Life-Giving Motion

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

We know movement is absolutely essential to healthy brain function. Movement is also essential to healthy nervous system function. When we move, special receptors called proprioceptors send signals that activate the brain and downshift the nervous system from elevated sympathetic fight-or-flight response back toward the resting parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) baseline. This is why exercise has been shown to fight depression, why kids who have physical education at school score higher on standardized testing than at schools where the program has been cut, and why if you go for a run you feel more energized than if you sit on the couch all day.

With upward of 100 joints, the spine is responsible for the lion’s share of proprioceptive feedback to the brain. The feet, which have more than 50 joints between them, come in second. While all movement is helpful to turn down the stress response, it’s essential to make sure the spine and feet are doing their jobs properly.

The body is a single interconnected, functional unit, and in order for the brain to get proper nourishment from proprioceptors, we need to be able to move like a well-oiled machine, with our joints gliding smoothly and fluidly. When some parts get sticky or rigid, those joints no longer send their fair share of proprioceptive signals to the brain—the same signals that help us recover to a resting state after being triggered into the fight-or-flight response.

Joints that lack adequate motion not only starve the brain of normal proprioceptive input, but they amplify the stress response by sending alarm signals to the brain saying, “Help, something is wrong!” So even if you lived in a magical stressfree bubble, these stuck spots would still elevate the fight-orflight response in your brain.

Without fluid motion, the brain is vulnerable to a continuous stress loop. The best way to interrupt this loop is to maintain frequent, fluid motion in the body—especially in the spine and feet.

A healthy, functioning body includes flexibility, strength and fluid motion. Try noticing your body’s capacity for fluid motion. Can you touch your toes, rolling down and back up, articulating through each level of your spine?

Is the movement smooth and easy, or are there places that feel sticky, tight, or rigid? Do all the joints move easily on their own, or are there a few that stay straight and move together? Try asking a partner to see if they can notice whether adjacent joints are able to move individually or if there are places where several are stuck together.

At home, you can turn down your stress response and increase proprioception with exercise that moves as many joints as possible. Focus on exercises like dance, which promotes gentle fluid movements that roll through the spine and encourage articulation through all segmental levels. Think about how seaweed moves underwater, and how a river wears down on a rock with fluid repetition rather than trying to chisel through the rock. By articulating gently and fluidly through sticky-feeling places, keeping the motion small enough to feel easy and smooth and concentrically growing the range of motion from there, you may find you’re able to melt through tension and grow resilience at the same time. You can also try walking barefoot in the grass or sand to get extra joint signals from your feet.