Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 - Theme Song / Prerecorded Program Intro
This voice appears in the opening and closing musical theme or prerecorded program branding for the show.

Speaker 2 - Teresa Songbird, Host
The host identifies herself as Teresa at the beginning of the program and speaks throughout the episode in the first person as the guide for All Learning Reimagined.

Speaker 1 - Theme Song / Prerecorded Program Intro:
There is another way to learn.
Questions open doorways,
where wonder leads us home,
where every heart remembers
the wisdom it has known.
All Learning Reimagined,
where passion meets possibility,
with Teresa Songbird.
Come explore what learning can be.
For parents, teachers, seekers, and dreamers,
learning comes alive.

Speaker 2 - Teresa Songbird, Host:
G'day, and welcome to All Learning Reimagined. I'm your host, Teresa, bringing you a little ray of sunshine as together we're reimagining the future of education, one inspired story at a time.

Welcome back, everybody, and thank you to my regular listeners who have been giving me a shout-out and saying that you're really enjoying the Embodied Intelligence series. I'm loving it too, and today we're actually up to episode four out of nine.

In episode one, we looked at the question: Are we more than a physical body? In episode two, we looked at how safety influences learning, which is so important today. Last week, we looked at how the body is connected, and we introduced a deeper comprehension of fascia in the body and its role.

Today we're going to look at this question: If the body is connected, then what experiences might the body be carrying? This is such a valuable message for all parents, educators, and learners out there, because it helps us comprehend what's going on with our bodies and the fact that our body holds memory.

I would really invite you to ponder this question: Can experiences leave imprints beyond our conscious memory? Can the body hold and store memory as well?

I wanted to first share a childhood experience that I had many years ago. I really cannot remember how old I was. I think I might have been about five or six years old. My family were going on a camping trip to a part of Australia on the coast that you could not get to by road. You could only get there by boat. We were going camping with lots of different families.

I remember that for me to get onto this boat, in my memory it looked like a trawler, but I do not know what type of boat it actually was. It was just too long ago. I do remember that it was rough weather. It was stormy weather, and I had to walk across a tiny little plank to get onto the boat, from the marina over this plank and onto the boat.

The plank was not large enough for anyone to go two by two. It had to be one person individually. I remember being terrified and refusing, typical small child, point-blank refusing to do it. I carried on like an absolute pork chop, quite frankly.

I still remember the fear. I can still feel that fear and the movement beneath my feet when the plank was moving and rocking as I was stepping. I remember the whole uncertainty and the feeling that I might fall down the edge of the boat and into the water. I did not want to be crushed between the boat and the marina with the water.

Here I am, many, many, many decades later, and I can still notice a physical response every single time I get on board a boat. My mind knows that I'm safe today, definitely. Yet there is something in my body that remembers that childhood experience.

I would love to ask you: Have you experienced something similar? Has there ever been anything that happened in your life that triggers memories for you years later? It is almost like the memory is not stored as information. It is almost like it is stored as an experience throughout the body.

I am really curious to know how this fits into the lens of learning for any learner of any age, because we're all learning. I also find myself considering people who have Alzheimer's. We know there is so much around Alzheimer's that we're still discovering, and I wonder how the body and the memory of the body fit in with situations like that as well. It is a really fascinating topic, and one that I'm quite interested and curious to explore.

I've written down a couple of notes here to try to keep myself on track, because I get so excited about this topic and can go off on deep tangents. One of the notes I wrote was: Have I ever felt, or have you ever felt, your stomach tighten before you hear difficult news? It is almost like your body can pick up or sense that difficult news is coming.

Or perhaps your shoulders feel tense during conflict. I know that I carry a lot of tension in my shoulders at certain times, and I have to go and get massages, do lots of stretches, and try to push and work that energy and tension out from my shoulder area.

Then, of course, there is jaw clenching under stress. Some people might grind their teeth. Sometimes you might have a conversation with someone and then your whole chest area just feels lighter because you have managed to share and connect with someone. It does not all have to be from a negative-experience perspective. It can go either way.

What I have come to realize is that the body appears to respond to experience. When this is happening for me right now, what I do is sit back and sort of talk to myself. I talk to my own body and ask, What am I remembering? What is my body remembering?

I guess the reality is that we experience body memory every single day. My boat experience is only one very small example. I consciously know today, when I'm going on boats, that I'm safe. I understand boats, and I understand the weather. Yet my body still remembers that original experience: the narrow plank, the storm, the uncertainty, the feeling.

My nervous system really learned something important that day. Our nervous system works for us. It is on our side. It is trying to protect us. That is its job. I know today that when it is whispering to me, “Pay attention,” it is not because the nervous system is blocking me. It is because that is the experience my body learned all those years ago.

