Learning to Belong to Ourselves
Our body maps are our stories; they are living representations within the nervous system that carry the imprint of our lives. Formed in the sensory and motor cortices through experience, body maps embody the fullness of who we are—our emotions, our movement histories, and the cultural and societal forces that have shaped us. They reflect dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, education, religion, and more. In this way, movement is never just mechanical; it tells the story of a life lived in relationship with others and with the world.
When we work with body maps, it is essential to honor each person’s history. At mBODYed, we describe maps in need of change as outdated, misunderstood, or confused—not as errors. These patterns are not failures; they are adaptive strategies that once made sense. At the time they were formed, they were the best options available. Your body map has carried you this far; your nervous system has done its work precisely as it should. The “hardware” is intact, and the process of mapping itself is not broken. What is needed is not fixing, but refinement: an update, much like upgrading the software of a system so it functions with greater clarity and responsiveness.
This process begins with acceptance. Learning cannot take root until we acknowledge ourselves as the sum of our histories and survival strategies. Paradoxically, in that acknowledgment we discover we are more than the sum of our experiences. Through Body Mapping, refinement becomes possible: neuroplasticity allows us to reshape outdated maps into patterns that foster freedom, artistry, and resilience. The work is affirming and empowering, reminding us that we belong to ourselves—and that from this ground of self-belonging, creativity and expression can flourish with greater ease and dignity.
The Tools We Use
What is a Body Map?
The body map is the self-representation of your body within your nervous system, housed in the sensory and motor cortices of the brain. These maps are not static images but living patterns that shape how you perceive, move, and express yourself. They are formed through experience—how you discover your body in motion—and are influenced by culture, education, training, identity, and survival.
Body maps develop and change across the lifespan, but not always in synchrony with the body itself. For artists who devote years to refining their craft, maps can lag behind lived change. The body adapts, but the internal representation may remain fixed, bound to instructions once received.
In music and the arts, the words of early teachers carry particular weight. Their guidance, often delivered in metaphor or shorthand, may be remembered with reverence. Yet a metaphor taken literally, a cue exaggerated, or an instruction misheard can become embedded as a pillar of technique. Over time, these inherited patterns may restrict movement or diminish expressive freedom.
When a map no longer serves, the result is not failure but adaptation that has outlived its usefulness. Body Mapping provides a pathway to recognize these patterns, honor their role in our development, and reshape them into maps that support ease, artistry, and resilience.
What is Body Mapping?
Body Mapping is the intentional process of recalibrating our internal maps of the body so they reflect anatomical design while integrating the imprints of our lived experience. These maps live in the brain’s sensory and motor cortices, shaping how we move, breathe, and express ourselves. When they are distorted—by cultural conditioning, survival strategies, or habitual training—we move in ways that are less free, more effortful, and more prone to injury. When they are clarified and refined, movement becomes coordinated, responsive, and expressive. Freedom of movement becomes the ground for creativity, artistry, and sustainable performance.
Body Mapping is not simply the study of anatomy. It is an embodied pedagogy that combines scientific and medical knowledge with somatic awareness. It acknowledges that our maps are shaped not only by structure but by story—our history of practice, our cultural messages about posture and effort, and our nervous system’s strategies for safety. Updating the map means engaging neuroplasticity through attention, movement, and compassion, so that dignity, belonging, and artistic expression can emerge more fully.
Body Mapping:
Expands expressive freedom by showing how habits, misunderstandings, and protective strategies have interfered with artistic communication—and by offering new pathways for authenticity.
Supports injury recovery and prevention by combining medical care with somatic re-education, allowing the body to move in harmony with its design.
Deepens understanding of skeletal support as a living, dynamic resource for movement, balance, and breath.
Integrates parts and whole so that musicians move not as fragments but as coordinated, adaptive beings.
Enhances artistry by grounding technique, embouchure, breathing, and articulation in an embodied map that fosters ease, creativity, and resilience.
