Issue #113: Einstellung Effect & Inclinations
Weekly curated resources for movers and practitioners.
A long time ago I stopped advising people to “listen to your body.”
An empty platitude, often vague and misguided… Especially to those who've just started on their physical journey.
If you recall last week’s newsletter where I shared the three steps of:
Observe
Understand
Develop
Let’s take an example of teaching someone a new movement. When I would tell someone to “listen to your body,” it implied that they had the capacity to observe and understand what was going on internally, to execute the task at hand. Nine times out of ten, they didn’t.
This brings us to the Einstellung Effect. The Einstellung Effect is a cognitive (read: psychosomatic) phenomenon where a person's initial thought or solution to a problem prevents them from seeing a better or more efficient solution. This happens because the pre-existing pattern (or lack thereof) is so strong that it overshadows alternative ideas. Returning to the example of teaching someone a new movement, if the person doesn’t have the proprioceptive map or neural synapses, how can they even begin to “listen.”
This needs much more fleshing out, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
↓↓↓
READ, WATCH, LISTEN ⤵
READ: Surrendering to Your Nature
(Reading Time: ~2mins)
A quick, punchy read. Stay true to your inclinations.
I suspect less than 10% of people ever surrender to who they really are. They spend their whole lives trying to fulfill a fake and manufactured image. And so, they get trapped in hollow careers and meaningless pursuits where they’re forced to be somebody they’re not — the stuff of a cold and haunting misery.
READ: The Physically Educated Person
(Reading time: ~3 minutes)
How does one know what their inclinations might be, on a physical level, if they’ve been so far removed from the physical realm?
*Let me re-write that last sentence : How does one know what their inclinations might be, on a physical level, if they’ve been so far removed from the physical realm?
“This reduction in PE which focuses on movement for all in favour of school sport which focuses on competition for some worries me. I would like to propose an alternative for the government that all future initiatives that involve movement in any of its forms are subsumed under – we want every one to become physically educated.”
WATCH: Map Of Physical Practice
(Length: 65 mins)
Saving this one to continue watching later. This process of mapping can be useful for those who might not be fully in tune with their physical inclinations. “This map is an aid to help practitioners navigate through the vast land of a diverse physical practice.” Given the time, I’d love to beautifully design this complex map that Joseph lays out in this video. Furthermore, it would be super interesting to see other people’s versions of their own maps and compare them side-by-side as a thought experiment.
Made Me Look 👀
A wonderful reminder to follow feelings not features.
TINY INSIGHT 🧠
Bruce Lee (via Nitch)
"In order to control myself, I must first accept myself, by going with and not against my nature."
•••
To Leaning In,
Galo Alfredo Naranjo
Another framework that I’ve found myself teaching recently is… “listen to your body… and also your body is a dirty liar”
This allows them to have a communication with their body to gain awareness and run diagnostics, and also know that if their warmup feels sluggish it doesn’t mean that the work sets will.
It’s allowed for more movement optimism/realism, with them knowing that they aren’t fragile butterflies but robust adaptable beasts.
We know we’ve succeeded in teaching the lesson when they can hold two seemingly opposite views as true.
I agree! It’s important to flesh out the “body map” so they have something to listen to.
While it’s important to listen, that’s often not enough. Listening is only one aspect of relationship. How one responds is often more important.
Depending on their physical literacy, guiding them towards a specific part (leg) or layer (bone) or function (breath) of the body seems to work better.
This makes me also think about “internal” and “external” cues and what the goal of having them listen to the body is. If the goal is performance based, an external cues would be better, but if the goal is to develop more somatic awareness, a specific internal cue would be better.