This leads me to a really big question. For generations, particularly in the learning space, we have associated memory primarily with the brain. Yet modern research is increasingly exploring the relationship between memory and emotion, physiology, and definitely the nervous system.

Perhaps memory is more than facts and information. Perhaps the experiences that we have shape the patterns throughout our entire body system. That is what I would invite you to explore or ponder today.

From what I can gather, and this is just my opinion from the seat that I'm sitting in today, many people currently think of memory as recalling information, remembering names, retaining facts, and storing experiences all in the brain. Certainly, I would agree that those forms of memory exist. But I do feel that there are other forms of remembering, and the body is learning too.

A child learns to ride a bike and remembers it years later. Think about a dancer or a gymnast years later: their muscles have that muscle memory. A musician learns an instrument, and the memory of it is held in the body. An athlete can also develop that muscle memory because the body is remembering the patterns.

So then I wonder: Could emotional experiences also create patterns? My boat experience as a child was certainly very emotional. It was not just physical. It involved my nervous system and that emotional event lingering in my body.

I do not give it a thought whatsoever until I am put into the same situation today. If it is terrible weather and I'm about to get on a boat, it takes me straight back there and makes me stop and pay attention.

My comprehension of this, my innerstanding of this, is that my body is learning through that experience. Think about a small child who touches a hot stove. You only have to do it once. The body learns not to touch a hot stove. There is no conscious effort required because that lesson becomes embodied.

I really love this word embodied. It is pretty much why I've called this the Embodied Intelligence series. It is about getting out of our headspace. The headspace is still important; it is part of the picture. But I do not feel like it is the whole picture, because much of our life learns through embodiment.

Experiences teach. Our relationships teach. Our successes and our losses, our conflicts and our belonging, all teach us something. This is why I wanted to share this on All Learning Reimagined. The body is constantly adapting, and I really feel that, as learners, educators, mentors, and parents, this is something to consider when we are in a learning environment.

Definitely, definitely.

Ancient wisdom, as anyone who listens to me regularly knows, is something I really love to go back to. I love comprehending the old ways of doing things and looking at ancient wisdom when it meets modern science.

Many traditional cultures recognized that experiences leave an imprint. Stories, rituals, ceremonies, movement, dance, breath, and, definitely, connections to nature, one of my favorite things, were often used to help communities process experiences, rather than just think about them.

Today's modern fields, including trauma research, somatic practices, nervous system science, and other areas, are starting to explore similar questions about how our experiences shape the body and how the body participates in healing and growth. I do not even know what to call all of it. I do not even have the official words for it, and I really do not care what the official words are. I just know that we are starting to explore similar questions today.

These are not small questions. There is definitely a distinction here, because many researchers and practitioners are exploring how experiences may influence patterns of tension, protection, physiology, and nervous system responses throughout the body. Yay, I say. Wow. Let's have this conversation. I think this is a really important one.

That is because it matters for learning. Imagine if a learner failed publicly once, or was laughed at while reading aloud, as if that has never happened in a classroom. Or imagine they were told they were bad at maths, or they experienced repeated criticism. Years later, they may approach learning from that same protective stance that their body, fascia, and nervous system used back then during the original experience to protect themselves.

Even years later, it is not that they are lacking the intelligence to know what is going on. It is that those previous experiences shaped expectations in them. The body remembers the patterns, and the nervous system remembers the patterns.

Learning, therefore, in my opinion, becomes more than just acquiring information. It is not just consuming information. It becomes creating new experiences, new possibilities, new evidence, and new stories, because we have to embody the learning.

I really love to use a garden-path analogy here. This is what I use to explain it, and hopefully this will help put things in perspective.

Imagine walking across a field. One path is traveled every day. I'm thinking about cows in a paddock that go backward and forward, backward and forward, and eventually have a path built into the paddock. Another path is rarely used. Over time, the frequently traveled path becomes much easier to follow.

We know through neuroscience that this is what is happening in our brain when we create neural pathways. Repetition creates that pathway. Practice, as in the saying “practice makes perfect,” helps create that pathway.

The same thing occurs within our thoughts, our emotions, and, guess what, also our behaviors. The patterns strengthen through repetition. The good news is that new paths can always be created.

When it comes to learning, it is really important to think about this as the big picture. For me as an educator, when I'm in this space, I do not just think about movement. It is not just movement, and it is not just the mental state or even the conversations, although I do love to have all of those things. I love to consider all of the multiple intelligences and the different ways a learner might experience things.

I also love to consider things like smell. Freshly cut grass, the smell of sunscreen, someone's cooking, or a particular perfume can sometimes trigger you somewhere else. I am very aware of the smells that are going on in the learning spaces and learning environments that I am in.