Body Mapping developed as a teaching practice within the Alexander Technique. William Conable, Professor Emeritus of Cello at The Ohio State University, recognized that musicians needed a way to study their body maps collectively. His work made the process of clarifying maps accessible in group settings, without losing the depth of somatic learning. From this foundation, Body Mapping evolved into an independent discipline, now taught internationally through the Association for Body Mapping Education.
For more information about Body Mapping, please visit The Association of Body Mapping Education.
What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is a process of embodied inquiry that cultivates awareness of how we use ourselves in movement, thought, and expression. Rather than offering a set of corrective postures or exercises, the Technique invites us to observe, interrupt, and redirect habitual patterns—many of which arise from cultural conditioning, training demands, or nervous system survival strategies. In doing so, it restores our capacity to move with dignity, freedom, and creative ease.
At its foundation, the Alexander Technique affirms three principles:
Human beings are born with a neuro-muscular-skeletal mechanism that coordinates movement with remarkable efficiency.
This mechanism is always present and available to us.
Interference—through unnecessary tension, bracing, or protective habits—restricts its natural functioning.
Through study, individuals learn to pause, notice, and reorient—creating a direct, efficient pathway from intention to movement. The Technique engages neuroplasticity by integrating attention, inhibition, and conscious direction, which over time expands not only physical coordination but also self-agency and artistic possibility.
The Alexander Technique Can:
Unlock creative potential by removing habitual interferences and allowing authentic expression to emerge.
Develop awareness and attentional flexibility, cultivating presence in performance and in daily life.
Relieve stress and pain by reducing unnecessary tension and restoring natural coordination.
Expand choice in movement and response, opening new possibilities for artistry, resilience, and self-regulation.
A Pedagogy of Embodied Change
The Alexander Technique was initially developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander in the late 19th century, when he sought to understand the cause of his recurring vocal loss. His discovery—that habits of use profoundly shape function—evolved into a lifelong exploration of embodied change. Today, the Technique is taught worldwide as a somatic pedagogy: a means of integrating thought, movement, and presence so that artistry, creativity, and well-being can flourish.
Which is right for me?
Alexander Technique has two defining features: our coordination is guided by our primary movement (the relationship between head/spine/limbs in movement; and the development of hands-on teaching.
Body Mapping is the refinement and intentional embodiment of the internal body map based on anatomical reality.
Body Mapping greatly enhances the learning process for the study of the Alexander Technique. The study of Body Mapping naturally leads to the Alexander Technique.
Most students start there, continuing if they have a particular interest in teaching the Alexander Technique and a desire to do hands-on teaching.
Learning to Play Again
Much of what we learn in early infancy, we learn through play. In our first years, we repeat actions again and again not to “get them right,” but simply to explore. Children and animals alike often “lose” on purpose just to keep play going, because the joy is in the process, not the product. In these moments, we have not yet been taught concepts like “try harder” or “don’t fail.” What’s striking about this early stage of development is that curiosity and freedom, not pressure or performance, guide our learning.
In English, the verb we use for making music is “play.” Yet how often do we approach our instruments with the spirit of play? What if no one had ever told you that a piece of music was “hard”? What if you learned a new work without expectations of how long it should take or how it should sound? Play invites us to meet the work differently: with curiosity, exploration, and freedom from the weight of judgment.
As musicians and educators, we are trained to learn through the academic process: skill acquisition, repetition, evaluation, and reward. This system teaches us to value results over process, and often to avoid failure at all costs. Yet play was our first teacher. Play weaves failure into the fabric of learning—it makes experimentation safe and keeps us open to discovery. In terms of the nervous system, play signals safety; it is a regulated state that allows for creativity, resilience, and authentic expression.
mBODYed educators invite you to reframe learning as play. This work is not about right or wrong, but about embodied exploration. You are encouraged to approach these practices with curiosity and enjoyment, knowing that while change may begin immediately, the most profound growth unfolds over time. Play is not frivolous; it is foundational. It is how we rewire our maps, expand our artistry, and reclaim joy in movement and music.
At mBODYed, to play is to learn, to create, and to belong.