The Deep core body plan can also be called a graphic, a map, lens, or schematic. The symbolic
content is very minimal so how it is interpreted is an important part of it’s value. I like the word plan
because it indicates intention, design, cooperation, and complexity. To call it a map seems natural
but a body map is quite a different thing than a typical topographical map. The body is a very
special and familiar form of territory.
While we can get by pretending ignorance of our environment, the effects can be much more
immediate when we pretend ignorance of our own body. We can see this in the phenomenon of
postural collapse, both within ourselves and around us in the global physical inactivity pandemic.
The symbol itself is geometric and visual but what it refers to is not geometric and visual. Perhaps
we can call it a lens and imagine that we are looking at our own body through the lens. If we do so,
certain areas are highlighted and brought to our attention. This is the usefulness of the tool but the
point is interoceptive. This is a very important point.
Certain areas are highlighted in the symbol because they are highlighted in the body. These are the
most sensitive areas of the body. These are the most sensitive and the most mobile areas of the
body. It is almost as though they are crying out for attention. This symbol directs our attention to
the areas of our own body that most want it and most will benefit from it. Attention produces
neurological and muscular tension, a healthy boost in tone.
We can say that this is the biomechanical basis for vitality. These structures are located directly on
the energetic system of the spinal cord and the central nervous system. This is also how we can
reverse the postural collapse that is the primary somatic effect of evolutionary mismatch and
things like the global physical inactivity pandemic. By bringing attention to these areas, simple and
honest attention, we will naturally develop a better grasp of our coordination dynamics and find
greater postural balance and grounding.
These areas are major junctures of the body as is indicated by the intersecting lines of the symbol.
These junctures occur at either end of the spine and in the feet, where the body meets the ground.
Although in the symbol these are simple intersecting lines, there is nothing rectilinear about the
sensory stations of our body or their biomechanical behaviors. Far from it. But there is a central
bone that we can target in these crosshairs which, when we grasp it, guides us naturally and
intuitively in its own use. This is the value of the symbol, interoception.
These bones are major servo mechanisms located at the most important central junctures of the
body. They know and understand their operation and freely share it with us when we simply pay
attention. This fact is of very great theoretical importance for our understanding of the relationship
of the mind and the body and for our understanding of our own coordination dynamics. We can
also speculate that there are important cognitive consequences.
We can easily see that these central bones are important affordances in the operation of our own
body. These bony levers and grips or handles are servomechanisms located on the axial line and at
key locations within the core structure of our postural system. When we grasp them they guide us
in the operation of our own body— its operation and its cooperation. This is the nature of an
affordance and these bones are some of the most powerful and sensitive skeletal affordances of
the human body. Please take some time to get to know yours. The possibilities are limitless and
they are all inside of you.
Use the deep core body map (or plan) to keep yours well in mind, and train them like a bodhisattva.