Taste is another one. A childhood medicine, a favorite dessert, or a cultural dish can take you straight back. I can taste something today, and it can take me straight back to childhood medicine, and it is definitely nothing Mary Poppins would have given me, that's for sure.

Your body is remembering before your mind even catches up, based on taste or smell. There are definitely senses within our body that I do not want to leave out, because they are part of it.

Sound is another one. We know that singing, a bell, or a familiar voice can bring entire memories back. That frequency and those harmonics are an absolute gift when it comes to learning.

Of course, there is movement. I really feel that movement is fairly well embedded in our learning environments already. As I mentioned before, the body remembers patterns, whether you are a dancer, swimming, playing an instrument, typing on a keyboard, or doing something else. All of that movement can become muscle memory.

The one that I can see coming to the forefront, particularly in the last probably ten years from where I am standing, is emotional experience. Thank goodness, because it is a huge part of learning and embodying the learning.

If you look into the classroom, or you stand in front of a crowd and speak aloud, or you read aloud, and for adults in the room, maybe you have to speak up at a meeting, your body will remember the experiences you have had with public speaking.

When a child says something like, “I'm bad at maths,” and you explore that comment more deeply, there is usually a story there, an experience, a memory, or a movement.

Then it becomes a matter of asking, What can we do about this? How can we breathe into presence, into now, and center ourselves so that we can release what was in the past and create a new experience? How can we retrain our nervous system, our fascia, and our bodies to feel differently about whatever that experience happens to be?

It is very possible to do. There are many different modalities out there that help with this. From what I can gather, the body is not remembering information. It is remembering life. I'm going to say that again: the body remembers life.

Isn't that what it is all about? If we're learning something, isn't it meant to be for life? Otherwise, what is the point? Honestly, there is so much going on out there, and so much learning happening in schools today, that has nothing to do with life, or it does not make any connection to that child or learner's life.

The body, and what it might be sensing, might be something that the learner cannot quite understand at the time. But it will certainly hold within them and be there with them as they move through life.

Here is a quick little micro-practice for anyone who is interested. It is a body-memory awareness strategy, a small micro-practice you can use.

Think about a meaningful memory. It does not have to be the most difficult memory. It does not have to be a traumatic memory whatsoever. Just think of a meaningful memory that you might have.

Then sit with your body. Center yourself and take away all distractions. Put away devices, shut the door, and try to be alone while doing this.

Then notice, when you are thinking about that memory, what is happening in your body. Does your posture change? Does your breathing change? Do you notice warmth in your body, or tension, or ease? Do you notice curiosity?

You do not have to fix it. You do not have to do anything. You are simply observing. When you are thinking about that memory, what is your body telling you? What is it communicating to you?

I personally like to put my hand on my heart, on my chest, and take a slow breath when I'm doing this. Then I'm simply observing. Sometimes I like to write it down, journal, or write down what comes up. Then I often ask myself, What do I choose to do about this? Is this something I'm comfortable with? Is this something where I would like to create a different pattern in my body?

It is not something I do often, but if something comes up for you, this is certainly a valuable micro-practice you can do. You can also do it with young children. You can just ask them. Sometimes they do not have the words, but it does not matter. The curiosity is there, and their body is listening. Their conscious and subconscious are listening.

There are lots of different reflection questions that can tie in with this. What memories create a strong physical response? Of course, if you have been in a car accident or had something tragic happen in your life, that could create a strong emotional response. But it could also be something like a surprise party, or seeing someone you have not seen in so long, and feeling such joy to see those people in your life again. It can be something amazing.

When you think about humanity and the collective consciousness, when there is a huge world event that changes everything, that experience, emotion, feeling, and those senses are recorded in your body. What are some of these huge world events? It is interesting to sit with that and ask, What does this mean for me?

No one is the same. No one is the same. No one can tell you how you feel. They can guide you and help you, but only you know you, and that is the way it is meant to be.

Some questions I ask myself, which might be helpful for other people, include: How does my body communicate comfort? When I'm feeling good and I feel like I need comfort, how does my body react? What does that look like in my body?

How does my body communicate stress? As someone who experienced burnout from being a workaholic many years ago, I can now feel the tension in my body straight away. I know straight away that there are strategies I can use because I have no intention of ever going down that path again. Because I know my body, I can feel it. I'm not distracted. I'm aware of how my body is communicating with me.

What patterns do I notice repeating in my life? And then, what new experiences am I ready to create? That is my favorite one.

I am now in a stage of my life where I'm not a consumer. I'm not consuming everybody else's information. I'm creating. I'm asking, What does this mean for me? What can I create? I choose to be a creator being, not a human doing.

