Blog 1: Movement

It starts in the womb. According to studies in obstetrics and reproductive medicine, at 8 weeks old in your mothers womb, you began to move your legs, arms, hands, and in general to be aware of your environment. Movement is part of being human. Even inside the womb, in that restricted but warm and protected space, the body starts to move and wake up the nervous system. So that by interacting with the environment through movements, a connection is created that affects the environment as well as the mother and child responses to those movements. I am mesmerized with the body’s capabilities and its fruits of love. I can only hold my breath at knowing how important we are in this life. I know I have heard people say both: ah don’t take yourself seriously. And others would say: you are sacred, your body is your temple. Only after so many years of asking myself when to take each advice, I realised that it is not one or the other, it is both, The balance is the one that determines the outcome

In my own experience I started taking exercises seriously only after being diagnosed with a chronic illness. The truth is, that in illness, you are completely alone… and nobody really understands what you are going through. It is a deep form of alienation and in the best of cases of re-encounter and rebirth. I personally experienced both. In my search for health, I encounter a myriad of coincidences and it seemed like the universe has had laid my path before me. Conventional medicine was the first step, but that was probably the worst and most damaging to the body. Alternative medicine and the care of my family’s doctor, Dr. Coral, who literally brought me back to life, where building the new estructure in which I would move again and right there is where my real search started. Not all has been roses, there has been lots of ups and downs because touching ground and heaven is part of recognising the vulnerabilities and gloriousness of human beings.

In my search I found various millenarian techniques and practices, also exercises that can be helpful and I am sure one of them is definitely for you.

I will start with one that caught my attention for its intuitive quality:

Nomadics (Martin Gray)

By bringing the atención directly to the body parts performing the action one learns to feel and regulate the functioning of each part independently of them doing a particular sporting activity. This is called “Going to the Roots” or the fundamentals of movement and, it applies to all.

One of the reasons why I like these type of practice is because it is sort of a free moving activity that manages to access most of the parts of the body and is not so restrictive as other disciplines. But what is most interesting is Martin’s  claim that in addition to physical benefits, these nomadic exercises automatically have mental and spiritual effects. According to research findings in somatic psychology and psychoneuroimmunology have indicated that exercises that train the body for strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination, and balance, simultaneously develop those same qualities in the mind. This means that psychology may be accessed through physiology- therefore utilising the nomadic exercises one works in ones mind by working on ones body.

The similarities with Atunnment in Qigong and Tai ji or meditation and other practices, speak for themselves on this subject. Those practices are literally practices to getting you atunned with your body and environment, so that one reaches a union with oneself, recognising oneself, and as I see it, even one’s place in the universe. Martin explains: 

“I speak of nomadic as movement meditations in the sense that the different movements and postures are used to develop the mental capacity of focusing attention at precise places in your body for example in a certain muscle or organ. Once you learn the skill you can then consciously influence what is happening in that muscle and organ. Once you are able to get inside the different parts of your body then you can influence what is going on there. These other parts of your body are simply other parts of you. So what is being learned with the nomadic method is how to inhabit the other parts of your total being so that you can change things from the inside out. It is important to understand the mind.”

It is as Martin explained, moving meditation, CHi- Kung /Qi- Gong, Tai Ji/ Tai Chi etc. All these practices teach you to attune to your body, to regain the power within that is transformative and alive. The more you know yourself the better and faster your brain and your whole body will be.

This day… or any other day of your chossing is the day.

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