Saturday, December 28, 2013

Whitney's tongue a quiver

I have nothing

At different points in the video I get a good look at Whitney's tongue. When I fist saw her hitting some of the beautiful notes and watch her tongue quivering on both sides I could not imagine how that was done. My own tongue seemed so undefined and unrefined.  Singing to a CD in the car tonight I could actually feel the left tongue a quiver. The sound emitting from my piehole was probably more akin to the sounds of anguish than a song but there is a tremendous difference in my movement image of my tongue than years ago.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Holes in my thinking

There are still some holes in my thinking. I do not completely understand the right left relationship. I suppose that the left side computes the best way for one to achieve the immediate task of let'say getting food in ones mouth is to make the movements of the right side easier.  Using the example of eating with my left hand I need to reverse the usual habits of the shoulder complexes to make it somewhat coordinated.  Many (most) people can do it easily without thought. For me it was a bit of achievement for as the fork would get closer to my mouth I would run into more resistance as the shoulder complexes were doing the habitual movement. I am coordinated in one sense. To make the task easier for the right side.

However in life there are many tasks that need both hands to do complex tasks such as typing this sentence. Both hands and fingers coordinate almost without thought and the more I think the more I mistype. It would seem to me both sides of the brain have knowledge of the words being typed otherwise they would not be able to coordinate the movements. Each side of the brain must be coordinating based on it's understanding of the task.

One of the factors that still amazes me is that I would not really see the left side of someone's face as what I communicated with. If there was flaw or something outstanding I might make note of it but not something to read as they expressed themselves either verbally of non-verbally. I would imagine my learning of expressions came before the understanding of words. My right eye habitually drifts to the other person's right eye if in view. In a sense I talk right eye to right eye. When I switch my habitual to my left eye and try to make contact with another's left eye I can not do it as nearly as easy as it should be. I do not want to find the eye immediately. Somehow the scan of the left side of the face becomes incomplete. I can hear the words being said but with less comprehension as I try to maintain the attention in my left eye connection.  Some people look to have close to equal expressive ability in both sides of their faces others not so much.

Another factor that I find amazing is now that I am using and feeling the musculature sub-lingually on the left I cannot imagine how I could not feel the force and strength that they have. I believe that I kept them always contracted to a degree to make the complicated movements on the right side easier. Yet I could swallow, talk, breathe and make an ass of myself quite easily.

I have read that there is no little man inside our heads that previews our conscious thought. However I can focus my attention on my left hand ,eye or tongue. Once a new movement understanding takes place there is a greater ease in repeating if my attention has been focused on the subtle change in completing the task. Learning seems to happen more when I pay attention but there are times when things have just seemed to have soaked in.

Just a link

Monday, December 23, 2013

Opening my mouth

Just paying attention on how I open my mouth. My habitual is to do it from the right side perspective. It was impossible for me to sense that until relatively recently. My movement 'image' only included the right side.When I include an active image of the left side in that image there is a much different feel of the left jaw. It is almost as if I opening against more resistance but somehow more 'correct'.  There is a cooperation in the muscles and structures.  

I do not know what other people do but I imagine there is a wide spectrum of movement 'images'.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Left eye head dominance

Playing with the left eye and what I believe to be the left tongue I am getting a different feel of the use of my head. The left eye position feels to be different than my habitual. I think I tend to let the left eye drift out to the left and now somehow it seems more centered when it appears to take over my heads postural musculature. There is a tightness that spreads over the left side of the face, neck,throat and tongue with a different activation of the muscles related to the left clavicle and shoulder blade.

It is easier for the left eye to achieve the above when I close my right eye but it is far more involved than just closing the right eye. I don't feel like I have it completely 'left' yet.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The amount of information

Watching the talking heads on the tube and shifting back and forth between the left and right half of people I am viewing, I get much more information from the right side of their heads than the left.  My habitual is to see the right side as the side that is talking to me.  My right eye crosses my midline easily to make the connection with their right eye. When I make the conscious shift to put my attention in my left eye and cross my midline and shift it to their left eye my tendency is to check back to their right eye to gain more clues.

Putting my attention in my left eye and letting it cross my midline feels to give an immediate subtle difference in the musculature engaged in head posture.  I am trying consciously to accentuate that feel. On occasion it feels like I am switching from right side musculature dominated mode to a left side dominated use of my head.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Give a man a remote

Functional illusion

I grew up with a TV. In order to change the channels one had to get up and turn the prominent knobs below the tube.  My dad often sat three feet away from the TV to be able to change the channel frequently.  As remotes have evolved the sets have changed appearance. I no longer have to leave the couch to change the channel unless I can not find the remote.  The TV knobs no longer exist.  Disappeared by their functional irrelevance.

Functional Illusion


It was more functional for me to perceive just one tongue instead of two tongues.  Not being that intelligent it has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion. In order to feel the left tongue I first had to differentiate the left tongue from the right tongue.
Try this

I was at the time just trying to find the cause of  why there was a discrepancy in the way my head rolled to the left than the right. It is difficult to learn on how to use the left tongue,throat,eye,face and lips in the task of speech but they each have a contribution. Why would have I needed to learn the same tasks twice in life?

However it is still an illusion that the right side needs to dominate with the left subordinate. The left side can be the originator of the muscular pattern of my speech.

Why do elephants have trunks?