One of the things I've been exploring lately is mantra meditation. My original interest came from being exposed to practitioners of TM(trancendental meditation.) I noticed how calm and pleasant they were to be around and how life seemed to flow easily for them. Clearly, TM keeps people in line with the natural rhythms and flow of the Soma and many studies have been done to investigate its' positive effects.
TM is in essence a mantra meditation. Certain sounds or phrases are repeated over and over in your head for a period of time and the idea is that by focusing on these sounds, everything else is put to rest. I saw immediate parallels with Somatic Movements. The purpose of both of these techniques is to direct the action of the brain towards refining and improving function of the Soma.
Our brains are sort of like muscles. In a similar way that muscles contract, brains focus attention and respond to stimulus. If our attention is scattered or being commanded to various places at once, connections will be made between those varied points and we will struggle to maintain focus on all things at once. This is evident in the muscle tension that many people suffer from. Our Somas are reacting to so much stimuli at one time and we are moving in conflicting directions. One part says go, the other says stop. This creates actual tension and compression on the joints and makes it much harder to move through the world.
A great example is the relationship between the flexor muscles of the abdomen and the extensor muscles of the back. Thomas describes the flexor muscles as 'red light' muscles. The red light muscles, when engaged, create a withdrawal reflex and contract in response to negative stress. Our back muscles extend us forward and are thus termed 'green light' muscles. They can be thought of as a joy reflex and respond to positive stress and action. As they relate to each other, the red light is the primary movement and the green light is a reversal of this. The red light muscles make us curl inwards and retreat. The green light muscles lift us up and open us to the world.
Clearly our modern age presents points of conflict for these patterns. We are faced with simultaneous urges to withdraw and extend. The constant barrage of car horns, angry bosses, credit card debt combines with the media attention on war, natural disasters and crime to create a immense load of negative stress. Meanwhile job advancement, relationships, self fulfillment compel us to move forward and advance. Somatically, if left to manage itself, this can create a great amount of tension and lead to postural contortion and pain. The harder our abdominal muscles contract to withdraw and flex, the harder our extensor/back muscles have to work to keep us upright moving forward in the world. It's no surprise that back pain is one of the leading causes of missed work and doctor visits. To add to this, conventional wisdom teaches us that the key to back health is a strong tight core. Further tightening our abdominal muscles will indeed strengthen and tighten our back muscles but it is at the expense of our spine. The compression formed from this co-contraction leads to compressed vertebrae, buldgeing discs and nerve impingements.
So what does meditation do and what does somatic movement do?
What meditation does is it quiets the brain activity. As activity and stress levels heighten, so does our brain/nervous system activity. As our point of engagement with the world, it is our brain and nervous system that takes in and responds to all the stimulus we encounter. The physical contractions and movements we feel are the externalized responses to these stimuli and reflexive movement is a natural way that our nervous system automates common reactions to recurring stimulus. By meditating we are focusing our brain around certain points, words, actions that allow the other activities of our nervous system to relax. As brain activity focuses and relaxes, so does muscular activity.
Similarly, Somatic movement by releasing muscle tension reduces and focuses brain activity. Through slow gentle engagement of our primary motor patterns we learn to focus the brain around certain muscles drawing attention away from other activity and towards healing positive activity.
By resting the muscles, we rest the brain, by resting the brain we rest the muscles. Although approached from different angles, the effect is the same. The cause and effect relationship of our Somas with the world around us and the seemingly disparate parts of our soma can act to cause us turmoil and pain or it can be used constructively to aid in growth and development.
For information on TM
For information on Mantra Meditation
2 comments:
very fascinating.. yet again, there are so many different methods that converge and lead us to the same outcome! i know that meditation has also been found to increase activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with positive affect... wonder what neuroimaging could tell us about somatics? i bet the effects on the brain would be extremely similar, given that what i have read about meditation (e.g., www.crystalinks.com/medbrain.html) sounds akin to the process that you highlight for the soma:
"Mindfulness meditation and related techniques are intended to train attention for the sake of provoking insight. Think of it as the opposite of attention deficit disorder. A wider, more flexible attention span makes it easier to be aware of a situation, easier to be objective in emotionally or morally difficult situations, and easier to achieve a state of responsive, creative awareness or "flow".
Daniel Goleman & Tara Bennett-Goleman (2001), suggest that meditation works because of the relationship between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Simply put, the amygdala is the part of the brain that decides if we should get angry or anxious (among other things), and the pre-frontal cortex is the part that makes us stop and think about things (it is also known as the inhibitory centre).
So, the prefrontal cortex is very good at analyzing and planning, but it takes a long time to make decisions. The amygdala, on the other hand, is simpler (and older in evolutionary terms). It makes rapid judgments about a situation and has a powerful effect on our emotions and behaviour, linked to survival needs. For example, if a human sees a lion leaping out at them, the amygdala will trigger a fight or flight response long before the prefrontal cortex responds.
But in making snap judgments, our amygdalas are prone to error, such as seeing danger where there is none. This is particularly true in contemporary society where social conflicts are far more common than encounters with predators, and a basically harmless but emotionally charged situation can trigger uncontrollable fear or anger - leading to conflict, anxiety, and stress.
Because there is roughly a quarter of a second gap between the time an event occurs and the time it takes the amygdala to react, a skilled meditator may be able to intervene before a fight or flight response takes over, and perhaps even redirect it into more constructive or positive feelings.
The different roles of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex can be easily observed under the influence of various drugs. Alcohol depresses the brain generally, but the sophisticated prefrontal cortex is more affected than less complex areas, resulting in lowered inhibitions, decreased attention span, and increased influence of emotions over behaviour. Likewise, the controversial drug ritalin has the opposite effect, because it stimulates activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Some studies of meditation have linked the practice to increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex, which is associated with concentration, planning, meta-cognition (thinking about thinking), and positive affect (good feelings). There are similar studies linking depression and anxiety with decreased activity in the same region, and/or with dominant activity in the right prefrontal cortex.
Meditation increases activity in the left prefrontal cortex, and the changes are stable over time - even if you stop meditating for a while, the effect lingers."
also, another very interesting reference:
www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/why-meditation-works-neuroimaging-study-supports-ancient-buddhist-teachings
there's also something to consider, which is the limit of consciousness. If you stared at a point on the wall and concentrated on nothing but that point, your perception of it would start to diminish and eventually you would see nothing. In the case of anxiety or spastic mind syndrome :-) the nothingness you're often attempting to achieve is a cessation of the primed fear or anxiety response. The startle reflex, which indeed happens at the unconscious subcortical level can become habituated so that it is sharper, quicker and more efficient. In the end someone who is very anxious/fearful gets so good at startling that they remain stuck in that startle respone.
We use the frontal lobe to focus on and inhibit that response, releasing the primed behavior. A technique you've mentioned to me Before Nicole is having people who are very sad "Be" in their sadness until the sadness goes away. It will go away because, just as with the point on the wall, anything you focus on will eventually disapear...
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