Moving for Movement’s Sake
Have you ever attempted to release your thoughts and just move your body for movement’s sake?
There is a way in which free movement can lead us to a flow state where our thoughts are very few. And there are ways in which we can use repetitive movements that are familiar that also allow us to get us into a flow state where there are very few thoughts.
In these states, our consciousness begins to attune and synchronize with our breath and our movement.
The possibility for our bodies, hearts, spirits, thoughts, and breath to be all in the same moment at the same time becomes stronger. In that moment, we become fully present. In this way, We are restoring our “ original movement”. Remember last week’s blog around Thomas Hübl’s definition of ‘original movement’ is “flow and potential”. And how one of his definitions of trauma is, “ reduced movement”. Read that blog HERE.
And I don’t know about you, but I know for me, all too often my thoughts are overly concerned and thinking about something in the past or something in the future. I have a difficult time focusing in the now. Maybe you do too?
*Helpful hint: a lot of people have difficulty staying present, so don’t fret it!
So, when it happened in our ‘Journey to the Peak’, “Sunday Morning Special” class, a community member shared that she was connecting to the energy within the revolved triangle posture, I LOVED it!
I thought, “YES! Let’s just move for movement’s sake. Let’s attempt to get in the flow by just allowing our presence to flow only here in the moment! To allow ourselves to just simply experience our body and our breath as we are moving! And to try not to overthink anything!”
For me, this released those thoughts of, “Am I doing it right”, and, “Am I doing it good enough”? And instead, opened me up to the freedom of the moment. Just allowing me to be as I am, right there and then.
So, I knew that the following week we were going to fly and lift off from a revolved triangle to a revolved half moon pose in our vigorous vinyasa Saturday morning class!
*See me in the revolved half moon in the picture.
The intention of the classes all week was to just connect, flow, be present, and to feel. To just feel for feelings’s sake, and to just move for movements sake, and to be here for it all. Give it all to awareness and compassion.
Marc Nepo writes the beautiful poem:
“ We waste so much energy
Trying to cover up who we are,
When beneath every attitude
Is the want to be loved,
And beneath every anger
Is a wound to be healed,
And beneath every sadness
Is a fear that there will not be enough time.
Our challenge each day is not to get dressed
To face the world but to unglove ourselves
So that the doorknob feels cold
And the car handle feels wet
And the kiss goodbye feels like the
Lips of another being,
Soft and unrepeatable.”
He’s pointing us towards being fully present.
To be here for it all, no matter what “it” is, and to recognize that these moments are fleeting. How precious life is.
Of course in these classes I was not letting go of alignment and safety, but rather really trying to instill and invite a sense of playfulness and openness to the physical practice.
Andrea Gibson has a wonderful poem that I opened up class with that Saturday morning:
“ Sometimes you look like a human scribble.
Like a 2-year-old has colored you in.
Like you’ve got too many feelings to fit inside of the lines of your own skin.
But that, my friend,
Is the masterpiece.”
So I invite you to turn on your favorite music of this week, and just dance.
Maybe you try this in a moment where you really feel like you don’t want to, and see what happens. Maybe you do it in a moment where you already feel ecstatically joyful, and see what happens.
The invitation is to move.
And, of course, allow yourself to be moved.
Shyron Shenko’s poem called “God’s Gift of Energy” describes some of what can happen when we open up to movement and flow:
“ Energy, it ebbs and flows in me
Like the rolling of the sea
It flows in, washing over me
Then abs right back into the sea
When tides of energy rush in from the rising sea
It abs away the negativity
And leaves only positive energy
To recharge the soul, entrusted to me
So… when I think I can’t see
Everything that I am meant to be
I close my eyes, and in my mind I’m walking by the sea
That allows the positive energy to flow again in me
Then I know from the renewed strength
That renewed the energy in my soul
And, will help me reach my final goal
To be all I am meant to be, right here by God’s sea.”
And a blog on energy just wouldn’t be the same without a little Star wars quote from Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back:
“[Luke can’t levitate his X-Wing out of the bog]
Luke : I can’t. It’s too big.
Yoda : Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”
When doubt grabs you like Luke, remember the Force. Remember that it flows through you! You are the Force. The energy. The Life. Move your breath then. Move your body. Ebb and flow.
May the Force be with you (as it is!),
Shawna
Breathe and Believe