Your body has a memory
According to Wikipedia, body memory is a speculation that the body itself is capable of storing
and recording memories in addition to the brain’s function. These memories are emotional,
kinesthetic and chemical in nature and are stored away at the cellular level of the body. Although
studies suggest some storage of memories on a cellular level, this still needs to be backed up by
concrete evidence. However, cross-disciplinary research on body memory indicates evidence
which does not completely negate the presence of body memory. This thereby provides merit
and helps disciplinary people to understand how recreating those emotional, kinesthetic and
chemical states can help one to retrieve a particular body memory. Body is perceptive in such a
way that even before it communicates through gestures or speech, it creates a feeling of being-
with the experience. Thus, the body memory is also known as habit-body (Riva, 2018).
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The body memory has not found to be on the conscious level rather something which is more
automatic, called the implicit memory wherein the dispositions of perception and behaviour
mediate through the body. This memory is formed when the person ‘does’ something, thus what
it does perseveres as a style of existence and not an explicit memory. It is involved in
remembering by and through the body rather than something about the body. In such a case the
body not only becomes a source of perception or experience but also one of communication. To
communicate, the body needs to store it in order to consequently retrieve it hence, becoming the
storehouse of the memory for those experiences as well. When understood as a process not
limited to the physical body but extending to the interior system it becomes a sensorimotor and
interactive field one conducts self in.
Here it is also important to understand that body memory encapsulates not just the visible or
touchable body but also the capacity of the body to see, touch and sense the experiences to
develop a totality of it. These experiences do not stand out individually in the memory rather
they are superimposed on the other. With the superimposition and repetition of the collective
experience an individual forms a habit which is governed as implicit bodily knowledge and skill
(Fuchs, 2011).
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Body memories are classified in many types but for an easier understanding the following given
by Peter Levine (2015) can be considered:
a) Learned motor actions: These are action patterns which are learnt through repetition,
can be modified and are aided by higher brain regions such as a person playing piano
b) Emergency responses: These are instinctual behaviours such as fight, flight, freeze
c) Attraction or repulsion: Body’s inclination towards nurturing and growth encouraging
sources and repulsion towards harm
Researchers say the distinction between these memories may not be that essential as all of them
can be derived through different bodily dimensions. When individuals experience situations
where their fight, flight or freeze mode may get activated and the body feels such an intense
event; it rarely forgets the feeling. In such cases individuals may become hyper sensitive or
hyposensitive to any danger and may remain on guard to protect themselves. This unfinished
need to protect oneself may get trapped in the body and mind, waiting to be triggered. It can
show up as restless shaking of legs, backaches/lower back pains, unannounced and frequent
headaches, anxious thoughts or clenched jaws.
Phantom pain is another interesting example of how body may have a memory. Phantom pain
occurs when an individual has an amputated arm or leg but continues to feel the pain in that
limb. Sometimes these individuals feel that the amputated limb is still a part of their body. They
continue to feel sensations like itching or prickling in those areas while others report that the
missing limb still feels the changes in weather. Phantom pain can also occur in the body even
when one does not have an amputated limb. This manifests in various parts of the body without
any real cause (Farkas, n.d.). People mention headaches or pain in backs which feel very real to
them but do not have any biological reasons. Louise Hay talks about this in her book ‘You Can
Heal Your Life’ which shows in many ways how anxiety, depression and traumatic memories
can get stored in the body.
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Perhaps the reason why memories are connected so intricately with the body is because the part
of the brain responsible for storing sensory information is also in part connected to storing
emotional memories. For example, a whiff of the pizza smell can trigger the memory of that one
time a person went out for a pizza with their friend. An experiment done on rats also indicated
that the sensory cortices are responsible for memories related to senses coupled with emotional
information. This was done by conditioning rats to associate a sound with an electric shock. One
group of rats called the experimental group received a lesion on their cortex while the other
group (control group) did not receive any lesions in the same area. After being exposed to the
sounds again the rats from the experimental froze much less than their mates in the control
group, showing the link between memory and fear (Rettner, 2010). Thus, some event affecting
the senses but not being stored in the brain may make the body more alert to the stimuli and
respond accordingly.
Since body memories are somatic in nature, a touch on a particular body area of an individual
may evoke certain memories. These memories are charged on high emotional intensity and
surface in a more ‘state dependant’ fashion. This means when the memory is prompted by an
external stimuli especially triggered through sensory based memory recall (like touch, smell or
noise) or physiological arousal (like high heart rate) and physical postures, an individual may
experience some memories resurfacing (Muscolinov, n.d.). A massage called rolfing massage is
also used to release memories lodged in the muscles and tissues. Individuals undergoing this are
informed beforehand that they may feel some emotional release through the procedure. Some
chiropractors also mention an emotional release experienced by their clients after session(s). In
psychotherapy, somatic experiencing is used to liberate the person from the bodily presence of
distressing emotions, among other techniques.
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Some wild animals also display emotional discharge from their bodies after an intense
experience, like how a deer escaping from the mouth of a cheetah goes through consequent
shivers and shudders after the event (Larry, 2013). This has been understood as an evolutionary
response to rid the body of trauma. Indeed it may it time for humans as well to focus a bit more
on the body and see the multiple ways in which it tries to communicate.
References
Farkas, T. (n.d.). Your Body Has Its Own Memory. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from
https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/depressionhelp/2018/11/your-body-has-its-own-
memory.html
Fuchs, T. (2011). Body Memory and the Unconscious. 86–103.
Larry. (2013). Body Memory . http://www.larrysroadmap.com/memory/body-memory/
Muscolinov, J. (n.d.). Where Does Somatic Memory in the Body Reside? Retrieved October 23,
2020, from https://learnmuscles.com/blog/2018/02/17/where-does-somatic-memory-in-the-
body-reside/
Levine, P. (2015). Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A
Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory
Rettner, R. (2010). Brain’s Link Between Sounds, Smells and Memory Revealed . Live Science.
https://www.livescience.com/8426-brain-link-sounds-smells-memory-revealed.html
Riva, G. (2018). The neuroscience of body memory: From the self through the space to the
others. Cortex, 104(June), 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.013
