Why is movement so important?

Movement is fundamental to life. Every pulse of the heart generates tides of movement of fluids around the body. Every breath expands the body and relaxes it. Every thought we have generates a process and affect on the body via a cascade of chemical information.

Movement and change takes place in our bodies, our minds, our energy, our relationships, our relationships with ourselves. We are influenced by our interactions with our environment, society, culture, each other and ourselves. Life is complex.

We learn through experience and stimulus. The plasticity or our mind and body relies on stimulation and experience to rebuild, reprogram and re experience itself over and over again. The body is inherently strong and sometimes we need to give it new stimulus to help it change. In a therapeutic setting we may do this with touch, sound, words or movement.

We are fortunate to have an infinite number of ways to generate change, to move our bodies and shift our perspectives, great change can be found even simply by allowing ourselves to become very still, by allowing our mind to quiten and to reconnect deeply with our own sense of ‘knowing’. Moving away from the distractions around us to create a greater sense of spaciousness takes patience and determination. Life will often interrupt our best efforts and we have to pick up the pieces over and over again.

Experiment:

When do you notice the movement of the breath in your body.

How do you like to move? Fast or slow? challenge yourself to do the opposite and see what you notice.

How does your mind process? Quick or slow? Does it depend on the subject?

Challenge ourself to doing an exercise every day for a month. If you stick to one you’ll be able to see and feel your improvement as your skill performing the task increases.