Neurodynamics: The Art of Mindfulness in Action by Theodore Dimon Jr.

by Theodore Dimon Jr.

Neurodynamics combines the latest discoveries in science, anatomy, and mindfulness to form a new understanding of human awareness in action. What good does it do to stretch, relax, or strengthen muscles if we don't know how these muscles are actually designed to function? To be sound, any physical therapy method must be based on scientific knowledge of how the musculoskeletal system works, on the role of proprioception in gaining awareness and control over this system, and on the process of becoming more conscious in action. Written for both beginning and advanced students, the book offers in-depth explanations of the theory of neurodynamics together with illustrations outlining steps of development and practical exercises.Over 100 years ago, F. Matthias Alexander made a series of discoveries about how the body works in action that made it possible for the first time to become conscious of what we're doing in activity. In Neurodynamics , author Theodore Dimon, who has taught and written about Alexander's work for many years, seeks to put together a coherent theory and curriculum for the Alexander Technique and explain how this system works in scientific terms. Neurodynamics develops and expands on Alexander's teachings and gives practical explanations that form the basis not just for a method but for a truly educational theory of how the mind and body work in action.

Paperback

First published November 3, 2015

About the author

Theodore Dimon Jr. received both masters and doctorate degrees in education from Harvard University and is an internationally renowned teacher of mind/body disciplines. He has written five books including Anatomy of the Moving Body; The Body in Motion; Your Body, Your Voice; The Elements of Skill; and The Undivided Self. He lectures internationally and teaches at The Dimon Institute and Columbia Teachers College.

Reviews

[William Bookman III]

Our bodies, in their natural state, are self-sufficient. It is when we tamper with it, that we cause a disruption. The goal, the aim, the hope, according to the author, is in building a mindfulness and awareness that is unique to what is being peddled in the marketplace. it is about proper form and action as illustrated in the book. How we walk, sit, and talk can have so much of an effect in our social well being.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligent emphasis on tensegrity and the vital importance of 'functional sensorimotor loops' that presents the human body as fundamentally directed towards action, itself based on a recognition of the body as a biophysical structure of bones which act as struts, and muscles which act as tensional supports between bones which are designed for efficient movement.

Neurodynamics takes seriously the fact that the entirety of the nervous system is based in the simplicity of approach-withdraw behaviors, which are essentially sensorimotor loops. These are brainstem and spinal chord based, which is why Dimon starts off his book with an analysis of how the muscles and nerves around the spinal chord form a feedback mechanism that carries out what we experience as our general postural support i.e. our ability to stand erect without feeling the need to consciously exert ourselves to do so.

Although Dimon perhaps gives short shrift of the ways we can relax our musculature (i.e. through contemplation of ideas/concepts), his emphasis on the role muscles play in the construction of emotional and personality traits is spot on; the muscles, Dimon explains, are an organ which eats up more energy than the brain, so that, if the body is contorted into inefficient and tensed positions, this bodily configuration will siphon energy that would otherwise support a more robust psychodynamical control of the affective body - rooted in the orbitofrontal cortex. In other words, inefficient muscular-skeletal configurations are metaphorically related to feeling states because the body forms the very base for the feeling states our thinking occurs through.

This is a great book for anyone looking to take better care of their physical body, and also for any researchers looking for an interesting perspective on how the dynamics of movement in physical space affect the quality of our existence.