Proprioception: Knowing where you are

"Proprioception is a distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other. " - Wikipedia

I bumped into this term while reading "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" and it some how caught up with me and is still stuck in my head. "Muscle Memory" as people commonly refer to it, is basically the sense that tells the mind the exact position of various body parts and what's their movement status. While we all hear of this term "muscle memory" numerous times and in all sorts of situations, we don't think too highly of it. Easily taken for granted like most other functionality that are powered by our brain, it's extremely helpful in being where we are and even a small damage to it can leave us in a sordid state. It could be painful situation when your brain doesn't know where a body part exactly is, to understand what I mean imagine that you have to look down at your feet while moving to see where/how they are or if you don't see any body part and try to control it, it just might be hanging vaguely or twisted in a painful position or something scarier.

I've been a student of Jazz dance for quite some time now(in my second stint), the total duration has been about a year or so now. One of the things we've been told from day one is to walk/dance(maybe sit, stand and even sleep) with your stomach pulled in (not relaxed and all over the place). Superficially speaking it's just about pulling your stomach but there's more to proprioception then just that. The point is that if you keep your body parts in a position for long enough, the brain will learn their new positions/locations and after some practice they will be the new default position for those parts. It's surprising how unaware we are about our body posture/parts and their default states. Unless someone points to us specifically we don't realize if our stomach is relaxed, or our shoulders are loose or hips are hanging(forgive the dx lingo) or worse the back(bone) isn't straight.

Discovering your body is a beautiful experience. It's a journey only a few lucky people get to take and being aware of where you are in space and what's good/bad about it, how can you align them to stay fit,look good etc is a truely great feeling. It's one of my many learnings at Danceworx, being aware of how exactly is your body aligned/placed as you do certain things. Stopping in middle of things to check what's the location/position of various body parts and how they should be instead. While other things will come and go, this vision of seeing your body as it is, is one of the wonderful things that I've experienced and learned, and I wish to carry this with me forever.

Do you observe your body enough to understand it ?