Curiosity Quotient: Consciousness / Happiness / Health
What if what you were sure was true in your movement practice was only part truth?
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Bruce Lipton, PhD’s, work. For those unfamiliar, he’s a groundbreaking researcher on stem cells, and an international leader on bridging science and spirit. His book The Biology of Belief was decades before its time in regards to how the conscious and unconscious mind communicate, and was the foundation for the field of epigenetics - how our genes are effected by our experiences.
In his stem cell research, Dr. Lipton recognized that the cells themself didn’t “know” what to become. They were in a conversation with whatever growing medium they were placed in, and through a chemical dialogue these cells grew to become organs / bones / fat / muscles respectively dependent upon if the growing medium informed them to be bones or fat, or the something other. Eventually through his work in quantum physics and consciousness, Dr. Lipton realized the same is true for the Self.
When we enter into any given environment, our mind creates a visual (a picture) of whether we feel safe or unsafe. Your mind begins to strategize how to respond to your world (-view). All of this is unconscious, and determined by past experiences. The brain reads these mental images and translates them into a chemical profile, and instructs the body to release specific chemical markers into the blood stream correlated to the mind’s image of the world. Dr. Lipton explains that our blood is the growing medium for our cells (like a petri dish). Because our blood composition is the result of the chemicals released by the brain correspondent to how our mind views our world … our individual body becomes the compliment to our specific world view.
In short: How one’s mind views the world is what they become! Literally. Physiologically.
Is your movement practice representative of feeling safe / secure / satiated by / and in harmony with the world you live in?
Or do you feel like you’re trying to get stronger to ___ / more flexible than ___ / afraid of getting it wrong / and consistently fixing something? Signals of scarcity, and not feeling truly FIT for the world.
Ninety-five percent of all decisions are unconscious. Studies have shown that even seconds (yup … a lot of them) before we make a “conscious” decision, brain activity representative of unconscious thinking has already begun. What at first appears as a conscious decision “to do” something is often a result of your unconscious mind having already made the pre-determined action for you.
This introduces a shift. The internal conversations of “I’m going to choose to be safe when doing ___,” or “I can’t ___,” and “If only ____,” are rarely markers of current inability, and more guided by last-standing unconscious narratives.
The crux is that allowing and strengthening those narratives by safeguarding and obedient rule-following through your movement practice further tunes our nervous system to expect and search for more inputs of insecurity and scarcity. What looks a whole lot like a “smart and safe” movement practice can often be a cage of inadequacy … that spills over to our personal and professional life.
What I’m advocating for, in this blog, through my work, and especially in my movement coaching is that we take a pause on “doing movement” and create strategies / habits / and skillsets around experiencing ourself through movement. That you dilate open your awareness and see what you notice about your movement habits and patterns (and create opportunities to challenge and adjust what you notice) … rather than getting stuck in a process of over-efforting the doing-ness of movement. It’s a matter of curiosity!
That curiosity just might be the most valuable skill you harness and explore. A recent book (Successful Aging) by neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin, reports that more than your IQ (Intelligence Quotient), or your EQ (Emotional Quotient), your CQ is the most valuable asset for aging and living well. CQ is your Curiosity Quotient. It’s the tool that allows for childlike question-asking and wonderment about your world. It leads to discovery (which leads to a healthy dose of dopamine). It invites gratitude … which is the key to a healthy nervous system / happiness / and long life.
Practicing and exploring movement through curiosity and conscious awareness … rather than a stoic doing-ness … leads to deeply rich physical experiences, and quite possibly creates opportunities for our Self to organize into mind-bodies that expect to find happiness and success in our world.
Dr. Lipton has found that what our mind perceives our body becomes. I’m invested in exploring the inverse … creating curious minds through curious movement.
HOMEWORK: This week’s is simple and HARD.
Pick something you’re afraid of doing, and do it.
If you resist running because of your knees … run for three steps.
If you think you can’t do a pull-up … arm hang for 5 seconds.
If you’ve never tried Pilates because you have a “weak core” … look up a YouTube video and try 5 minutes
Push-ups … try one … fully planked … even if you don’t make it all the way down.
Then tomorrow … try it again.
Not to get it right! Just to get curious about your experience with it.
~ james CRADER
