Most are only slowly moving into a new understanding of movement. So far, we’ve used exercise and sports to look better, be stronger, relax from everyday stress, or heal an injury. It is becoming increasingly clear that we can only achieve transient improvement in this way, and in the long run, we still or even more notice the impact of age on our psychophysical condition.
An increasing number of people use movement and sports to learn and increase the sixth sense, proprioception. The pleasure of feeling a healthy and vibrant body, discovering and developing the sensory system as it becomes a habit and becomes an indispensable part of us, changes us. We constantly improve our balance, both physical and emotional. We are aware of our muscle movement, the joints’ position, and we increase our movement speed. Our nerve cycles save all this information and replace the old ones, which become useless. All this brings back self-consciousness, develops a softer body, and increases general efficiency.
We are talking about the five senses while we associate the sixth sense with the occult. And yet, we all have a sixth sense; some have it more developed, other less. It is very important for how we perceive our bodies and feel different states in our bodies. It is the first sense that a person uses because he intensively weaves a neural network of interconnected movements that develop into movement patterns in the first months of life. And only when these patterns develop to a high enough level, his movement becomes efficient to help the child reach out into their surroundings and affect them with his basic five senses. That’s how a child learns how to connect with the outside world. That shows we develop our senses and personality.
At the same time, there is a contradiction going on: our awareness of feelings of movement decreases because we focus too much on the outside world. This outward focus is fostered by every aspect of our culture, the speed of life, the way we are educated, and the need to succeed. This leads to an ever-worsening sense of self, self-movement, and posture. Eventually, we know more about the world around us and less and less about our inner world. Growing up coincides with proprioceptive atrophy. Growing up commonly means to forget our first feelings and stop feeling what gave us the chance to survive and develop into an adult. Our own body becomes foreign to us, foggy, uninteresting, and is dominated by the mind.
If we are one of those adults, then we have a divide between our mind and body. We experience ourselves unrealistically, which has serious consequences for the quality of our lives: in our mature years, many problems start to plague us. Our back begins to hurt, sciatica, headaches, chronic fatigue. Bodily tensions cause a lack of feeling for our own body, escalating to a stroke, heart attack, and other physiological injuries. The body sends us constant warnings, but we either cannot understand them or outright ignore them, which leads to us realizing what the body meant when it’s too late.
The AEQ method® enables and helps us enter our inner world of consciousness. We start developing and using the sixth sense again! Development and maintenance of the sixth sense should never be interrupted because this is a code for health and psychophysical freedom. We perform our movement consciously and with understanding so that we can learn more and treat ourselves better. The new consciousness, which we begin to update, represents a higher ambition of knowledge about ourselves, which is, at the same time, useful for controlling and enjoying our life. I feel, understand, and change because I know what I am doing. I know because I feel and understand better. But for that, we need time and pay more attention.
It is important to understand that we cannot change if we only feel. We have to act. And without change, there is no change. This is the main point of the AEQ method®.
We must not use our bodies to achieve our wishes and needs without control; we must discover and consider their abilities and not push them over the edge. In general, however, care must be taken that progress is not based solely on overcoming oneself and fighting the mind and body over who will give in first. They must communicate, coordinate, and fulfill each other. Same as a married couple that understands that it will be easier to get through their problems if they solve them together.
Aleš Ernst, author of the AEQ method and AEQ breathing
