Two Kinds of Automatic
I’ll be presenting “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Integrate A Reflex!” on Saturday, March 24th for the Children’s Music Network Annual New England Gathering in Newton, MA. Bring your questions!
There are two kinds of automatic. One is the kind we practice to achieve. We may lose our balance many times before we ride a two-wheeled bicycle. We practice a lot of scales before we play a flawless run on the piano, and we shoot hundreds of free throws before we can rely on that swish.
The other automatic is the kind we default to. We gasp in surprise. We instinctively fling up our arms to ward off a blow, or freeze in fear to make ourselves safely invisible. We turn our heads and simultaneously reach out for something; our arms straighten out and our legs bend when our heads go up, in preparation for crawling.
As we practice a skill until it becomes automatic, we are building neural networks that link many parts of our brains. But our automatic defaults are lodged in the oldest, back part of the brain, and they are part of our original programming. These defaults are our primitive reflexes.
The primitive reflexes are part of the hardware we come in with as babies. Right from the beginning, we need to function. We need to know how to propel ourselves out of the birth canal, to breathe, suck, swallow, and do all the things babies do to stay alive. These primitive reflex responses are both instinctual and universal – movement “packages” programmed into our systems.
As we move and grow, we create the neural networks that reflect and reinforce our learning process. The way we live and move customizes a software system that links to the original hardware, forming the structure of the people we recognize as ourselves.
But when we are under stress, we often revert to our defaults. And the more traumatic the stress, the more difficult it becomes to access our whole brain. We lose the “automatic” we have customized, and we go back to the “automatic” default.
Self-regulation is the ability to perform with consciousness under stress. Neurologically speaking, we can self-regulate when we have built the neural pathways that connect our “reflexive” brains to our “reflective” brains. One of the most efficient ways to teach self-regulation is to stimulate the reflex, and then to follow it with integrative movements.
For example, people who express the Moro Reflex are in a state of alarm. This can be communicated as fear, or aggression, or clowning – any kind of “over-the-top” behavior.
The Moro Reflex is an early startle response. It’s usually the first thing we do when we emerge from the birth canal – that gasp of surprise is our first breath! The Moro movement sequence begins with the head dropping back, the shoulders going back and the arms flying up as we inhale.
The next stage of Moro is to drop the head forward, contract the shoulders and arms, and release our first breath! But often, when we are startled, we forget to exhale. People are stuck in Moro when they can’t seem to get out of that startled mode. Super-reactive children almost always have an activated Moro Reflex. Their breathing tends to be shallow and uneven.
Any activity that promotes even, integrated breathing can release a stuck Moro. The expansion/contraction movements of African dance are pure Moro. A literal way to integrate Moro is to simply re-enact the movement itself. Do Moro 1 (gasp, throw head and shoulders back) and then Moro 2 (let out the air, curl head and shoulders forward). Repeat as often as you need to. (But be careful – don’t hyperventilate! Usually 3 Moros in a row is enough).
I find that kids who need Moro integration love these movements. I’ve had children come into my office and “show” me these movements, wanting to do them again and again. It feels good, because few children like to be alarmed! The stimulation, followed by the release, is something that they crave.
As we practice activities like these, we connect the two kinds of “automatic.” Our systems learn a new way to deal with the things that alarm us. And second, as time goes on, we become alarmed by fewer things. Reflex integration helps us to achieve something we all aspire to: grace under pressure.