Andrew Hodges - Mastering Chaos
Have you ever had the sense of intuitively knowing precisely what to do at certain moments in your life? Accompanying this is that strange feeling of 'being in the zone', a heightened sense of awareness and a profound feeling of being in the right place at the right time.
The answer as to how this might be is thought to lie in the field of interoception. Interoception is the ability to sense and perceive the internal state of the body. This includes things like heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, and gut feelings. Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without conscious reasoning. It is often described as a gut feeling or a sixth sense.
There is a growing body of research that suggests that interoception and intuition are closely related. For example, studies have shown that people who are better at perceiving their own bodily sensations are also better at making intuitive decisions. Additionally, people who have damage to the areas of the brain that are involved in interoception often experience difficulty making intuitive decisions. There is some evidence that musicians have enhanced interoceptive abilities. For example, one study found that professional singers were better at discriminating between their own heartbeats and the heartbeats of others than non-musicians.
The same study found that musicians were more accurate at tracking their own breathing than non-musicians. Musicians often talk of the experience of being "in the zone" during musical performance. akin to a peak experience. Musical training involves deeply learnt behaviours which when brought together in performance are likely to increase the possiblity of states of intense joy, of fulfilment, and a deep sense of well-being.
“The Musician's Way” points to the appropriate use of good intuitive decision making skills and that a musician (amateur or professional) may well have acquired enhanced interoceptive capabilities through the practice required to learn their instrument...more
