I’m sitting in front of my Monday Hatha yoga class in Glim. We each have a pen in hand, tracing light pathways across the soles of our feet. We are exploring foot reflexes as part of our seasonal theme: The Alphabet of Movement.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve been revisiting early developmental movement patterns.  These patterns begin in the womb and continue to shape us through our first few years of life.

Why Re-Learn Baby Movements Patterns?
You might wonder what this has to do with a Hatha yoga practice. However, these early reflexes, righting reactions, and equilibrium responses are the foundations of human movement.

Think of them like an alphabet: they are the letters, the ABCs of human movement.  If we didn't fully develop these early patterns, we might be "missing a few letters" in our movement vocabulary. By reactivating them in our yoga practice, we can build a more integrated physical self and improve how we support ourselves in yoga asana and in our daily life.

Our Journey So Far
It’s been an unusual journey for my yoga students, but they have found it both inspiring and transformative. Some of the themes we have explored include:
Postural tone
Head/tail integration.
Symmetry and asymmetry.
Spine/limbs integration.
Equilibrium/balance through the hands and feet.

Exploring the Foot Reflexes
Back to our feet. We are currently exploring three specific reflexes:
The Grasping Reflex: Have you ever been able to pick up a pen with your foot? That’s your baby grasping reflex in action.
The Fanning Reflex: If you stimulate the top of a baby’s foot, their toes will fan out from the little toe through to the big toe (an embryological sequence).
The Babinski Reflex: As this reflex comes alive, our big toes differentiate from the rest of our toes and begin to propel us through space with greater power and energy.

Finding Ease in Standing
In yoga practice, we are told to "spread our toes" and this can often feel tense and fixed.  As these foot reflexes reawaken, we learn to fan our baby toes across the ground, one by one. In this gentle sequencing, we rediscover a more effortless way of standing. We bridge the gap to our earliest selves, connecting deeply to the embryological patterns held within.

25 Years of Inspiration
I first studied developmental movement through the work of US movement pioneer Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, the developer of the Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®) approach.
Bonnie describes herself as 'a movement artist, researcher, and therapist who has spent over 50 years exploring the anatomical, embryological, and developmental foundations of movement and how they relate to our psychophysical processes and wellbeing.'

Twenty five years later, I continue to bring the uniqueness of Bonnie’s insight into my Hatha and Yin yoga classes and enjoy watching the discoveries my students make as they explore new journeys into yoga asana.

I’d love to hear from you!
If 'The Alphabet of Movement' resonated with you please leave a comment below. If you'd like to know more about forthcoming classes and workshops, please get in touch by clicking the 'Yoga class - info and booking' button.