“The five languages of breath, sound, contact, stillness, and movement are all forms of physical activity, so there are many pathways you can pursue. Your health is not dependent on only a few standardized forms such as weightlifting, aerobics classes or even Yoga.”

Movement as Medicine:
Body Wisdom for Modern Times

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We live in exciting times. In the last 30 years, scientific knowledge of the human body has grown tremendously. Applications in the fields of bodywork, sports psychology and the somatic arts have similarly blossomed. You may not know many of these new developments in movement awareness and expression. Yet, it is worth the effort to find out about them; personal collaboration with your body is essential for ongoing health and well-being. In spite of the achievements of allopathic medicine and the proliferation of new wonder drugs, the majority of illnesses in the modern world are stress-related disorders. These disorders, as doctors have pointed out, can be greatly influenced by physical activity.

After many years of working with the body and its expression, especially with people challenging chronic disease, I began to formulate the concept of “movement as medicine”. What can we do for our health with what we have been given by nature? What technologies are hard-wired in our system so we can easily access and activate them? I identified what I consider the basic languages of bodily intelligence: breath, sound, contact, stillness, and movement. These five languages can be used for an articulate dialogue within your body, promoting physical health, emotional well-being and creative satisfaction.

Many of us are ignorant about our bodily intelligences through no fault of our own. It’s as if our bodies are high-end cameras with many options, yet we are taught to use them as if they were simply disposable cameras. Physical education in most schools, for example, is primarily sports education, using the body as an instrument to accomplish a competitive goal. Traditional physical education has little to do with understanding bodily intelligence or physiological self-regulation.

The five languages of breath, sound, contact, stillness, and movement are all forms of physical activity, so there are many pathways you can pursue. Your health is not dependent on only a few standardized forms such as weightlifting, aerobics classes or even Yoga. Once you learn the grammar and vocabulary of these five languages, connection with your body is available at any moment. You are movement! It is not necessary to create another segment in an overly scheduled life to squeeze in movement time. Whether you take even a few minutes sprinkled here and there throughout the day, or give yourself a longer time frame for practice, the use of these five languages can make the difference between living anxiously and breathlessly, or graciously and securely.

Let’s take a moment to focus on the first language: breath. You may ask yourself, why learn to breathe? Breathing just happens automatically; I’m already breathing! Yet, the instrument of the breath, once you learn to play it, creates amazing music. Breath is the primary movement of life. The artful use of breathing maximizes its ability to be restorative and energizing for your body. You can change your internal chemistry by shifting the tempo and duration of the inhale, of the exhale and of the pauses in-between. And by playing your breath to change your chemistry, you alter your mood, your state of mind, and your feelings. Breathe slowly to sedate energy and relax. Breathe quickly to stimulate energy and invigorate. And when you make your exhale audible with vocal vibration, you amplify the benefits to your system and make your song visible to the world. (More about that later.)

Take a few deep breaths now. Notice what happens with your ribcase, shoulders, and back. You might notice you are lifting your ribcase and breathing upwards. Many people do this, indicating primary use of the intercostal muscles of the ribcase. Those muscles are designed to be the helpers, not the main moving force. That is the role of the central diaphragm, a 360-degree, dome-shaped muscle, which divides your chest from your belly. Each time you inhale, the diaphragm contracts, flattens out and presses down towards your pelvis. Each time you exhale, it relaxes and floats back up towards your heart. My favorite image for this action is that of a jellyfish, pressing down and floating back up in the depths of the ocean, with all the time in the world.

The central diaphragm is a major player of the body. The average flex of the diaphragm is about 1 inch, whereas for people who practice deep diaphragmatic breathing, the flex is between 2.5 - 3.5 inches. Breath and sound practices create greater flexibility and strength in the diaphragm, which impacts not only your lungs, but other body systems as well. Your abdominal organs are massaged and pulsed by the movement of the diaphragm, keeping them toned and in shape. Your heart doesn’t have to work so hard when you breathe deeply and fully. The diaphragm shares the heart’s workload, enabling easier circulation and maximizing oxygen exchange in the cells.

Not taking advantage of your body’s design and harmonious functioning creates inefficient action. This not only wears out your system over time, but also diminishes your pleasure as a moving body. If there is no pleasure in movement, any fitness or wellness program you undertake can just become another chore and a bother. Look at the ease of movement of animals; a cat’s stretch does not appear to be a task. Even breathing in its original state, as you can see in infants, is full and spacious, a wonder to behold. There is truly an element of grace in their movement expression. As the Chinese sage Mencius declared in the 4^th Century B.C.:

“Humans as they move out of childhood throw away their minds. Thereafter the whole of life is to recover the lost mind of the child, …to be sensitized to the first subtle spontaneities within the heavenly bestowed nature of the human, for here resides an infallible guide."

To recover our childhood minds through our bodies is to discover a great source of vitality and spirit within. Not surprisingly, all spiritual traditions have used a variety of breath and sound practices to alter consciousness. From the Pranayama techniques of Yoga to the Gregorian chants of Christianity, breath and sound have been used to shift from the material world to the realm of Spirit. My approach to breath and sound is secular and biological. As it is not derived from any specific religious tradition, these somatic technologies are applicable to all spiritual paths.

In my workshops and individual sessions, I teach you these tools – the five languages of breath, sound, contact, stillness, and movement - and a method for collaborating with your body: playfully, pragmatically, and pleasurably. Ongoing use of these languages is more likely if they are useful and pleasurable, and if they also evoke your curiosity and creativity. So, take a moment now - and each day hereafter - to appreciate your breath, experiment with your breath, and enjoy your breath!

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Jamie McHugh.
Photo by Rick Chapman.