Movement makes your world go round – literally, your movement matters!
Your movement matters and as Bio-mechanist, Katy Bowman says, movement is a nutrient[1]. You know about nutritious eating, have you thought about nutritious moving?
Movement assures the healthy functioning of your various systems and supports homeostasis. Moving keeps you moving. When you feed yourself a balanced moving diet, you invite the ‘feel-good hormones’ such as dopamine, endorphins & serotonin to the party. You also boost your immune system, lubricate your joints and strengthen your bones. Who wouldn’t want that?
Nourishment lies in the quality of your movement as well as the act of the moving itself. Moving with embodied mindfulness invites you to feel more, know more and self-regulate. This cultivates a presence to the live moment, and after all, it’s the live moment that ultimately moves us all!
Every time you move, you change your perspective and open yourself to possibility. When you move, you gather information. So, if you want to figure something out, then move to work out the next move.
It’s well established that you need to move for mental, physical & emotional health. Movement is critical to your safety and survival - you’ve been doing it since you were in utero. You are forged in movement. Your cells move, your world moves - everything is moving all the time. Movement makes your world go round, literally. Your movement directly affects you and your world. As Bowman says:
You have a role in the ecosystem, and it’s not a static position at the top of a food chain as you were taught. Your role is a dynamic one, critical to all the other living things on this planet (p.1)
The more mindful attention you pay to moving the more awareness you bring to your embodied interconnectedness and thus your impact in the world. This cultivates the conditions for responsibility and care - needed now more than ever, as we face the personal, social and planetary challenges of the 21st century.
3 key ways to cultivate nutritious movement:
Move with Mindfulness
Be present to sensation as you move, and feel your dynamic breath underscoring your moving.
Move with Curiosity
Notice the pathways & sequencing of your moving and how gravity plays with you as you move.
Move with Other
Keep other things & other people in your awareness as you move. Tune into your relationships and how your rhythm, touch and intention impacts.
Dare to move and be moved.
[1] Bowman, K. (2016). Movement Matters: Essays on movement science, movement ecology, and the nature of movement. Washington, DC: Propriometrics Press.