“I think therefore I am” Descartes ...has been amended by countless others before me to: “I am therefore I think”
I find practices of embodiment, practices that put consciousness “in the body” have a profound ability to recognize that the “thinker” is not you, but rather you are a being who thinks.
In fitness, individuals often exclaim something to the effect of: “I feel muscles that I never knew I had.” This is a stage of embodiment, though not an end state.
In a movement practice a similar claim might be made, but I’ve found the sentiment usually has less to do with an external object that a person now possess, but rather that their conception of “self” has left its imprisonment in the tower of the head and has descended to actually “be” in the kingdom.
The head is an attic one visits to claim objects manipulated by the hands, not a place to dwell. Where the heart can overheat and the hands can become arthritic, the being who doesn’t specialize in the limited identities thought up by the mind is a being who is expansive and permeates all that they connect to. You are no more your mind than you are the breath that moves through you, but you can take shelter in breath and/or body... And the quality of one’s home environment, where they “live,” is among the most important factors determining personal happiness.
Fitness is about making you fit, capable and ready. A regular movement practice can produce a result of fitness but it is not the aim. Where fitness is about reaching a preferred state, Movement is relational and thus more about being comfortable in all positions and states of being.
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Yoga is more than Movement
Movement is more than Fitness
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Cover Photo w/Nicolle Barret. Captured By Joe Longo