I move to think

Are you a mover too? If you tried every tool possible to process your thoughts and nothing worked, you may be someone who needs to move in order to think

“I move to think” is a phrase popularized by educator Sir Ken Robinson, referring to the idea that some people need to physically move to process information. This concept suggests that physical activity is connected to the cognitive ability of the brain.

In the last years, I have been challenged once again by forces outside of my control to find alternative (natural and holistic) ways to heal from a neuromuscular autoimmune disease and a brain injury that happened soon after my birth.

For my entire life, I didn’t know that my brain was built differently. I only knew that I loved to dance and I enjoyed physical activities, while being a competitive athlete as a teenager.

When the autoimmune disease developed after my sensitive nervous system reacted negatively to the anesthesia gas used for a minor surgery, I knew I had to find a natural way to help my brain and muscles recover, because doctors couldn’t.

What I didn’t know then was that like all illnesses, this one appeared in my life to help me restore my cognitive ability to its maximum capacity, from the inside out, with the help of my body, the wisest healer.

Hence, my adventures in playing with the physicality, while being aware to the sensations within, began. It took me several years to connect deeper with this inner realm. I was keen to learn from my body though and I was motivated by the tiniest successes whenever I could sense a shift.

What started as a need for recovery became a deep devotional practice.

Water was one of my first teachers in movement. As I was contemplating it in nature, how it moves so sensuously with the current, forming waves and different shapes, leaving traces that translated as metaphors for my own life, I wanted to mirror it and to experiment its movement through my own body. The first lesson of water movements expressed through me was that they are so natural and beautiful that no one is wondering if they seem slutty or not.

Soon, I was noticing how sometimes my thoughts are transforming in seconds, into something positive, mostly insights that were both powerful and supportive.

Then emotions started to move through me as if they were getting out of my body through my skin into the thin air, as if they were never inside me.

In time, something more important happened. I started to feel a deeper inner connection that was unshakeable, strong and linked to my intuition. Whenever I was feeling off or disconnected, coming back to slowly moving my body was reconnecting my mind with my heart, soul and physicality.

Messages would come up to the surface, from within. Visions. An inner knowing felt in my bones or my pelvic area. Premonitions.

It was a difficult up and down journey. I had to learn this process by myself, without mentors or therapists, because I have lost lots of money on doctors and tools that could not help me and I had no more money to spare. I was desperate enough to try anything.

And yet, I recently discovered that others (as you have read in the first paragraph) have the same design as me and they too have to move to understand and process information. It seems that I am not alone in this and I didn’t know this was a normal thing for some of us.

I actually thought I was slutty, for a long time, whenever I wanted to explore movements through my body, because that’s what I was told when I started my quest.

I remember that whenever I was dancing, men would react like they were obsessed and I became afraid to show myself moving in public. Somehow, my body felt sensuous before my mind knew that. For years, my own mother and husband would tell me that I move like a slut and I embarrass them in front of others.

I can totally understand now that seen from the outside by the people who do not have this thought processing design or do not allow others to be who they are, slowly moving your body with awareness especially as a woman, may indeed seem too enticing or vulgar.

But it is not.

When you come inside and you become ONE with the body, you feel alive, satiated, free, supported, spiritually connected to god and planet Earth.

You feel protected and understood, seen and heard, because this is the place (the altar) where you can bring your pain and melt it into a magical wisdom or bliss.

Now, because this awareness so massively placed on inner sensations, thoughts and emotions was so powerful and transformative, I started to name the whole process Sensory Movement and I discovered that I can find it in other activities too, like when I paint, when I am in nature, when I eat, when I walk slowly, and so on.

Everything became a deep explorative path through sensory awareness that was leading me back to my body.

This helped me ground more inside and soothe my sensitive nervous system.

Soon I realized that even though I needed to move to think, not every movement will help me think and reconnect inside, on the contrary.

For example:

• running means that you move fast and you cannot slow down enough to sense the tiniest sensations in the body to process them

• pedaling - the same

• practicing yoga - the postures are meant to be practiced by being still which doesn’t allow the inner sensations to come to the surface as it happens when we move torso, legs and limbs

• practicing qiqong or tai chi - it requires specific movements done in a certain sequence and rhythm which are not surfacing naturally from the inside out

• dancing - when we dance, the music and its rhythm is taking over and the body starts to move according to something that is coming from the outside; the movement does not come from within by following the unique rhythm of your own physicality

This sensory movement that helps us process information is also NOT similar to ecstatic dance, chackra dance or any other form of movement that is usually seen in alternative healing. The only field that I could relate this to is the somatic arts, because they both require deep internal awareness, although somatic therapy is rarely connected to movement.

With all these being said, sensory movement is something that feels natural to your body, comes from within, moves with the inner rhythm and flow, through deep presence and self love, while being wide open to let go and receive. It is a visceral felt connection to the world inside of you, your flesh, fascia and organs. While moving your body, you are stirring up and bringing to the surface the energy of emotions and thought patterns held inside and this is how you release them and gain clarity.

For this reason, whenever I practice it, I do not listen to music, because I have to put my full focus inside to hear my body’s messages. I do it very slowly, as if I am under the water, moving my body by following the currents.

These days, movement is my main tool for releasing, reassurance, support and wisdom. It is the first place I turn to in order to find clarity and solutions.

Tell me, do you think you might be a mover too?

If so, why not giving it a try?

Also, check out my RESOURCES page where you can find several books on somatic healing, movement and sensory processing that I highly recommend.

I’ve also shared this on Medium to help reach more sensitive souls. If you have a profile there, following me helps the algorithm show my work to others.

If you have any questions, please let me know, I would be happy to answer them.

On another note …

This is where I am sharing my latest notes on Substack. Follow me for more tips, tools and movement experiments.