July 4th musings on interdepedence, evolution, and the human sense of smell

Every nerve and cell in your body tells a story of change and adaptation in relationship with your environment. It’s an important story to follow for any practitioner interested in trauma and healing. To that end, this week I completed a cycle through the 12 cranial nerves by returning once again to the vomeronasal organ, cranial nerve 0 (so called because the nerve fibers are now vestigial).

The video above guides you through a brief practice so you can experience it’s magic. Unlike the first one I made 5 years ago, this one is factually correct!

This nerve tells the story of our journey from water to land, to air. The gravitational force of the earth is the biggest constant influence during that journey.

We used to float in the water, buoyed up by its gentle force. We had long segmented bodies that wriggled, then fins, tails, and flippers. We navigated our environment with every inch of our bodies in contact with water’s gentle pressure.

Humans have been adapting to our environment for 6 million years; now our presence itself is causing huge, rapid changes.

Now we are airbreathing, yet land bound. We walk around on two feet, our hands waving about in the air. We can see the fish, and we can watch the birds. We can jump back in the water, and we can be temporarily airborne in our machines, but can’t live in either of those elements for long.

We are in the middle, and it’s getting hot. But I digress…what does our sense of smell have to do with all that?

Here’s what the vestigial organ looks like inside a human nose:

This organ allowed us to interpret chemicals before we could see and hear as well as we do now.

How can I know the difference between mate, friend, and enemy? How can I recognize illness or a pathogen I ought to avoid?

Here is what it looks like in a snake. Both land and water snakes still have this organ and it’s nerve is directly connected to their brain. For us, the nerve is now pretty much absent.

It took a long time for us to adapt to the shift from water to atmosphere. Our vomeronasal organ slowly became vestigial as we developed a second one (olfactory nerves higher up in our nose) for smelling chemicals in the air.

Primates started getting a lot more information about our environment from our visual system, which evolved into bifocal and full spectrum color. Perhaps we didn’t need chemoreception as much anymore.

We developed other ways of understanding each other as our eyes and ears became more complex, and we became more social. This is why scientists believe primates no longer have a functioning vomeronasal organ.

Breathing is the foundation of this “first” sense.

Chemoreception was first at the top of our segmented structure, but also the first exteroceptive sense to develop on our evolutionary journey. Meditating on its presence stimulates a heightened alertness, curiosity, and deep connection to breathing as the foundation of life.

Air is our water, but we forget that so easily.

Practicing with it also brings a certain wild, expressive quality to how we move our head. That’s why I always include a little motor activation (as in the practice below) when I teach folks about it.

Horses and dogs, and the aforementioned reptile ancestors like snakes and lizards, still have a functioning vomeronasal system and you can see how expressive it is in them.

Who knows what human adaptations we may need to make in the future.

Our environment is changing – and we are changing it – so rapidly. I hope our ability to adapt can keep pace, as well as the rest of our fellow creatures. The speed of change itself can be traumatizing.

This is where the Alexander Technique and other somatic practices comes in – to help us re-access flexibility, curiosity, and awareness of what’s happening around us. How can we respond constructively in this moment? How can we find the motivation to engage habit change and adaptation, which take so much time and effort?

Biological change takes time.

Creating a new somatic practice, like all organic growth, also takes time. For example, this week’s video takes place in a grove of dawn redwood trees in my neighborhood.

This grove was planted in 1995, and the trees are now about 50 feet tall! It’s a favorite spot for humans and other animals when it gets hot in the summer.

Five years ago, I made my first video about breathing and smell, about cranial nerve sequencing, in this little grove. It wasn’t factually accurate, but it was a start.

I’ve been guiding groups of therapists and groups of AT teachers in cranial nerve sequencing practice ever since. The therapists are learning more about the AT, and the AT teachers are learning more about nervous system regulation and literacy.

It’s been surprisingly rich and useful for all of us.

If you don’t have time to watch the video, here is the practice sequence:

• Step 1: touch the skin around upper lip, base and sides of nose.
• Step 2: bring awareness to the sensation of cool air coming in at the base of your nose.
• Step 3: include any sensation available of your whole body breathing as well.
• Step 4: mobilize: wrinkle & stretch upper lip and nose as you inhale and exhale
• Step 5: mobilize: move nose from side as you inhale and sniff; how does this mobilze your whole head to explore the air around you?
• Step 6: rest, and simply breath a few quiet breaths to close practice.

Go HERE for information on the full course (all 12 cranial nerves) for AT teachers and therapists with a mutual interest in trauma coming up this fall.

5 years in the making, this material has evolved with the practice community that is the foundation of my business. I host weekly open classes too, if a full length course isn’t in your budget.