"Another extraneural resource available for our use is physical space. Moving mental contents out of our heads and onto the space of a sketch pad or whiteboard allows us to inspect it with our senses, a cognitive bonus that the psychologist Daniel Reisberg calls “the detachment gain.” "
I'm in the beginning stages of developing a journaling workshop. I've read about some studies that show how writing down your thoughts and feelings goes a long way toward understanding and processing those feelings: according to the studies, it's because the feelings are "put into language" rather than just left to bounce around in your mind. Could it also be that writing it down on paper "allows us to inspect it with our senses"? I need to read more about this!
I am a student of BKS Iyengar, the highly respected yoga teacher.
His teaching & approach to yoga embodies the conclusions that are in the book The Extended Mind (which I have loved reading!).
In his lifetime, he implored us to get out of our heads and into our bodies, to merge the intelligence of the head with that of the body. The aim is not so much to "gain" intelligence, but rather to "refine" our intelligence.
He used "alignment" as a tool for this conversation between brain & body. As an example, in the yoga posture, he might say "the hand should align with the shoulder". Sounds simplistic, ineffectual perhaps — but to a practitioner this is the canvas for the refinement of intelligence.
Another example pertaining to his method of teaching was the use external objects (referred to as props). In performing a posture the wall, or the floor, or a yoga brick would be used. This facilitated the conversation between the brain, the body. The prop became a tool to facilitate and amplify the conversation between the brain and the body.
He often referred to the intelligence of our cells, and would say "every pore of the skin has to become an eye.!
From his book, Light on Life:
" You must observe and correct the body position (adjusting it from both sides) with the help of the trillions of eyes that you have in the form of cells. This is how you begin to bring awareness to your body and fuse the intelligence of brain and brawn. This intelligence should exist everywhere in your body and throughout the asana. The moment you lose the feeling in the skin, the asana becomes dull, and the flow or current of the intelligence is lost.”
"Another extraneural resource available for our use is physical space. Moving mental contents out of our heads and onto the space of a sketch pad or whiteboard allows us to inspect it with our senses, a cognitive bonus that the psychologist Daniel Reisberg calls “the detachment gain.” "
I'm in the beginning stages of developing a journaling workshop. I've read about some studies that show how writing down your thoughts and feelings goes a long way toward understanding and processing those feelings: according to the studies, it's because the feelings are "put into language" rather than just left to bounce around in your mind. Could it also be that writing it down on paper "allows us to inspect it with our senses"? I need to read more about this!
I am a student of BKS Iyengar, the highly respected yoga teacher.
His teaching & approach to yoga embodies the conclusions that are in the book The Extended Mind (which I have loved reading!).
In his lifetime, he implored us to get out of our heads and into our bodies, to merge the intelligence of the head with that of the body. The aim is not so much to "gain" intelligence, but rather to "refine" our intelligence.
He used "alignment" as a tool for this conversation between brain & body. As an example, in the yoga posture, he might say "the hand should align with the shoulder". Sounds simplistic, ineffectual perhaps — but to a practitioner this is the canvas for the refinement of intelligence.
Another example pertaining to his method of teaching was the use external objects (referred to as props). In performing a posture the wall, or the floor, or a yoga brick would be used. This facilitated the conversation between the brain, the body. The prop became a tool to facilitate and amplify the conversation between the brain and the body.
He often referred to the intelligence of our cells, and would say "every pore of the skin has to become an eye.!
From his book, Light on Life:
" You must observe and correct the body position (adjusting it from both sides) with the help of the trillions of eyes that you have in the form of cells. This is how you begin to bring awareness to your body and fuse the intelligence of brain and brawn. This intelligence should exist everywhere in your body and throughout the asana. The moment you lose the feeling in the skin, the asana becomes dull, and the flow or current of the intelligence is lost.”