For many, many years, I was just, by default, getting up, eating, working, doing whatever I was told, whatever I was programmed to say, not making waves, and then rinsing and repeating for a very, very long time.

Now I am at the stage where it is like, no, I do not choose that anymore. I am so much more aware. There is nothing to change in your life. The only thing you can change around you is yourself.

What I've discovered is that when I am more in tune with my body and myself, and not only my mindset but my heartset and what my body is telling me, when I shift within, my entire reality around me changes.

Michael Jackson's “Man in the Mirror” really had it right. If you want to make a change in the world, you have to start with yourself and take a really good look at yourself. In order to do that, there needs to be some sort of communication or connection with your body and the memories your body is currently holding: good, bad, and ugly. All of it.

Then you consciously choose what daily habits, patterns, behaviors, and beliefs you will use now to create what you are choosing and what your preference is in the future, which is, of course, your highest excitement.

I want joy. I want peace. I want balance and harmony. I want abundance. And I want it not just for me; I want it for everybody. When I tie back to my values, it really helps me navigate what I do with this information.

Then, of course, there is a weekly integration exercise. Throughout the week, and usually this is my Sunday, Sundays are the time when I make sure I sit and check in. How am I going? What do I need to shift? I celebrate small wins or successes within myself, and I really notice my body. I notice how my body is reacting.

I ask, Is this a response connected to the present moment, or am I stuck in a past experience? Am I worried about the future? Because I can only create in the now moment. I do not want to be stuck in the past, and I do not want to be worrying about the future.

I really feel there are a lot of learners out there today, particularly children, who are experiencing so much anxiety because they are worried about the future. They are not necessarily feeling like they are fully in the present.

That is about getting out of your head and back into your body. It sounds so simple, and yet it is not, because it is so simple. We've been taught through media and institutions over the years that it is meant to be complicated and complex, but the simple things are what actually work.

This really links to the whole universal-law connection, which is cause and effect. An experience creates ripples. Actions create consequences. Learning creates change. It is all cause and effect, which is definitely a universal-law connection.

My question is not, Does cause and effect exist? Of course it exists. My question is: How long do these effects continue to influence us? Am I being driven by a nervous system today that was wired or influenced by something that happened years ago? Am I ready to let that go? Am I done? Am I ready to reshape my story and make a choice? How can my awareness help me create new possibilities?

If something is not in your awareness, then you cannot do anything about it. Awareness is key, in my opinion, for just about everything.

Another universal law could be the law of association. When a smell becomes associated with a place, or a song becomes associated with a moment, or a feeling becomes associated with an experience, the nervous system creates all of those connections. The law of association certainly fits in with this.

It has massive implications if we take a breath and sit back and ask, What does this mean for learning?

For those people who have not listened to my show before, hello. Welcome, welcome. I like to wrap on a little bit. I do like to write an article each week, and this week's article, of course, will be about the topic that we talked about today, along with the micro-practices, activities, and suggestions. I always put those at the end of the article.

You can find the article on bbsradio.com/alllearningreimagined. All of the articles are there, along with the archived shows. They are free, of course. Take them, use them, adapt them, adopt them, and share them. Make them yours. That is why they are there.

I did want to give a shout-out for that, and of course, thank you to the beautiful BBS team. They are the most amazing crew. They really, really are. They are just such beautiful, heart-centered people.

I'm going to wrap this all up now in a big fat bow. The body is not simply carrying us through life. It is not a meat suit. It is actually learning alongside us. Fascia interacts with our consciousness. It interacts with our light, with our soul. It is embedded. It is not floating separately.

The body adapts. It protects. It remembers. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can offer ourselves is curiosity about this. How does this work? How does this work for us?

When you start to become curious, and this is what happened for me, I started noticing my patterns. With awareness, I was able to choose new ones. I could say, This does not resonate with me anymore. I'm choosing new ones. I'm not going to live by research or by default.

My experiences shaped me, but my new experiences can also shape me. I am choosing my new experiences because I know that the body remembers life.

I think I'm probably going to leave it there, actually. I cannot imagine a more beautiful statement than “the body remembers life.” There is aliveness in that, and that is what we want our learners to be. We want them to be alive and feel that tension, that growth, and that amazing aliveness within their body.

We do not want them to be like clones just walking through life and having life happen to them. No. It is happening through us. It is magic. I love it. Just love it.

Thanks for joining me today on All Learning Reimagined. Until next week: explore, experience, express. Go out and live learning.

Speaker 1 - Theme Song / Prerecorded Program Outro:
Where learning comes alive
with heart, with hope, with courage,
we help the future rise.
With Teresa Songbird,
until next time,
keep exploring,
keep creating,
keep remembering.