Page 587 - Total War on PTSD_FINAL

the whole body. Balance is accomplished by using four major components of Tai Chi training: 1) central equilibrium training, the concept of maintaining a straight spine with an energetic central “plumb line”; 2) the biomechanics of spiraling in the joints, called silk reeling training mentioned above; 3) cultivation of a powerful physical and energetic connection to the ground called ‘root’; and 4) synchronization of right/left or bilateral (opposite sided) and ipsilateral (same sided) movement. Moving left and right sides together becomes linked in the nervous system, requiring tight inter-hemispheric coupling, plus synchronization binds movement into functional synergies: synergies in energy movement, brain and spinal cord rhythms, muscle activation, breathing, heart rate, and so on. Such movement activates the motor and sensory neural circuitry of the whole brain.
To take balanced, rhythmic, left/right movement even further, we can add the movement model presented in Spiral AnatomyTM Training which describes and trains a specific backwards bicycle or reverse cycling rotational movement in all the joints. This movement facilitates spiraling in the joints, which allows for maximum fluid motion, so that the body flows like water.
The practical application of this information is that slow rhythmic movement (1 Hz or one beat per second) may entrain, control, or balance a vast neuronal network. Thus, the slow motion movements of Tai Chi forms may result in this kind of neural control. The comfort imparted by rocking and walking my daughter’s new baby, or the incessant kneading and purring of my cat, or the well-known benefits of therapeutic riding for developmental disorders, suggests the power of rhythmic movement. It also suggests that
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