Meditations on Movement

Looking at Moving with New Eyes

 

By Justin Casteel

 

According to Dictionary.com, meditation is defined as “continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation”.  So, let us have a meditation now, an extended thought, a careful contemplation, on movement.  First of all, I’d like to ask: do you take movement for granted?  Movement is a miracle!  The process of life, from gestation to birth, is a process of growth.  In the embryo, cells are added, tissues divide, specialize, fold in on themselves, and re-arrange.  But there is movement there.  Testing its environment, the baby moves its arms and legs.  After birth, the process of exploration continues- eyes moving, discovering hands and feet, testing the senses and the powers of perception.  A lot of the learning in this early stage is through the kinesthetic sense- through movement!

Why do we stop appreciating the miracle of motion?  We all know we need exercise, sure, but doesn’t it feel good just to move around?  To go on a walk, long or short, not for “exercise” per say, but just to enjoy the outside and get fresh air.  Movement feels good.  Movement is the process of exploration, the process of change, the process of growth.  I believe the saying “If you rest, you rust.”  Change is the order of the world- the change of seasons, the changing of the tides, and the change within us.  The body naturally has a process whereby it wants to stay the same, homeostasis, so in order to change it needs to be challenged.

Sometimes what happens is we stop testing our boundaries or we forget that there are boundaries that we impose on our movements.  If, for instance, it becomes hard to lift an object overhead, we get a stool so we don’t have to stretch the arms so far.  The boundary becomes smaller.  The box we impose on ourselves gets smaller.  Testing our boundaries is good for us, though!  It’s really what exercise is, in a sense.  Cardio pushes us against the boundaries of our endurance, stretching pushes the boundaries of where we are inflexible, and resistance training pushes us against the boundaries of our strength.  But I feel this can be emotional, psychological, as well as physical!  Movement can bring confidence, resolve, determination, and poise.  If you’re not confident if your balance, say, it can lead to depression because you feel like you’re stuck at home.  But if, through movement you improve your balance, a sense of confidence and self-assurance is restored.

So get out there and enjoy movements!  Apart from technical descriptions or analysis, just breathe deep, move freely, and start to explore again.  Your body is a laboratory- it can teach you, and that itself is a miracle.  Don’t take it for granted.  Find the joy of movement again every day.