Mythology

So This week I wanted to re-conceptualize what we think of movement. There are many different schools on how to exercise, each bringing their own wisdom to us. I wanted to create a framework to view the commonality in them though. While it's beneficial to focus on a discipline, it is also good to see the universality of all healthy movement, so we don't slide too far out of balance.

Throughout my life, I practiced various forms of movement. From sports to martial arts, to yoga, and slack-lining, to just trying to survive the ordeals of overly physical jobs. I never considered myself to be particularly athletic, but I realized at an early age I needed some form of consistent physical struggle to stay sane. I appreciated the amount of concentration it took to improve my form. I am also grateful (although sometimes reluctantly so) that there are tangible consequences when I am not in good form. Throughout the last year, I have gone much deeper in exploring my own movement patterns. The process of which inspired me to share what I been learning, but have been at a loss at how to explain myself. Then I had a revelation as to how to explain what I am trying to attempt. But before I get there I am going to have a ramble about the mythologist Joseph Campbell.

In 1949, Joseph J. Campbell published “Hero with a Thousand Faces” exploring the universal structure of various mythologies. It's an ambitious book that sherpas us through the “hero's journey” carrying for us the footnotes of hundreds of cultural stories. Somehow it’s able to open a giant metaphorical window into the furthest reaches of our collective consciousness. Through his writing, we can peers through the mythological lens to see the logic behind humanity's beliefs. Or in other words, he reveals what we have in common. He breaks down the mythic hero's journey into various components that symbolize trials all cultures face. After reading him, ideas such as the universe violently expanding out of an infinitely small infinitely dense point 13.8 billion years ago seem more like our own version of the magical egg falling out of the great domesticated fowl goddess’s cosmic cloaca than any real truth. Whether these ideas are ultimately right or wrong, whatever that means, they provide an argument that we all have commonalities. He provides academic sophistication to the simple message that whatever cultural differences we have are ones of external circumstances, not of internal reality.

Anyways why I'm I writing about Joseph Campbell. Well, I feel that the way Campbell taught us to view mythology is how we should explore movement. Campbell provides us with a view of our various belief systems that is deep enough to show that whatever surfaces differences they have they all share the function of providing communities with a beneficial story. one that is embedded with cultural wisdom. What I want to do is apply that same logic to the various movement modalities of the world. There are many different brands of movement we can choose to partake in. Yet whatever way we choose to move will be based on our biostructure, or how muscles are mapped out on the body. No matter how we choose to move, the fundamentals building blocks of our movements do not differ. The more we craft these fundamental the more fluid, dynamic, and healthy our movement will become. So this is now my challenge. I'd’ like to find a way to pass on whatever kinesthetic knowledge I've learned through massage and my own practices so others may share it with others.

Anthony Bruni