Flow Is Accessible All The Time
Flow Is Accessible All The Time
On the heels of healing from a few years of illness and almost no physical exercise, I spent a week on a beach. I was WAY out of shape AND, beach volleyball looked so fun I just had to play!
Being that I couldn’t avoid diving for the ball over and over (and over) again, and knowing I could be getting myself into some serious trouble, I focused my attention on my entire body for the whole game. I intended that my body do well. I intended that all my cells were connected and powerful in every moment . . . for three hours!
And you know what? I did it, and I was FINE. I was more than fine – I felt amazing!
And, though it had been years since I’d worked out, a trainer I know, who himself has been seeing osteopaths for 50 years, had prior influenced the way I think about my body. His message was that true, deep, full body fitness comes less from our sweat in the gym than our ability to feel and engage fully with our entire body throughout the day. That ideally, gym work is really more about programming our attention and our bodies to participate fully in every motion such that with every step, every breath, and every moment of sitting, all areas of the body, every cell, would participate.
I’m describing a very natural behavior, that of the body being and moving as though it is one continuous substance. We’re a conscious and dynamic spring behavior of sorts, more verb than noun, within which each cell does its part in concert such that optimal states – those of ease coupled with power – can emerge.
Attention is what really makes this work. After all, research has confirmed that the simple act of imagining motion alone can create fitness. Even while sitting, if we keep our attention in our feet and sit bones and allow the natural, subtle serpent-like motion that emerges as a result of full attention to move through us, every cell remains in play, every joint is lubricated, and all the tissues stay actively engaged and strong. Enter flow-state, fitness and healing!
Comments & questions? In my next blog I will talk about fun and easy ways to build and wield attention memory. Stay tuned!
