Human development, our ontological progression from conception through birth and early developmental processes, generally reflects phylogenetic history. Early developmental sequences of all vertebrates are similar, although there are deviations in timing. For example, arm buds from widely differing species are almost identical in the embryo, yet they may develop into a wing, a flipper, or an arm.2 Within the human developmental progression, we have each passed through the stage of the first cell of a new individual, called a zygote, at the moment of union between sperm and ovum; a hollow multicellular ball called a blastocyst (implanted in the uterus around day 7); a three-layered embryo with central umbilical cord (around day 16), followed by the head/tail differentiation of bilateral symmetry (around day 24) and the budding and the emergence of tiny hands, mouth, and feet of the fetus (by day 56—eight weeks), initiating our venture into the complexity of human form.
All this occurs suspended in the amniotic sea within the uterus, supported by fluid and stimulated by the polyrhythmic sounds of the heartbeats, rumbling organs, and vibrations of external sounds (listen through a stethoscope!). Massaged by the mother’s breath and rocked by the rhythm of her walking, the human fetus develops over 280 days (40 weeks) toward the process of birth. A significant shift in environment occurs as the newborn is greeted by the challenges of adapting to life in the world, in air, in gravity.
Bonding with the earth underlies all other developmental responses. A healthy baby bonds with air on the first breath, with earth by releasing weight to be held, and with mother by touch and nourishment by the first suckling. We have to release our weight down to the earth in order to lift the head up. We have to feel the ground to push away, to initiate movement, and to have support for a reach. Humans require connection to air, earth, and nourishment for survival, as well as touch, movement, and community.
Another of the many reflexes from our evolutionary heritage is physiological flexion, drawing the body parts toward center, and it is present in the womb. (Touch a caterpillar and watch it curl protectively toward center.) This is balanced by pbysiological extension—Stretching outward—present during birth. The modulation between flexion and extension continues throughout our lives as we draw inward, returning to safety, and extend outward, daring to risk. Head righting, reflexively supporting and lifting the head during movement, protects the brain and allows focused perception of the environment. Just as bonding takes us toward the earth, head righting moves us out into space, supported by the ground.3
Reflexes and developmental patterns are encoded in the body for survival, supporting coordinated growth of all the body systems. These patterns essentially retrace evolutionary history through movement during the first year of life, preparing us for the complexity of our bipedal gait. To understand this process, we return to the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, who has articulated the patterns and their implications in our lives. Condensing and expanding are considered basic cellular movements in the human body: condensing establishes ground, connection to earth; expanding establishes spatial integrity, connection to air.
Athletes of all ages accumulate injuries from sports, reporting as many as thirteen surgeries by their college years. When we do a body scan, there may be no sensation. Why feel if it hurts? Numbness can be learned, as a defense. When we begin the “to do” exercises, there may be emotion: feelings about coaches who encouraged them to stay in games even when injured; irritation at their own bodies for not doing what they command.
Often, thoughts are conflicted because coaches were respected mentors; their bodies carried them to success. They began sports because of physicality and camaraderie; as competition took over, health was sacrificed for the win. Now they can’t move. At twenty or twenty-one, they seek a new relationship with their bodies.
As sensation returns, the body can begin to heal. At first, there is discomfort: tension, bulk, strain. But eventually, the hypertoned areas relax, and a new conversation develops. Our structure responds to the task at hand; if you invite a sensitive alert body, you can have one. It’s the heritage of our species.
Frog, drawing by Laura Lee. Graphite.
Painting, two Kangaroos. Oceanic, Australia, Northern Territory. Oenpelli bark, paint. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. (1979.206.1514). All rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The interchange of push and reach patterns modulates the dialogue between self and other, essential for effective functioning with the environment and community. The spinal yield and push patterns draw the body in toward center, integrating head to tail and stimulating internal connectivity—orientation to self. The spinal reach and pull patterns extend outward to the environment, based on internal connectivity. Thus, the rhythm of yielding and reaching, internal Connectivity and outward expression is the continuum we negotiate as human beings, basic to our existence, present in our movement patterns.
The necessary movement sequences of the developmental journey take us through rolling, sitting, crawling (on belly, homolateral), creeping (on hands and knees, contralateral), and kneeling to thoroughly integrate and prepare the neuromusculoskeletal system for the rigors of a vertical stance. This gradual (and overlapping) progression through movement patterns also supports essential fusion of the three bones of the hip sockets. When babies are allowed to pass through all stages of development before standing, rather than being lifted or placed on their feet, they are thoroughly prepared for the complexities of walking.
The transition to standing combines all of the patterns, initiated by a reach of the head and hands. Balancing the tone of front and back surfaces, along with pushing away from the earth to reach, stand, and walk through space, engages our dynamic dialogue with gravity—balance in the upright stance.
TO DO
Pouring the fluid body* 10 minutes
Lying on the floor, eyes closed:
• Imagine you are a single cell floating in the ocean, with fluid inside, suspended in fluid outside. Your skin is a semipermeable membrane, selecting what flows in, what flows out.
• Pour your fluid contents in any direction. Imagine you are totally suspended in a fluid, warm sea, moving and being moved with the tides.
• Now bring your attention to your skin, the selectively permeable membrane. Move with your focus on the skin, the outer membrane.
• Keep pouring and rolling, and bring your attention to the fluid contents inside the skin. Pour the fluid into particular body areas to initiate movement, like an ameba with a temporary protrusion of the protoplasm, a pseudopodium, that serves in locomotion or food gathering.
• Move your body slowly so that you can perceive sensations. In this asymmetrical movement, there is no up, no down, no head or tail, no right or wrong way to move; enjoy the sensations of wholeness and disorientation.
• Pause, noticing what has occurred. This state of nonjudgmental awareness is called “open attention,” simply noticing sensations, emotions, thoughts, and images as they occur.
• Slowly add vision, remaining aware of sensations.
Vessel