Sonya Powell
Each of us spends all our lives with our body, but only a few are really familiar with how to establish a warm, trusting relationship with it. When the movement becomes not a duty and not the reason for anxiety, but in a natural way of communication and entertainment, we gain internal lightness and peace. This article opens the way to learn how to hear his body, accept his needs and find joy in every movement - without haste, without stress, without reproach. There is no place for stiff requirements, strict rules or imposed ideals. But there is an abundance of practical advice, warm thoughts and inspiration that will help you make the movement a true source of pleasure and strength.
First of all, it is worth paying attention to how we are moving right now. Often we allow thoughts to take away far ahead or return to past events, and the body at that time performs its work on the machine. A conscious movement is the art of returning to the present moment. To start, you can carry out a simple practice: get up, close your eyes and make several slow breaths and exhalations. Feel in the feet, legs, knees, let yourself understand how your body is in contact with the floor. Feel tension and softness, weight and balance. Move slowly, listening to what each muscle and every joint tells. Attention to details immerses in deep contact with its own “I” and helps to relieve internal stress.
Creating a new habit often seems difficult. But the movement without stress begins with tiny changes, which is easy to enter into everyday rhythm. Try to break the day into conditional blocks and add to each of them one simple bodily practice:
Important: it should not be similar to training "before exhaustion." On the contrary, the goal is to stay on the border of comfort and move back, having left the extra fight against your own body.
When the movement becomes a creative process, it turns into a real game. Let yourself dance at home to your favorite melody, invent new walking options or improvise jumping. Imagine that you are an artist, and the space around is a canvas. Draw your body lines: fingers with your fingers like a brush, advertise smooth bends of the back, write out circles, triangles or waves with your hands. Do not be afraid to look awkward or funny - it is in the ease of such experiments that the real pleasure lies. Children know how simple and free to play with their body, so you can return to children's immediacy, turning it on in motion an element of a surprise: either tango in the kitchen, then a “jump rope” in the living room, then yogic “wave -like” bends of the spine.
No practice will bring harmony if you constantly criticize your own body. Instead of the “bad-good” list, start with gratitude every day: mentally thank your heart for fighting in the chest, light for breathing, legs for carrying you in life. It is worth reconfiguring the inner voice: instead of “why I can’t do the way”, ask yourself “what movements will bring today.” Write down a couple of lines in the bodily sensations about what you liked in yesterday's walk or home stretch. Over time, you will find that self -criticism subsides, and support and goodwill comes in its place.
The environment plays an important role in how nice we are moving. Turn on the playlist from the composition that cheer you up: maybe these are rhythmic drums, light jazz or atmosphere of natural sounds. If possible, bring your body to the street: a forest path, the river bank, a calmed down park - any place where the noise of cars subsides, and breathing is filled with freshness. Step by step, feel how the surface of the earth responds to each movement of the foot. Let the wind hug your shoulders, and drink your movements to the sun. Such a combination of music, nature and bodily dialogue helps to reveal itself to the natural rhythm, immerses in a state of inner freedom and lightness.
In the modern world, we are everywhere surrounded by the culture of “being better than yesterday” and “competing”. Nevertheless, your friendship with the body is based on the principle of cooperation, not struggle. Leave the expectations of “to be more flexible” or “withstand more time” and release timers. Give the body the right to offer you the type of movement that he likes today. It may want to slowly slide like a cat, or take off easily, like a bird. Free yourself from the need to measure with others and direct your attention inside - to your sensations, rhythm and heat. Internal support gives much more long -term energy than any external check.
Although individual practice is great, sometimes I want to share the joy of movement with others. Combine with friends, relatives or colleagues in small groups for joint walks or dance mini-sessions. You can organize a “moving” picnic: everyone brings the idea of a light exercise and together you perform them to laughter and music. Thanks to communication and a friendly atmosphere, you get additional motivation and inspiration, and the body opens even wider. The main thing is not to turn joint meetings into competitions, but to start them with the installation "What do we want to feel today and what to learn from each other."
Friendship with your own body is a constant dialogue, an open experiment and love for each movement. Having discarded the requirements and comparisons, you will gain a precious ability to listen to yourself and get real pleasure from simple bodily practices. Let every morning begin with a mild awakening of muscles, every moment of the day will be filled with easy attention to the body, and the evening will end with a dance of gratitude. Allow yourself to play, create, explore-and then the movement will cease to be “necessity” and will turn into a favorite holiday habit. Take care of yourself, smile at the body and give him your warmth. In this friendship there is no place for stress - there is only harmony and joy of life.