Let the Body Show You
"The form and movement patterns of our body tend to manifest our life story. Our body is continuously adapting around imbalances created by physical and emotional injuries; it maintains familial and cultural postural habits we don’t notice or question. So we end up “in positions we have forgotten how to come out of” because we don’t realize we are in them. We literally don’t know how we got there.
Tuning in, moving and feeling in new ways, observing closely, recognizing dis-integrated patterns, inviting and trusting the body to find its own natural relation amongst limbs, organs, tissues—we gradually release out of our “holding” patterns and yield into forms and movements that are more useful, nourishing, integrated."
As our path unfolds, we begin to glimpse what unconditioned awareness feels like in different moments, with different people, and in different places/situations.
Part of this unfolding is also looking specifically at what the "unconditioned body" feels like.
How does it feel to not "hold yourself together"? How would you stand if nobody told you how? How is it to walk like you are gliding?
Overall, what happens when you emphasize softness is your movements? Especially simple, everyday things:
Getting up and sitting down from chairs.
Bending over to get things.
Cooking
Brushing your teeth
Waiting in line
Walking to your car
Getting in and out of bed
What is it like to do each of these things in a completely embodied way? What would it be like to view your everyday movements as a kind of art form? A ballet? An opportunity to move in a completely authentic and comfortable way? A journey of discovery to find movement patterns that made the tasks of everyday life more effortless?
Really try this for a day or two, and notice the effect it has on your overall energy, levels of body tension, focus, and overall aliveness/vibrancy.
See how you feel at the end of a day where you were truly embodied. Where movement wasn't forced. Where the body wasn't an extension of compulsion, frustration or "rushing." Where the body was allowed to be natural. To assume its natural shape and rhythm.
Let the body show you how it wants to function.