 |
 |
On Wed, 8 Aug 2001, Kathleen Cochran wrote: > Tom, > > I just skimmed your post and it is very much in tune with my experience as a > PWP and student of tai chi. The benefits of tai chi specifically for > Parkinson's have been documented. I am convinced that our wonderful, flexible > brains are able, through certain types of mind-body training, to set up > alternate neural pathways and connections, and it sounds like this is where > you are going with your work. > > You write of the imagination. I find that if I am tense, which is bad for us > all but worse if you have PD, I can relax by imagining myself doing tai chi > moves. > > Regards, > Kathleen > Kathleen, What is a PWP? I did recommend that my friend try doing Tai Chi, and I've thought of maybe trying to conduct some informal Tai Chi-style stuff with some others if they are interested (in my area). I have never done Tai Chi, which might seem odd. In any case, there are worlds of possibilities in terms of how we conceptualize. I mean, there is kind of a first level where you simply think of *any* movement in any way other than the usual "move your arm", "reach to get something", "move leg", and then there is what is beyond that. As I have explored in my piano playing at length, one can deeply enrich their movements, the intelligence of their bodily engagement, simply by beginning to see the playful, poetic aspects of every gesture one can do. *How* one does this is very important, and each how yields different results. yet there is beyond even this "second level" other, deeper implications which are also possible and can yield even more, at least as has been my experience. Some of these involve some extremely subtle things which, when adjusted, have some pretty profound effects on activities. That all simply suggest that there is a lot of inteesting stuff to think about and experiment with. Your point about merely *imagining* Tai Chi moves is really interesting! Some of these things are so rich with possibility. Our experience, our thoughts, states of mind, etc., do have prodound and ongoing bodily substrates which are constantly there. The sublte effects are profound. They can not be grasped in any simple "body with a head" mechanics that posit the brain as the simple locus of thought and the body as a machine to get the brain some coffee. A French philosophyer, Merleu-Ponty, did in depth discussion of how one's bodily experience and memories all work together in one's ongoing experience of being in the world. To explore these things is, whether one has PD or not, one of the rich, untapped potentials of our lives. Some of the less available or less immediate aspects of this stuff lies on the way we *conceptualize* this stuff. In other words, often one can try learning a richer repertoir of movements, but if one is still working with the wrong conceptualization, it doesn't catch nearly so well. There is much to understand and I could go on and on so I'll just leave off here for this post. Kindest regards, Tom ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn