So Many Possibilities

“So many possibilities,” said the dance teacher yesterday, showing us multiple ways to move the hip, to rotate the arm, to squat and reach high. One body but so many possibilities. Our body is capable of changing it habitual way of standing and walking. It just takes awareness and curiosity, and courage.

Change is hard.

And it got me thinking about the mind. And memory. And loops of reactivity.

There is a theory of brain function called Predictive Coding that states the mind does not passively record the world, but instead constantly builds and updates an active internal model of what it expects to happen next. And this is problematic when the brain experiences trauma at a very young age. The brain can become hyper-vigilant in its effort for self-protection, but many times prediction errors are made. And many times reat threats go unnoticed.

I am not a psychologist or expert by any means; I am someone who has oftentimes made prediction errors—both seeing danger where there was none and ignoring safety signals.

But, if our hips and arms have many possibilities, maybe so does our brain. Maybe instead of doing that thing I always do when I have strong emotions, I can explore a new way of handling the situation. Pema Chodron has said about dealing with difficult situations, when all else fails, just “try something new”.

And the body is a great place to start. With small things…like maybe walk on the left side instead of right side of the street today. Or have coffee in a different mug. Or introduce a new word in your vocabulary and try to use it; the brain is malleable. So are the hips. So can be memory.

But, and there is a big but here…only with gentleness and patience and compassion. Slowly. Feel into the stuck places. And have conversations—with hips, with the child self, with grief.

So many conversations.

So many possibilities.