Every movement matters
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Every movement matters
Our physical bodies are meant to move and they love it when we do.
The other day I observed a young boy swinging off a pole structure while playing outdoors and I could feel the joy and free abandon that he was naturally expressing. I smiled as I thought if any adult was doing that it could be seen as a bit mad. Soon after, I witnessed an older man walking with great difficulty, his body was stiff and restricted and his movement looked anything but joyful or flowing.
So, are our lives simply a series of accumulated movements that can either support our physical bodies and general state of wellbeing, or otherwise harden and restrict our natural flow?
Many of us can spend hours a day sitting behind a computer, intensely engrossed with the work in front of us, only to get up and feel the body and realise we haven’t up to that point even been aware of how the body was feeling. This could equally be while watching movies or getting lost in computer games, or in fact anything that engages the mind without awareness of the body.
Yet when presence is brought to the body and its movements, we get to feel what is really going on and there is so much that the body is communicating with us. It always lovingly lets us know what is needed; ‘hey it’s time to take a break’, ‘get up and walk around the room’, ‘I’m feeling thirsty’ etc.
To stop and spend just five minutes re-connecting with the body can offer a refresh where we can then avoid straining the body, going into overdrive or autopilot and the stress and fallout that often follows from this way.
It can be as simple as breathing and feeling the cool breath as it enters the nostrils and the warmth as it leaves, and letting the shoulders drop as we exhale. The body receiving an inner mini massage with the expansion and return.
Or feeling the feet on the floor, the buttocks on the chair and lengthening through the spine; adjusting one’s position and noticing how the quality of our thoughts can change and are intrinsically connected to our posture.
Movement is in everything; there is nothing that remains static even though it can appear so. There is an energetic movement constantly going on, even in our sleep. The quality of those movements is really up to us.
With this understanding, it makes sense how a fixed, inflexible way of viewing something would in turn cause rigidity in the body and obstruct the natural flow of energy or movement through our bodies. Or equally taking on an emotion or reacting to a situation that is not ours to take on can cause stress to the body. It is not always from the outer physical movement such as over-exercise that we might feel the effects, it can be more subtle … like a stiff neck and shoulders or tightening hamstrings when we have contracted, and/or reacted to something in our day.
Often the mind is given precedence over the wisdom of the body and yet the body does not lie; it is very clear in its signalling when we are open to listen and receive.
The quality of connection we hold with our body and its myriad movements can alter the quality of flow of energy through us.
Therefore our every movement matters…
Filed under
Awareness, Connection, Energy, Presence
