Ideo-Kinetics, the movement of ideas

Back in the 1970s while working with so many students and clients, I was drawn to question the relationship between the body, mind and emotion and how they connected to certain places of the body. I was curious about these places that seemed to be for storage but sometimes with long-term discomfort.

Certain body patterns seem connected with certain emotions but also certain places of the body seem to store different types of events - people’s experiences of the What, Where and How they hold or store tension varies from person to person and moment to moment.

This lead me to focus on and create a form of Aston Kinetics called “Ideo-Kinetics”, the movement of ideas.

Fortunately Sophie Otis studied Aston-Patterning® in the early 1970s and decided she wanted to get her doctorate degree with her focus on Ideo-Kinetics.

She was appreciative of the assessment tools she learned as a base of support for her problem-solving uniquely for each person.

Sophie told me the other day how happy she was to have had this form to learn from, to add to, and expand to assist so many clients. She had a very successful practice for 20+ years.

The Beginning

I first met Judith in 1971 when she was developing her ideas for movement education in conjunction with Ida Rolf. I joined Judith’s second class and initial training in movement education in 1972. I have been involved with Aston Kinetics in a continuous process of learning, change, adjustment, adaptation, negotiation etc. for all these years.

Ideo-Kinetics

Judith proposed adding a new form to Aston-Patterning® (a form from Aston Kinetics) to explore emotional-cognitive patterns in relation to physical patterns. And, to develop a process of learning and teaching in areas of potential balance and growth or restricted movement and holding patterns of thought.

I knew to involve myself in this new work meant I would commit myself to a continuing educational process. The new work that Judith was proposing would be a wild ride of change, effort, wins and Work. Now surprise here. Nonetheless, I was excited to involve myself in this next forward step.

This new form, tentatively entitled Ideo-Kinetics, ideo - an idea, form, pattern and kinetics - the action of moving parts, a force producing change. The concept proposed by Ideo-Kinetics is the idea of movement to produce change in held patterns of thinking and feeling. A process - action that can be identified, defined and utilized.

Judith presented a problem solving approach to the difficulty of working without a map. Her concept was that a situation could be understood in two ways. One was to divide the unfamiliar into smaller more familiar parts, then describe these and the way they might come together. Another way to deal with the unfamiliar is to compare it to something larger and describe the difference. Almost the entire business of thinking is taken up with trying to understand unfamiliar situations. There were no familiar precendents to guide us in developing this new process. We would arrive at our conclusions deductively, that is, taking the data from our experiments and experiences to demonstrate the concepts of Ideo-Kinetics. In other words, an act of faith.

Ideo-Kinetics is attempting to clarify this process by identifying the unconscious interface with conscious thought as components of a learning process in the form of ideas and movement. In this interaction, a person can apply and recreate conscious thought based on an aware expression of their experience.

There are several steps to complete thought. There are proposed as follows

Potential impulse, idea or movement
Gathering of data
Concept formation including analysis (yes) and synthesis (no)
Interpretation based on above
Action or inhibition
Evaluation +/-

This process happens at incredible speed in the brain. By breaking down the thought process this way, it is possible to examine stress or incompletion due to holding or the release of pleasure at success. An example of an incomplete thought - some people identify themselves as ‘impulsive’ because they do not complete the thought process. Others might be pleased with themselves that they completed the thought at all.

Lesson Plan

Gather information

Gathering information on how a person learns. Pre-test
Teachers ask questions which call for descriptive answers to determine one’s interest and why they have come. What is relevant to the teacher is what people do with thoughts that cause stress and result in held thinking and restricted movement. This brings you to the focus of the session

2. Focus Concept

What is the person’s interest in relation to the task? Clarify motivation as it bridges the gap between the problem and the solution. “What do you want to happen in this session?” “What would be a successful outcome?” The teacher’s analysis is of the most necessary holding pattern that is available to change - the one that has to change before anything else can happen.

3. Body of the lesson-experience

How one defines the task, what are the categories of the task, expanding information by applying to thought, feeling, being in the body. How to simplify the task by breaking it into component parts. Teaching progression-take through a sequence of discovery and come back to apply to initial motivation.

4. Application

Applying movement to stillness for change. Repeat and summarize the lesson with a comparison and/or contrast with other situations. Awareness and practice are needed to secure new learning.

5. Evaluation Post test

Practice and successful application of these concepts brings awareness and change to stressful holding patterns. The person is enabled to use this lesson in other situations for further progress. In a practical way, learning to utilize these concepts brings resiliency and movement to other areas of life.

Composed by Sophie Otis
Introduction by Judith Aston

Ideo-Kinetics, the movement of ideas