Muscle Memory: Developing Awareness and Control

Muscle memory, a term used to define how our actions and behaviors become ingrained in our bodies through repetition. Whether it’s typing, writing, or any other physical activity, our muscles become trained to perform these actions automatically, without conscious thought. Notice through mindfulness how writing down certain thoughts and feelings can seem effortless. The thoughts are there and writing or recording these thoughts involves memories of how we express ourselves and process information.

One way to incorporate mindfulness with muscle memory is focusing on thoughts we transcribe and then review what we’ve written at a later date. I’ve tried to maintain a routine of reviewing all of my written journal entries for the month. Writing down what sticks out to me through my review helps me to see where I’m going in a mental, physical, and spiritual sense. Also, when typing, recording, or hand-writing, we can bring our attention to the feeling of our fingers on the keys, the rhythm of our breathing, the movement of the writing utensil in our grasp, or the posture of our body.

By paying attention to these physical sensations, we can become more in tune with our thoughts and more present in the moment. With practice, we can develop a habit of journaling our emotions, ideas, and thoughts, learning to excavate gems from our mind. We also are practicing the the principle of trusting in our intuition and getting better at understanding the silent parts of ourselves.

By practicing mindfulness, we can develop more awareness of self and collaborate with our muscle memory, using our notations as tools for paving our journey.