Patterns are a part of nature. We create movement patterns in order to do things more efficiently: what we practice, we get good at. The neuropsychologist Donald Hebb famously said, ‘what fires together, wires together.’ When a circuit in the brain fires repeatedly, connections are reinforced. Patterns become habits. They are our strength and our weakness. As multi-dimensional somas, we create habitual patterns in our physical, mental and emotional bodies. This practice identifies patterns that no longer serve us, and helps establish and entrain new patterns. A decent sense of humour goes a long way, together with humility, patience and the ability to stay curious.

Developmental work can help us fill in the gaps we missed. It helps us recognise our movement patterns. It teaches us how to move with integrity, authenticity, grace, poise and ease. It explores moving from the inside out and how to ask new questions for old problems. It encompasses the origins of alignment and how impeccable alignment can instinctively and spontaneously arise once we learn to listen and trust what we hear.

This is the life-long work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and the School for Body-Mind Centering®. Bonnie shares that it took her 40 years to write a book about the patterns because she wanted to share ‘not just these patterns but the process of how these patterns originate from our cells and fluids, from the energy of the cosmos itself.’