other parts (wholes) ~ if one part of the fractal were different the whole would be different. And the larger whole relies upon and is an intimate expression of the functioning of its parts (heterarchy). The systems contain feedback and internal sensing mechanisms to maintain the integrity of the internal environment as transformation of shape and state manifests as a continual interaction between many system elements. The system's capacity to transform over time in response to a dynamic environment - changing in both form and structure - is an essential component of the system's survival. A static system is dying.

Growth and learning proceed in waves.

Polyrhythmic

Life undulates

The theory of state dependent learning memory and behavior (Rossi 1993) proposes that liminal states, flow, play, trance, creativity and grieving are conditions which open the system to change. They are characterized by simultaneous perception of many things, and layers of overlapping meaning - fluid, swift, and open to both new discoveries and perception of similarity (Kubiel 1958). The 'Spell Drive' of Laban Movement Notation (LMA) is defined by "timelessness" which is also a defining characteristic of play (Brown). Irmgard Bartenieff (1980) called it hypnotic and said it "radiates a quality of fascination". Curious in the unfurling.

This music speaks in curious re-unfurling loops - each loop representing a small unit of behavior - the movement phrase (Shapero 1999). Complexity flows as an emergent quality in repetition which also establishes the container of safety to drop time and step into magical play as self-transforming process.

Cycles of Effort and Recovery

The world around us is cyclic: day follows night, seasons and generations flow one into the next. Plants and animals are born, mature, reproduce, and die. And within us are cycles embedded within cycles: exhalation and inhalation, contraction and relaxation of the heart, the flow of blood and other fluids, sleeping and waking - each with their own rhythm and purpose that supports and makes up who we are.

One set of cycles - both evident and elusive - are our cycle of effort and recovery. In fact, almost all cycles express these qualities. The heart contracts and then relaxes and is filled with blood to pump once again. Fresh, red, oxygenated arterial blood is pumped out throughout the body carrying warmth, nutrience, and potential energy - and returns in swooshing waves of venous blood carrying carbon dioxide, dead cells, and metabolic wastes. We sleep soundly and awaken energized - or at least ideally. Our human ability to disrupt cycles is part of what gives us the space to act with volition and creatively. But often important cycles are disrupted through personal choice, unconscious behaviors, or social pressures. Sitting at desks for hours, doing repetitive tasks, using one mode of thinking for extended periods.... Consciously choosing recuperation patterns allows for more effective and dynamic living.

What are your major activities? What would be an opposite activity?
What are the qualities of your day? Single focused or multi-tasking? High or low intensity? Are you alone or interacting with people? Maybe you will need to do a couple different things to recover from the complex efforts of your day.

As humans we form habit patterns very quickly. One thing to watch out for in choosing recovery activities is - often unconsciously - continuing in an effort that has become habitual. For example: Being under time pressure at work, focusing intensely, looking straight ahead at the screen for hours to meet some deadline - then 'recovering' by going for a run, trying to beat some time goal, pushing hard and focusing, eyes fixed forward... see what I mean? Running is a recovery from sitting but the other efforts are carried through. Maybe a better recovery would be to do short sprints interspersed with walks, looking around at the scenery - along with giving your body a little giggle and shake periodically throughout the day, remembering to blink frequently and looking away from the screen to allow your eyes to focus at a different depth even for a few seconds every minute or so.

On how many levels can you make cycles of conscious recovery part of your lifestyle?