Sound is movement
Hello it me,
I’m here to continue my ramblings over the breath… only this time with special mention for the relationship between breath, sound and movement. Go with me on this, I got really over excited seeing all these patterns between breath, sound, movement, art and play. I just about managed to steer my thoughts into one coherent direction! Mind-melting over how incredible our clever bodies are.
Sound needs the breath to transmit.
The breath is also needed by movement to create quality: an inhalation, expansion, tension; and an exhalation, contraction, relaxation.
The breath encourages the ever-present-pendulum-flow swing. Between breaths we find a liminal space of quiet and stillness, a pause which is neither tense or relaxed.
Sound is movement, movement creates sound.
One cannot exist without the other. Sound is the movement of particles in space, movement creates sound. As we move in space we sound, others sound us out and the environment sounds around us.
Sound and movement are so very inextricably tied together, you could argue they are in fact one: movement is a sense perception. Movement triggers greater sensory experience and therefore develops more neural pathways for the motor-sensory-perceptual experience. Therefore as we move more, we learn more, we hear more and experience more.
Movement heightens our senses. Movement heightens our lived experience and brings us into greater presence as a result.
As we move we are constantly feeling our environment.
There is a beautiful and underplayed symbiotic relationship between our auditory system and the biomechanical. Our body is trained to respond to sound. If we consider our more primal-animalistic-humanness… we are still well-adapted with very quick neuromuscular response for survival. The faster the physical response to sound, the higher our odds of survival are.
“Developing out of the inner ear system, the first of twelve cranial or head nerves to myelinate is the vestibular-cochlear. Myelination—the building of protective fat along active nerve pathways—happens in order of most importance for survival, learning, and development. Movement nerves myelinate even before nerve pathways for touch.
The vestibular-cochlear nerve registers both movement and sound as one perception.”
The health of our neuromuscular system is vital. We need effective communication between our brain/auditory system and the biomechanical system in order for us to move well and feel well, not just for survival instincts.
If you think about it, sound is a constant auditory input which the brain is continuously processing whether or not you are consciously aware of it. Through sound we can guage the changing contours of our environment. On the one hand we can register people entering or exiting, animals, objects, machines, traffic… on the other we can predict room sizing, navigation, weather. As we lean further into the nuances of this sense we notice motor-sensory-perceptual qualities of tone, sound shape, intensity, amplitude, duration, variation, tempo, rhythm, cycle, directional force, spacial symmetries, polarities, counter-balances, and more.
These nuances will directly impact movement as we are affected by and respond to our environment.
“Learning is the opening of ourselves to the experience of life. The opening is a motor act; the experience is interaction between sensory and motor happenings. When the experience of movement is integrated into our education, our perception of ourselves and the world changes.”
What does this mean for our modern human?
Well…
Life is pretty damnnnnnn noisy isn’t it? Modern life can be quite the attack on the senses, and with such a noise-polluted environment, it’s no wonder we are becoming sick as a nation of people. Our nervous system is over-firing, or is learning to desensitise to constant stimuli.
Meaning…
We are becoming dissociated, separated and numbed. And it isn’t healthy.
I compare it to the old “deer in headlights” or the sickness of our sealife who are disoriented by the noise pollution of the oceans, I think it's naiive to assume we are not affected just the same. As we adapt to a noise-polluted environment we must simply desensitise ourselves.
But I think we are birthed from a generation of people who were taught to shame sensitivity. And sensitivity is a quality that is either systemic in a person or not (and if not, I think you’re probably in denial of your own sensitivity). I would like to emphasise the fact sensitivity and reactivity are two different qualities. Please do not mistake my meaning here :)
I do not believe we can choose where our sensitivities lie, and for those of us who are hypersensitive? Well lucky for us it translates into all areas of body, mind and spirit.
If we have a hypersensitivity to sound, I would bet you also have a very hypersensitive body AND/OR have a heightened bodily awareness. If you have an acute awareness of your body and movement, I bet you are sensitive to your surroundings and sound. AND I would also bet you have food sensitivities.
But you know what?
Our blessings are also our curses. Hypersensitivity is a blessing, the curse is only a curse if you do not embrace the circumstances of a life that would really support those sensitivities. If you suppress or ignore it you will become sick or reactive, when the body takes over.
When we lean into the sensitivity of breath, movement and sound our relationship with the wider world becomes more acute. We become more acutely aware of ourselves, of others and our environment. We can be present, more aware, in sync and communicate more effectively.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
How can we look after ourselves better knowing this?
We make beautiful choices. We make conscious choices.
Respect the bond between breath, sound and movement. Play with the parameters, change the qualities.
Use your breath when you move, sound whilst you move, create sound with breath. Play music and dance.
We have the opportunity to unlock new neural pathways by leaning into those aforementioned motor-sensory-perceptual qualities. We have the opportunity to unlock new life experiences by playing with the quality of sound, movement and our relationship to it.
As you play with movement notice how you respond with different music. Dance to music you dislike, move to music you love. The body will react and respond.
Be conscious with your movement practices, choose beautiful environments and where possible manage the noise you expose yourself to. Because whether you like it or not, the noise is directly impacting your body.
“Art making naturally arises out of the foundational communicative patterns of human experience beginning in utero. That is, out of the deep, visceral, embodied movement-sound multi-cross-sensory template of psychobiological prototypes. Foundational communication is at its core the scaffolding for—is—metaphor and analogy. These are processes of knowing and making meaning through resemblances to something already known.
This process is the very heart of all embodied communication and is amplified in art making. Meanings are evoked though non-verbal felt-sense of body-emotion and imagination—kinesthetic, empathic, and aesthetic ways of knowing and communicating.”
As we move in space we are in a constant fluxing relationship with it. We listen and respond, we breathe, pause and move.
We are in a continuous conversation with our environment.
And really, as we lean into this motor-sensory-perception we become more effective communicators as we pay attention to the quality and nuances of sound and become better adaptors. We learn to listen better, we master our body, our breath and our sound in space. We embrace our earthly sensitivities as a superpower.
How beautiful, to become so very embodied that your movement is almost song-like.
How can we move more harmoniously with, not just our environment, but also ourselves? How can we move with the graces and qualities that reflect what we would like to communicate with the world?
Dance with the world through your breath and move like you are a living song.
What would you say?
A