Aikitaiji's training course relies on many divergent traditions ranging from the ancient art of yoga to the science of contemporary athletic performance ( an offshoot of the highly lucrative system of professional sports). The Aikitaiji course was arranged to provoke the countless and seemingly isolated areas of the brain, and retain its content through finely tuned, integrated movement.

"To 'pin down' a thought, there must be movement...thinking and learning are anchored by movement."--Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford.

The realms of the brain that are developed through skilled physical training are the same areas that govern memory, rule all forms of learning, actively promote creativity, assist psychosomatic health, and even strengthen the immune system by acting to stabilize unbalanced emotions such as depression and anxiety.

There are countless brain functions and domains of intelligence that a completely rounded human needs to flex. We each have individually preferred learning styles chosen from many different ways to know or sense, but they all have somthing in common with skilled, polished movement. "Movement activates the neural wiring throughout the body, making the whole body the instrument of learning."--Hannaford.

Movement facilitates learning by producing natural chemicals that enhance the growth of new neurons and neural connections in the brain (which is more than a body part) and the body ( which is not just an instrument of learning and awareness). In Aikitaiji the mind is the body or expression of your art and the articulation of your inner evolution.

Our training system seeks to upgrade neural highways connecting remote areas of the brain, generating neuronal growth somewhat like the muscles they control, developing in range, density and strength through exercise. Aimless movement affects the mind and body of an individual but coordinated, graceful, organized patterns such as those trained in martial art are immensely more powerful and wide-ranging.

"Every time we move in an organized, graceful manner, full brain activation and integration occurs, and the door to learning opens naturally..."--Hanaford. Add internal training and cooperative learning to graceful movement and you succeeed in further enhancing the benefits of skillful movement.

Mental functions can be generally isolated and attributed to certain locations in the brain, but most tasks require a state of coordinated mind and body, and martial art serves this integrative function.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston