Balance Science

A friend recently sent me a video of her one-year old granddaughter proudly pointing to her nose or eyes or ears when asked by her encouraging parents to find each of these “sensory portals.” One of the head’s senses, though, went missing from the list – the eager young parents never queried, “Where’s your vestibular labyrinth?” Out of sight and reach, the vestibular sensors in the inner ear remain out of mind, even as they provide sensory information essential to…

A ride on my shiny new bicycle provides a mid-afternoon break from writing, as I navigate my way through side streets and open-space trails on a warm fall afternoon. The short respite shakes the cobwebs from my mind, and I return to the task of navigating through the tangle of research studies that inform my writing. Besides enjoying any activity that involves navigating through the environment (bicycling, skiing, dancing), “navigation” is on my list of favorites words because it exemplifies…

In Ki-Aikido training, a simple test of balance – done with a firm push by the instructor on a student’s shoulder or back, serves as “no-tech” biofeedback about a person’s internal state:  Stable posture correlates with a calm, clear mind that supports best performance; unstable posture correlates with distraction and/or distress and suboptimal performance. The same holds true off the mat; a calm focused mind in daily life not only results in clearer thinking and better communication, it also correlates with more…

In 1906, the father of modern neuroscience, Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, described the central nervous system as “an organ of coordination” that “knits together” the many separate systems of life into a solidarity – a coordinated response of the whole. Shin Shin Toitsu is the Japanese name for the style of aikido I have practiced and taught for over thirty years. Translated into English it means “heart, mind, and body threaded together as one.” The words echo Sherrington’s — the recognition not…