Notice What Feels Good

Learn how we can amplify and accelerate our physical healing by marking the positive changes we feel during a movement lesson.

We have to tell our brains what to look for 👀🧠

There is so much information in the physical world, that our brains only ever “see” a fraction of it.

You’ve probably played the game where you get a paragraph that looks like a bunch of scrambled letters, yet you can still read it and understand it.

That’s because our brain learns by association. It understands what things tend to occur together, so that it can build out a full picture from only a fraction of the data.

In fact, that’s how our vision works: the image built out in our brain is not what our eyes are taking in at that moment. Instead, it’s a composite of what we’re seeing with our eyes and what we’ve seen just before, with a little historical filler.

That’s why animation works. If you’ve ever made a flip book, you know that your brain will connect the images to make a moving picture, despite the fact that some of the smaller movements are missing.

We use this to our advantage in my lessons. At the end of a lesson, I ask you to flag a FEELING or experience you liked so that your brain knows to look for it in the future.

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Remember - we can’t take in all the sensory data out there. Our brain is selective in what it perceives and what it brings to the forefront of our attention.

If we tell it we want MORE of what we liked by noticing it and highlighting it, that’s what it will serve up preferentially.

And because the feeling is associated with the functional movements we did during the lesson, it reinforces the new, more efficient ways of moving you just learned.

If you’re still wondering what I mean, try this exercise shared with me by @Christine_Eartheart. Here it is:

Take 10 seconds to look around your room and find as many purple things as you can. Got it?
Ok. Now, close your eyes, and try to remember all the yellow things you saw.
Wait - what?! But we were prioritizing purple, and our brain slid right over yellow!

The same is true of our bodies - we have to really pay attention to the feelings and outcomes we want so that we can amplify them. 😀

Categories: Back Pain, Natural Pain Relief, Neck Pain, Neuroplasticity, Shoulder Pain, Student Questions