Josepha Michaeli - Body Cognition - The Method: Movement, Health, Treatment

Ever since the development of Body Cognitionduring the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of people have experienced it. Most ofthem attest to a higher quality of everyday bodily conduct and to animprovement in the source of ailment which has led them to seek therapy or toattend gym classes. Scores of teachers have been teaching the method all around Israel and their number is increasingly growing. However, when asked whatBody Cognition is, some of the answers are given in the negative: no, this iscertainly not gym in the common meaning; no, this is not a treatment of backpain only and so on. Numerous teachers and students choose to suggest: Comeand experience it! as an answer to that question.

How should we refer to the Body Cognition method:education for better body motion, body training, healthy exercising? These arebut several possible names, indicating important aspects of the method. Eachlistener or reader can understand them according to his or her set ofassociations as well as private and social interpretation of the conceptseducation, motion, gym and health.

Education for the right body motion according to BodyCognition does not reside in activities such as jogging, swimming or workingwith various exercise aids, nor is it conventional physical therapy. Itsobjective is not to form an athletes body which is strong, muscular and swift,or a body of an agile yoga disciple having a miraculous control over thenon-autonomous body systems. Rather, its aim is to make the human body functionas a well-tuned and effective machine.

The fundamental assumption underlying Body Cognitionis that a proper motion is good for both physical and mental health. Learningthe right motion can significantly facilitate the solution of a long line ofcommon physical problems. To what does the word motion refer and what shouldbe learnt about it? What is health and what is its relation to a right motion?

The aspiration to answer these questions gave rise toBody Cognition, grounded on a holisticconception of the human body, the potential embodied in it, its typicalweak points, its usage and the functions it is required to fulfill.

Comprehending and studying the causes for a faultymotion system will lead us directly to the preventive measures we canimplement. Thus, through Body Cognition, with the right bodily conduct thatis an outcome acquired on the basis of body awareness and experiencing we canprevent many of the damages which we cause to our body.

According to Body Cognition, the most significantinitial causes for bodily problems, mainly those defined as orthopedic, are:

* Basic structure defects or weak points, originatingmainly from the human species' transition to walking upright on two legs.

* Wrong body usage that adds to and extends the damagesresulting from the weak structure. It is partly due to unawareness and incorrectway of life and partly to improper and damaging motion and posture habits.

Hence, the key value of Body Cognition is theconcern for the body well-being and orderly functioning. The method relates tothe vast knowledge accumulated by various science disciplines dealing with thebody and implemented by modern medicine. Moreover, on the basis of thisknowledge, it attempts to investigate, describe, understand and solve bodilyproblems. Ways of preventing faults of the bodily system stem from the studyand comprehension of their incidence. Consequently, shaping an appropriatebodily conduct should be based on awareness and experiencing. It is recommendedgetting acquainted with our body, including general and personal data. Allhuman beings have the same skeletal structure, the same muscles and internalsystems. We are all affected by gravitation and obey the same rules ofmechanics. Nevertheless, each person has individual characteristics, such aspace, strength, height, weight, agility and energy dosages, rooted ways ofmoving, routine and limited motion patterns as well as problematic areas due topersonal history or heredity.

In the process of learning, students or patients learnto recognize their personal posture style with its different mechanisms, tocope with the general and individual structure weak points of the body and toprotect it against a variety of common problems, menacing it every now andthen. This is a rewarding investment both in small group classes and inindividual therapy, whereby the element of touch is added to motion. All theseare offered at every age and every health and body condition: healthy people,people suffering from different physical problems and from a range of ailments.

Treatment of the body and the maintenance thereof byusing Body Cognition do not ignore the cultural and professional context inwhich they transpire. Most bodily distress conditions are being treated by theconventional and institutionalized medical system. Yet, some people are lookingfor a solution outside this system and the reasons are varied: disappointmentwith the attempt to be helped by this system, inquisitiveness about the newsuggestions, intention to prevent the bodily distress from recurring in thefuture. Patients should strive to achieve collaboration between the customarymedical suggestion and a unique approach, i.e. Body Cognition and, for thatpurpose, each of the sides should be mutually well acquainted with each otherswork. Collaboration between the treating doctor and the treatment offered byBody Cognition might reduce extreme procedures, such as surgery and fixation.When these have indeed been implemented, we can shorten the patient's healingperiod and return to normal functioning. Unfortunately, mutual acquaintance andcollaboration of this kind are rare.

This book aims to explain extensively, presentarguments and illustrate the theoretical aspect of Body Cognition and tounfold the practical implementation of the theory. It constitutes a sort ofidentity card of the method, designed, among others, to enhance theabove-mentioned collaboration (the two previous books about the method focusedon specific topics: Body Cognition included nine classes analyzed as anexample; and Symmetry and Asymmetry Juvenile Scoliosis was dedicated to thetreatment of scoliosis). Description of the physical phenomena ranged betweenthe unique and individual to general phenomena, from the personal to theunderstanding of the general and, vice versa, from generalization to the individualcase. Each part in the book illuminates the approach from a differentperspective. All of them, though, emphasize its main uniqueness: observingsolid and general anatomical facts and, on their basis, understanding thepragmatic implications for our bodily conduct from a healthy starting point.The book deals also with the method's reference to issues which are generallynot associated with the field of movement: physical therapy, personaldevelopment, learning, thinking and behavior.

The book consists of four parts. Part I: Bodily conduct along the lines ofBody Cognition, deals with the fundamental assumptions of bodily conduct and the learning thereof. Part II: Motion and posture development