I meant to do that...

Over the weekend, I got to see some amazing dance performances and a few that were less amazing.  In trying to sort out what made the difference between amazing and not, I realized that the magic ingredient, as far as I could tell from the outside, was intention.

All of the dancers spent hours training and rehearsing.  They all had developed muscles and methods of controlling those muscles.  Body type was not an indicator—some of the most transcendent dancers were older or heavier than what we, societally, think of as dancers.

The ones who moved me, as I sat there in my moderately uncomfortable chair, were the ones who knew why they were there and what they were doing at every second.  There were no body parts unaccounted for, no movements sketched when they could be deeply drawn.  It was an integrated, flowing whole, that kind of dance.

Not all of us are cut out to be dancers.  But all of us can strive, from time to time, for the clarity of mind as we move our bodies that creates beauty out of strength and purpose.  Maybe we’re just doing curls, maybe it’s the third set and we’re tired and we’d rather be on a beach somewhere.  Maybe it’s time to check our hearts and invest in being where we are, doing what we are doing with full intention.  They could be the most beautiful curls ever.

Monday Workout: Ropes again!

This week, we are doing ropes again because they are friendly to the knees and hard on everything else.  Three rounds.

rope double slams	30
bench press	20
pushups	10
rope alternating slams	30
flies	20
reverse flies	10
rope circles	30
rows	20
pretty princesses	10

Today's Mind-Body-Because-No-Book-Report Post

I talk a lot about the mind-body connection.  Thing is, words are funny, slippery things.  Mind, in the way I use it casually, often means thinking and cognitive function and logic.  That is certainly part of what it means in the sense of mind-body connection, but it leaves out some stuff.  Like the emotional stuff.

I don’t know where I first heard the phrase “issues in my tissues.”  It’s not just about injury history and kinds of movements that are hard for a particular person.  It’s about how some of our emotional stuff manifests in our bodies.  Yes, it’s a little woo-woo, but it’s also common sense; we all perceive it when someone we know is holding stress in her or his body, for example.  Those facial expressions that we interpret as emotional signs:  hey, that’s the body moving to reflect an inner experience.

What this means is that sometimes when we move our bodies, we get unexpected emotional responses.  We can release emotions we didn’t know we were holding.  Many times, this is a good thing.  Sometimes it can be surprising or even a bit scary.  We think we’re just working out, but it turns out that we’re resolving that pesky issue with our kids or our spouse or our parents, too.

It’s okay.  Keep breathing.  We can get stronger in all ways, together.