Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Re-learning Movement



The human body is built for movement and activity, not to sit still for hours. Not to speak of sitting still for hours, all cramped up.
But we have lost touch with our innate facility for grace and ease so completely that even when our lifestyles involve action, we tend to do it badly, and damage ourselves in the process. We don't know how to use ourselves well and do all the things we need to do and want to do. It seems we need to go back to educating ourselves in a very fundamental way, in things which we did instinctively and easily when we were very little children. Things that we did in innocence, we now have to relearn to do with skill and conscious control, so that we can use it in our lives, to tackle more and more challenging actions if we so choose.
This is especially relevant in professions such as sport and performance where we need to be constantly honing our skills; if we didn't, we'd stagnate and our skills would die.
The actor, the singer, the athlete - their work demands that they constantly push themselves to go further, raise the bar. Anything that helps them to do that is a valuable tool. But -
What we forget is that we don't all have to be athletes or performers to raise the bar for ourselves. We can do that in our daily lives, without changing them in any dramatic way. Start with little challenges, without worrying about the big ones, and who knows where they may lead us? Life then becomes the endless opportunity for exploration and learning that it was when we were really little, and everything was new and exciting.


No comments: