As much as we wish to see ourselves as unique individuals in control of our lives, there is more automation to our bodies than meets the eye. Muscle memory is the best example of the machine that our body is capable of becoming.
Your Brain and Your Brawn
While muscle memory is a popular term to use for motor learning, the phrase is more than just a catchy image. It is the cerebellum, located in the back of the brain, that is responsible for tapping into and activating muscle memory.
It makes sense that the cerebellum would be the locale for establishing muscle memory. The cerebellum is also responsible for helping you to maintain your balance and equilibrium, in addition to coordinating your voluntary muscle movements.
Memory in Motion
There is a certain artistic beauty to memory in motion. Think of the experienced pianist who can daydream about mundane duties to be performed later on, all the while playing a complex work that demanded hours of dedicated practice.
Similarly, the gymnast who spends years learning how to get into a handstand and then to maintain it as naturally as standing upright. The many hours of frustration, shaking shoulders, and lost balances ultimately morphs into a posture that appears to be as normal as sitting in a chair or relaxing on the couch.
This is the idea of taking an action or motion and learning it so deeply that it becomes a memory, something easily and readily performed without conscious control beyond the decision to start.
Trusting Muscle Memory
Whether it involves arts, sports, or even daily activities, muscle memory goes to work without us realizing it most of the time. Interestingly, when we learn to trust muscle memory, we become more efficient beings than when we insist upon relying upon brute force and manual control.
The easiest way to throw off another person is to ask them to think about what they are physically doing at any given moment.
Try to consciously control your breathing. Decide when you will inhale and when you will release that breath. Commit to being aware of breathing for just five minutes.
Are you surprised to find yourself unable to focus upon such a simple task as breathing for merely 300 seconds? Did you instead start making shopping lists, think about last night’s dinner, and make plans for the upcoming weekend?
If so, congratulations! This proves you are completely human, with a perfectly functioning mind that wanders like a kitten in a room filled with catnip toys.
The reason your mind went on vacation is that breathing is a natural function. Of course, we can hold our breath, take in large gulps of air, and perform other fantastic feats of breath control. We just do not need to control it, because we trust our body to do an outstanding job of that on its own.
The Benefits of Muscle Memory
We like to believe that multitasking is a fairly new concept. The truth is that most animals are amazing at managing more than one job at a time.
In the wild, a prowling tiger is approaching a prey while also calculating the possible paths of escape its intended victim may attempt. It also needs to “know” the terrain it is running across, making slight adjustments for boulders, shrubs, trees, and hills it will encounter.
Meanwhile, the tiger has likely not eaten for a week or longer. So it is hungry and in a weakened state. It has one primary focus: to find sustenance and gain much needed proteins.
None of the above are conscious thought processes of the tiger. It is a condition of being aware of providing for its basic needs. She is in an automatic mode of operation, a state she goes into regularly.
Whether or not she succeeds this time, she knows it is the only way to survive. That is the core benefit of muscle memory.
The Gift That Muscle Memory Bestows Upon Humankind
It is generally agreed that humans are the most intelligent creatures on Earth. (At least among humans there is this consensus!)
Being conscious offers many benefits, as is evidenced by the incredible advances our species have made in our short history. We travel across the surface of our planet faster than any other animal, we communicate globally using sophisticated equipment, and we imagine and create different realms of reality (think books, music, and film).
But beyond this magical component of being human is the still and always miraculous capacity of muscle memory. We can even say that it is thanks to our muscle memory that we have freed out minds to truly soar and discover worlds beyond our imagination.
Because our bodies are subconsciously serving our basic needs, we became creatures of leisure. And this extra time turned us into creatures of curiosity, excited at the wondrous discoveries waiting to be uncovered.
Meanwhile, our bodies keep on ticking, in unconscious gratitude to our muscle memories.