Integration

The last few weeks I been writing about various aspects of what I consider to be a well-rounded movement practice. This week I wanted instead of further dissecting this concept, I wanted to integrate it, and make it whole again.

So this 4 gear concept I been writing about the last few weeks is something I'm trying to grow out of my own movement practice. I have mixed feeling on the whole clockwork metaphor. There is a danger of mechano -morphing the body. We can easily fall under the delusion that we are nothing more than a series of interlocking parts. One giant puzzle that only needs to be put together. Hopefully, though we can avoid this intellectual tarpit and use this somewhat clunky concept to illustrates something that I feel is missing from the world of movement. That we need to bring different intentions to our movement patterns, to reap the full benefits. That different intention will be best received at certain speeds of movement.

I highlighted 4 intention, although this is still a work in process idea so I may add one or two more to this concept as it develops. Of course, our intentions are infinite. Any attempt to limit our intention is an act of desecration. It is also an act of practicality as if we don’t place any limitations on our intentions there is no way to communicate valuable information to each other. Within each of my so-called gears, we are free to create new intention. I hope this idea grows beyond my own ideas to what it is. I merely want to be transparent in how I channel my intentions in hopes they can be of some use to others.

Out of all 4 of these intentions, it seems to me the last two are the ones found in pretty much all cultures. Gear 4 representative of frenzy state of movement, that would be a necessity for most people at some points in their life. No culture has yet made the world safe. Shit, happen. Sometimes we need to move fast to survive. While this may, and should be a rarity there is something comforting in knowing we can trust our bodies under stress. Soldiers talk about trusting their training when in emergency situations Their bodies can simply react to the situation they are in with no interference from stuttering brains. Even if we are blessed with a boring life, devoid of emergencies I think it's beneficial to regularly place our bodies under enough control stress to elicit these ecstatic and trance-like states that burn through all our stress hormones. I would not be surprised if soon we see the social elimination of these states from our life causing problems in much the same way being in an overly clean environment creates autoimmune problems. Our bodies evolved to be stressed and push to its limits. As wonderful as it is that we have a measure of safety and security, by not fully stressing our bodies we may be depriving ourselves of a crucial physical need.

The 3rd gear concept is also found throughout geography and time. What culture does not have some form of dance ritual? There is something about finding ways to nurturing our stamina, that all people seem to do. It seems all people have some intuitive understanding that flushing the body in fresh oxygenated blood while purging our lymph rejuvenates the body. Even practice such as running marathon which seems like could only develop in cultures that have well established and trusted medical methods highlight how pervasive stamina training is. But running, cycling or any other form of repetitive action overworks some areas while neglects others. This might explain why every culture has some form of dance where people can vary their movement allowing for a more evenly distribution of the wealth of well being that occurs when we up our cardio rhythm.

Gear one and two seem more culturally specific as they may not be as necessary to keep healthy I believe however they aid us in those other 2 more traditional movement styles. We start to learn how to move when we are first born. It takes months before we can crawl and longer so we can walk. Our only objective at this stage is to learn to crawl good enough to get where we are going. Nothing else matters. We do not fuss over our body mechanic to get the perfect alignment that will create the templates for a lifetime of fluid movement. Every action we now do is rooted in those deep neuromuscular patterns we programmed into our bodies when we were infants. Then we injure, miss, and overuse our bodies which further compromise our movement. Because of this many people have created methods that slow our bodies down and let us debug our neuromuscular code. Having a practice to do this allows us to continue to reap the full benefits of our faster movements throughout our lives.

And finally, gear 1, where we hold poses really get to our dept. It is here where we get to know how we feel in various poses. We get to feel where we are with regard to tension in the body, but also we are free to explore if certain poses bring up certain emotions. Emotions literally mean out of motions. If we have restrictions we have to know whether they are physical injuries or emotional ones as to best strategize an away to work through them. This can be a non-punitive time out of sorts to give us the time to think about how we can improve our patterns both physically and emotionally.

There is nothing new in all of this. I am suspicious of anything new. If an idea is good someone has already thought of it. It will be found through many cultures in different guises. Wisdom is perennial. I suppose pathology is as well so we do have to be careful of how we form our world view. Ultimately though our bodies should be our true compass. Our bodies will let us know when we are deviating from health. There are plenty of movement traditions now. Most have some treasure. They all have some danger if not done with care. And I believe the ones based on a solid biomechanic will combine nicely with each other allowing us to create something more than the sum of all the parts.

Anthony Bruni