Reflections on BMC practice

Reflections from BMC reading: Andrea Olsen, 'Body and Earth'

The use of touch in BMC practice...

To know through touch... is to understand better... the ways in which lines of communication between human beings and all other forms of organic and inorganic life can remain open if the currents that run through the hand are encouraged to flow.
Michael Brenson, 'Memory of the Hand', Sculpture Magazine


The sensorial information we recieve through touch allows us to orientate ourselves to our outward, external environment as well as our inward, internal world.

I think it is important to remember that the thickness of our skin varies over different parts of the body.
'The skin of an adult's body weighs about eight pounds, with a thickness varying from a few epithelial cells on the eyelids or behind the ears to ten or more touch layers on the soles of our feet.'

'Our bodies are longing to move and to shake out excess tension - to tremble, stretch, or wriggle in discovery and recovery.'

This becomes the role and importance of BMC practice. Scirntific studies have conclusive evidence on the benefits of movement and touch through a child's development. It is esssential to both physical and emotional health.

Skin is involved in many of the key processes that regulate our internal environment. 'In its living, breathing exchange with the environment, skin informs our concept of what exists outside and what exists inside the body, shaping our identity and our capacity for distinction of self and other.'