Popular Post Kit_L Posted May 10, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 10, 2016 A quote from a brilliant article linked to below: "Haptic intelligence is human intelligence. We’re just so smart with it that we don’t know it yet. It’s actually much harder to make a chess piece move correctly—to pick up the piece and move it across the board and put it down properly—than it is to make the right chess move.” Katherine J. Kuchenbecker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/what-the-science-of-touch-says-about-us?mbid=nl_160509_Daily&CNDID=27078136&spMailingID=8897091&spUserID=MTA5MjQwNTA5ODA5S0&spJobID=920911188&spReportId=OTIwOTExMTg4S0 The sense of touch is our work in ST, and in my view, touch is the core of awareness (because the body and its sensations only exists in the present). This is an immensely important article. It is important to realise how little we know about touch; I have long thought that we in the ST world are a new kind of explorer (especially in a world where sights and sounds are so all-pervasive, and accorded huge importance). Of course, what we are doing is not "new", but unlike the other senses, whose content can be recorded and stored, touch cannot, and what we learn about it, and how we might refine it is an unique experience that cannot be transferred, copied and reproduced. Refining touch is refining awareness itself. This is what we are doing, I believe. That is the common thread in physical cultivation, whether it be strength, flexibility, movement, skill development, and so on. Those of you who met me when I was teaching the Monkey Gym syllabus might recall that my opening remarks to a group of brand new beginners was "I am going to teach you about awareness". 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshwinT Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Thanks for the article Kit. Super read. I agree that so much of our exploration in ST is about awareness of ourselves and our partners. I'm currently battling with this every week with my handstand partner. We train together and at the end of our handstands session I lead us in some partner stretching. But her "touch" is so poor that I can feel that she cannot feel me. I am struggling with how to teach her to feel more and connect with my body better so she can be a better stretcher. Both stretcher and stretchee are connected through their mutual touch and need to be awake to each other's bodies. For a brief period of time they are one organism with two halves. The key is for the two halves to feel each other and operate as one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit_L Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 I have pinned this post; it is truly important; please everyone read it. If you are short of time, click on the link and search for "Linden’s original research involves"; this will get you into the heart of what I think is important. Ashwin: the next time you are working with your handstand partner, ask her to consider what her normal speed of movement of any part of her body is when she is working with you, before she makes any movement to touch you. Then, with this idea in mind, ask her to make all movements at half that habitual speed. You will be surprised by the outcome, I believe; please report back. Touch can be learned and hugely enhanced. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumanov Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Thank you for posting the article, such an amazing read! Some particular statements struck a cacophonous chord with me, namely when the author writes, "One strange thing about the unsung sense is that it has no songs. Every other sense has an art to go with it: the eyes have art, the ears have music, even the nose and the tongue have perfume and gastronomy. But we don’t train our hands to touch as we train our eyes to look or our ears to listen." Is not our movement culture a form of art where we engage in touch to learn more about our environment and ourselves? Any sport from basketball to rock climbing to parkour is all about touch, even though we don't actively learn those modalities through that perspective. How about massage therapy, where development of the quality of touch (on a physically and energetic level) is of paramount importance? Also, in the last little bit, the author writes, "Keltner’s approach to touch turns on the deeper idea that consciousness itself is “exteriorized”—that we are alive in relation to others, not in relation to some imagined inner self, the homunculus in our heads." In my opinion it goes both ways and that our predisposition culturally is to "exteriorize" and constantly project our personalities into the world. What we lack (very generalized statement based on my personal daily experience in NYC) is the quality of "interiorizing" because I strongly believe in creating balance, the external being the yang quality and the internal being yin. Perhaps the author is saying that is the inherent nature of consciousness to project and expand. However, what ends up being "exteriorized" isn't consciousness but ego and fear. Thus the natural process is one of initially delving into the internal, peeling away the layers of the onion of ego and fear-driven behavior to reach the root of consciousness and presence, and then allowing consciousness to do what it does best. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit_L Posted November 5, 2016 Author Share Posted November 5, 2016 Internal is the way to go, absolutely. Hence meditation. Stillness reveals all. Quote ... then allowing consciousness to do what it does best. Yes. In our work, we say enough awareness "fixes" everything; "fixes" because in reality, there is nothing to fix, but the ordinary mind simply cannot comprehend this, so fix is the word we use. Lovely post, @Bumanov. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit_L Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Another, related, piece: http://theconversation.com/nerves-of-endearment-how-a-gentle-touch-affects-emotions-26852?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookbutton This one stresses the importance of touch in a number of ways; sense of self is one, but reducing barriers between oneself and others is critical, too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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