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Sweigard said this so well. She said: you can’t breathe any better than what your postural pattern allows. If you have holding patterns, or are misaligned in terms of being stooped over, etc., that is going to automatically limit the effectiveness of the breath. So my basic approach is that we want to free the organism so that the breath can take place freely. I want to show you briefly what the function of the image is, this methodology we use. So I am going to give you a definition of movement. Movement could be defined as a neuromusculoskeletal event. The reason I give you this definition is that it brings together something you need to be aware of: that in order for voluntary movement to take place, these three systems of the body—the nervous system, the muscle system, and the skeletal system—all have to be involved. Otherwise you cannot have voluntary movement. Each of these systems has its own special role to play in this phenomenon we call movement. The nervous system is generally called the messenger; it gives the message to the muscles to work. The muscle system is what does the work; it is the workhorse, called in physiology “the motor system.” The skeletal system is your support system; it is what is moved. 4. André Bernard introducing the “work.” In order to understand the function of the image, the role of the image, we have to go back to the nervous system and add something. The nervous system is not just a simple messenger; it is also the organizer of the muscle pattern that is going to accomplish a desired movement. Furthermore, it organizes the muscle pattern on the sub-cortical level, the level below consciousness. In other words, you are totally unconscious of what the nervous system is doing and you should be. If you try to interfere with that complex process of organizing the muscle pattern with your conscious mind, you will blow the process. The muscle pattern is the complex of muscles that will accomplish the desired movement. Muscles do not in normal functioning act singly. We talk about them acting singly, but they do not act that way. They act as a group, and groups often interact with other groups.
Ideokinesis: A Creative Approach to Human Movement and Body Alignment by Andre Bernard, Wolfgang Steinmuller, Ursula Stricker













