Can You Develop Consciousness Through Movement and Breath work?

From what I'm experiencing and seeing in some of you, the answer is absolutely YES!!! Lots of you are leaving fight or flight and entering a regulated state that is enhancing your ability to be present and in your body.

When we become more in touch with more parts of our bodies, we inherently have more access to our senses and a greater awareness of what we're experiencing in our environment. When we're more acquainted with our sensations and the parts of ourselves we've formed compensations around, we have more opportunities to be present in the NOW.

When we're more present, we're able to gather more data, meaning we have more information about ourselves and our experiences. And the more information we have, the more connections we can make, the more patterns we can recognize, and the better we can become at questioning what we think we know.

Therefore, we have more information available to us when we're critically thinking, using discernment, and making decisions about our bodies and what feels right for us.

YA'LLLLLLLL, I'm going full woo on ya, and I'm feeling passionate, inspired, and super-duper enthusiastically stoked about what I'm finding, so I wanted to share!

Does this make sense? Can you see/feel how I came to this concept?

If we're more in our bodies, able to literally access and utilize more of US — the literal tissue part of us — and rely a little less exclusively on the thinking part of us, we can move from a place of being presently informed.

What I mean by that is we're allowing sensation to help guide our movement instead of relying entirely on a narrative we've created about how we should move, what we should feel, or what we should be capable of.

We're giving ourselves an opportunity to experience what's actually happening rather than letting our assumptions make all the decisions.

So my question, suggestion, and seed to be planted in each of you is this:

What is guiding your movement practices?

-Are you moving from a sensation-led place? OR are you overriding those sensations and ignoring discomfort because you believe you have to get stronger? Do you believe that if you just push through the pain, the pain will go away? Are you overriding what your tissues are telling you without taking the time to investigate what you're experiencing?

-Could you — if you're having pain or discomfort — slowwwww it down and meet yourself where you're at? Could you try a different movement, diversify things, and visit other places in your body to gather more information about yourself?

-Could you become so compassionate and kind with yourself in your movement that you assume a beginner's mindset? What might happen if you watched yourself build a more diverse movement practice that explores space and freedom of movement rather than continually reinforcing the same patterns?

-What would it feel like to free up the prescriptive movement of squats, RDLs, running, and biking, and so on and add in a little free-flow movement, like dancing or simply wiggling? Almost like a stretch-dance-exploration idea!

The more you know about yourself, the more informed you can be.

When you're moving, think about how many different ways your joints can move and try exploring new ones! Don't worry about what you look like. You're not trying to look a certain way. Your goal is to feel your way through your tissues.

Take your attention to what you FEEL, not what other people might see. In this kind of movement, what other people see and think does NOT matter when you're trying to get to know your entire body.

I presently feel the best I've ever felt in my entire life, and I have access to my body in a way I've never experienced before. Thanks to ya'll I get to explore lots of different stretches and shapes all the time when I move with you. AND I KNOW that I still have so, so, SOOOOO much of my body still to explore, unlock, and build confidence, familiarity, and awareness in! It's a never ending game!

I can't stop thinking about how much of our movement literally create the literal shape of our bodies. I listen for the repeated postures in your stories and choose to counter them- that's how I pick them- I can see what positions your putting your body in! Our activities, sports, work, and daily routines reinforce our familiar movement patterns. We become really good at certain movements while spending very little time exploring others.

What happens to our awareness of the movements we rarely visit? What might we discover if we started exploring them? All of these questions are meant to make you stop and ponder.

Consider how spending dedicated time on body awareness, mobility, and breath work might expand and enhance your overall lived experience. Imagine spending designated time on the floor, feeling your body, freely rolling around, stretching, and breathing into expansion. Imagine identifying areas of tightness, noticing how different parts of your body move in relationship to one another, and exploring ways to create more space and freedom in your movement.

But first, we have to identify WHERE these relationships and movement patterns exist! And that requires dedicated, curious body-awareness time with yourself!

Hope you all are having a great Fall!!!!!

Warmly, AJ