Morning Movement
This is a new treat that I wanted to offer you, because I think it will be just the thing to get you started off on your work day with a pleasant feeling of aliveness in your body.
It can be hard sitting all the time, feeling like we’re not treating our bodies very well and seeming to get more and more disconnected. But sometimes we just want a little something. We might have a regular exercise program and still end up wanting something extra that doesn’t involve changing into special clothes, or we might be struggling to find the time for an exercise program but feel like we could manage something really low key that nourishes our body.
So, here it is.
Morning Movement!
This is meant to be that little bit that gets you feeling, exploring and being in connection with that beautiful, friendly helper that supports all your schemes and projects, day in and day out…your body!
How to Use Morning Movement
There are (or will be) a series of audio tracks from 10 – 12 minutes in length that you can do in the morning before launching into your work for the day. You can even do them at other times too. I just have this picture in my mind of you using them right before settling into work, because it seems like a great way to start the day.
There will be some foundational tracks, like Gravity, and Whole Body Making Circles. And there will be tracks for Stress, Anxiety, Heaviness…and even Joy (because we don’t always have to be trying to fix something…we can just love feeling alive). There will also be tracks (and probably multiple series of tracks) for particular areas of the body, like the wrists and forearms and the upper shoulders or the low back. I’ll even have one particular to feeling those champions of labor and understanding…our feet! There are just so many ways and places we can move. I’m sure you’ll find favorites.
Why Audio?
Well, let’s just think about it for a second. When you’re moving your body, the most important place for your attention to be is on the inside of the body. You want to be fully engaged with feeling how you feel and noticing what’s there to notice. This is how we connect with and develop a relationship with our own body. It’s also the most effective way to move if you want relief from discomfort. Plus, being with your body in the present moment is refreshing for the mind, similar to meditation.
Audio allows you to follow the cues while keeping your attention on your own experience. You don’t have to keep shifting your attention back to a video and away from your own sensation. You also don’t end up in that unpleasant place of comparison, wondering if you’re doing in right because you’re arms might be at a different angle or wondering if your body is somehow inferior because its shape or its positioning is its own and therefore different from what you see in a video.
But if there’s no video, how will I know if I’m doing it right?
Because these audios are sensation and awareness based, your own body will tell you whether you’re doing it right or not. This is as it should be. The sensations of your own body are a much better indicator of how you’re performing any given motion than whatever positioning might be visible from the outside. Ultimately I want you to follow the cuing to help you find the place where you feel solid, fluid, strong or light (or many other sensations).
And I’ll let you in on a secret–doing it “right” is overrated. I won’t go into the depths of logical and spiritual sense behind that statement. For now I’ll just say that for a given isolated exercise with a clear intent to drive work into a specific part of the body, then correct form matters so that you can achieve your intended objective. But for development of movement qualities, and for feeling the beneficial effects of making your body more alive through movement, then exploration, experimentation and variety are far more important.