Do I feel lighter the stronger I am? The more strength I build, am I more able to navigate life’s challenges? Does my physical form ground me? Is there more to the equation? What is strength, anyway? Do you ever ask yourself? What if strength is feeling? Love? Awareness? What if strength is the ability to be with? To be honest. Clear. Growing. Open. Here.
Can I support more than the weight of my body even when it seems impossible? Does each cell lighten with spirit as muscle expands? Does weight have measurement beyond the scale? It’s a matter of form propelled into action.
How does movement feel? How much access will you give yourself? How will you let your strength manifest?
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In a world that so often asks us to deny and override our emotions for the sake of keeping the peace, keeping our jobs, or simply meeting the demands of the day, it may feel strange that I'm going to ask you to tune into and amplify your emotions. Yet, I can think of nothing more important in this cultural atmosphere than to reconnect with ourselves and our bodies in this way.
Our relationships with our bodies are the foundation for how we experience life, and for all the other relationships we are part of. So this practice of connecting with our internal worlds, of being intentional with how we move our bodies and how we show our emotions through our physicality, can change our lives in unexpected ways.
A dedicated movement practice is a profound journey, especially in a culture where most of our interaction with movement is viewed as exercise. Where, especially as adults, the majority of our movement takes place in a gym, and often the only goal is toward an aesthetic ideal — a quest that has very little (if anything) to do with our bodies’ needs and desires to feel, express, and cultivate strength holistically.
Today's fitness culture doesn't promote actual fitness. To the contrary, it promotes a disconnection with our bodies for the sake of “appearing the part.” True fitness is an integration of our total well-being; our physical, emotional, and mental landscapes are all part of the picture. And when one of those is in disarray, all the other parts follow. There is no separation between body, mind and spirit. Just consider what it's like when you feel stressed out. Is that happening in your body, mind, or spirit? If you answered all of the above, you're correct.
We can use our movement practice as a way to remedy this. As a way to reconnect, to honor our bodies needs, to understand its language. This happens first, by feeling. For many of us, there’s a sticky web of unfelt emotions festering on the surface, keeping us from our joy.
Much of the dis-ease we experience in our everyday lives comes from unprocessed emotions that are stored in our bodies as tension. Each time we suppress and deny our feelings, we add more to our already overloaded systems.
Imagine an internal landscape full of rotting matter, like a landfill we keep piling more and more rubbish onto. The surface is fragile and easily disturbed. There’s no room to breathe, no space to move, any step you take has the potential to collapse, sinking you deep into a pile of debris. No wonder we avoid it. Yet our avoidance also explains why many of us feel sluggish, unmotivated, or helpless: our bodies are full of the drudgery of our past.
So what to do? Well, you’ve heard it before: the only way out is through.
This is good news though! Moving through this landfill of emotions and releasing the tension is simply a matter of… you guessed it: moving. Literally. Our bodies want to move; it's our minds that stop us. It's the judgments we mistakenly believe as true. It’s the way we tell ourselves " I shouldn't feel this way, " that prevents us from moving forward and feeling a greater sense of ease, connection, and joy in the simple act of being present with our bodies.
So that's what we're going to explore in this week's movement practice. Using our movement to express our inner feeling.
Set yourself up somewhere comfy and dive into the video. See ya on the other side!
I hope you enjoyed this introductory Body of Work movement practice. As a paid subscriber, you’ll have access to a living library of monthly movement challenges, so you can continue to build your strength and skills. Ready to join the movement revolution? You know what to do.
If you’d like to otherwise support this one-woman show, please feel free to send me a coffee fund donation.
Happy moving! xx
Trust your inner feeling — moving to feel & the meaning of strength.