DARE Muscle
What do I mean by DARE Muscle?
There are many connotations to those two words, DARE muscle: body building, using brute force, or DARE-ING to eye down a bully. But I have been thinking about DARE muscle in a different way. To me it is about discovering, developing, and expanding the body and the “mind-as-muscle.”
This can be done in fun ways, in unusual ways, perhaps by utilizing Dr. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory.[i] Dr. Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed and published his theory in 1983. He stated that the usual idea of intelligence, based on the testing of I.Q., has limitations. He suggested that there are different forms of intelligence to explain the broad range of human potential.
- Linguistic intelligence (smart with words)
- Logical-mathematical intelligence (ability with numbers)
- Spatial intelligence (shapes and pictures)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (physical body)
- Musical intelligence (musical ability)
- Interpersonal intelligence (people skills)
- Intrapersonal intelligence (ability to understand oneself)
- Naturalist intelligence (sensitivity to the things of nature)
- Existential (Sensitivity/capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence)
This is very interesting stuff. Check out: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.php
But the nutshell is this: pick one of these intelligence areas and stretch yourself. Learning the piano is an expanding experience, and is refreshing if it is out of your normal focus area. For example, if you work in a field where your intelligence focus is interpersonal, such as Human Resources, musical intelligence will be a complete change! As our English friends across the water like to say, “A change is as good as a rest.”
If you, as an over-40 woman, crank your brain for most of the year in heavy intellectual work, then the beach-reads (trashy novels and such) are a good way to give the brain a rest. Stretch your awareness to other art-forms (go to different museums, etc.), vary your CD listening (rock vs. opera, or the other way around), or take up belly dancing!
The long hot summer, now underway, can be a chance to let up on the heavy muscle stuff, and a time to learn tennis, join a volleyball game, or learn a new language – something out of your normal world! And have fun as you DARE work a different muscle!
[i][1] Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic,1983
