Movement

Virtually everything in the Universe is in motion—expanding, contracting, growing, reducing, fragmenting, or disintegrating.  This is true both on a macro (astronomical) scale as well as on a micro (quantum particle or atomic) level.  Nature, including people who are part of nature, are part of a great system of movement and transition.  We are either in motion (moving) or at rest so that we can get back into motion and progress onward and forward toward our ultimate destiny.

As far back as Isaac Newton in the 17^th Century, movement (then called ‘motion’ was studied) and scientific laws were formulated expressing the fundamental need for motion to fuel and build and govern the universe.  In the 19^th Century Ralph Waldo Emerson called Motion (change) and Identity (rest) “the first and second secrets of nature.

The human capacity and need for movement is one of these things that is so much taken for granted that you don’t appreciate what you have until it is gone.  And then when it is gone or vitiated through sickness, or disease, or accident—or sloth—it is invariably sorely missed.  When this happens, productivity, mental health, personal relationships—all sorts of things are negatively impacted.

On a familiar institutional level, schools periodically emphasize movement when it becomes apparent that neglect or dis-inclusion of physical education or movement education in the curriculum is associated with poor health or behavior problems in children.

Cognitive development, likewise, is affected by lack of sufficient movement. Two neuroscientists, Gerd Kepperman and Fred Gage, in 1999, discovered that we typically are growing new nerve cells (a process called neurogenesis) until the day we die.  Another scientist, Henriette von Praggat, found that the thing that most initiated neurogenesis was cross-lateral integrated movement (like walking, dancing, yoga, etc). Recently researchers have also found that when we exercise, it increases the mitochondria in the cells all over our bodies and especially in our brain, thus supplying us with a greater amount of energy for creative thought and learning.

As neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford, Ph.D,  says in her book, Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head, "Movement anchors thought."  The more physical movement, she says, the more [positive] personal expression through arts, sports and music; and the less prescribing of Ritalin and other drugs.

Not only is creation dependent on motion, but re-creation.  Consider the entertainment value we put on watching high-level athletes and dancers perform their movement feats.  What would the Olympic Games be without superbly controlled and executed movement—or collegiate or professional football, basketball, baseball or other athletic contests?

There is pleasure in movement:  tactile movement—massage, touch, sexual expression, as well as fulfilling expression in speech and music that are made possible by the vibration (movement) of vocal cords, mouthpieces, strings, and molecules of air. 

 

The quest for movement has even driven exploration and nation-building or expansion.  Few are the people who don’t value the chance for a trip somewhere to experience new lands or other cultures.  Fortunately today we do it by trip-planning, not by conquest.

I would go so far as to say that movement is life.  Life is our highest value—both in time, and still for many of us in eternity. 

My advice?  DON’T TAKE IT EASY!  If you do ‘take it easy,’ eventually everything ahead of you will be hard—maybe no longer even possible.  So keep moving!