Our ability to move is a gift.
For most of us, our first proper experience of exercise is in P.E lessons at school. It’s from here maybe where our negative views of movement and exercise derive (memories of smelly changing rooms and wearing borrowed damp kit are a few things that spring to mind…). When we leave school, chances are we will leave exercise behind too. Other things take precedence and it soon becomes something that we only do if we have the luxury of time (and motivation!). There are many factors that can effect our ability to move well, but the number one factor is our perspective on it.
I once had it explained to me that movement should have as much emphasis on it as the food that we eat. We strive to eat balanced meals daily because we recognise the nutritious benefit of this. We wouldn't voluntarily eat the same thing for three meals a day, every day for 10 years. Now think of movement as the same. When we move in the same way for years on end with no variety, we run the risk of malnourishing our bodies, minds and spirits creating unbalance. Movement is as important as the food we eat.
Just the same as we need a varied diet full of different vitamins and minerals, we desperately need a varied movement lifestyle.
It may sound simple but the thought that gets me moving on my yoga mat every day is the thought that my ability to move is a gift. I’m not there to work through some laborious exercises or routines that I’ve learnt, but to just listen to what my body needs. I trust my bodies ability to tell me when I’m hungry, or when I need to go to the toliet. Why then, do we not trust our bodies ability to tell us how to move? Movement is intuitive, and it would help our overall wellbeing if we could remember our enjoyment for it. We've all seen what happens when children or dogs are let outside.... they move, they run and they roll and they jump. It is pure joy.
What if we too could see movement as a gift and every move as a blessing that we get to experience.
What if we too could see movement as a gift and every move as a blessing that we get to experience.
All too often we can get caught up in all the ways our bodies can't move and the things we can't do, but what if instead we started each day with a prayer to say thank you for the things we can do.
I hope that 2020 is the year you fall in love with movement again. The year that you use your body as the true miracle that it is- the body that has been handcrafted for you and for all the wonderful places that it will carry you.
Amy xx
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