I look at samples of effortless movement and I wonder:

What moves us?

Let’s imagine the human structure; what if we take out the skin, then the muscle, then the bone… What is our essence at its deepest, simpler form? My answer today is energy. Nothing spiritual or imaginary; I mean the actual energy flowing around our nervous system. But what generates this energy?

What moves me is NOT my muscles or bones.

WHAT MOVES ME IS MY INTENTION.

Muscles and bones simply support my intention; they are not the thinkers or the movers -they are the support team!

Let’s play with a small experiment.

Stand up and just let yourself be supported by gravity through the soles of your feet.

As your arms are hanging on either sides of your body, let your fingers lead your arms away from your torso. Take a moment to become clear on who leads; it is not the whole arm, not the shoulder or the back. I want my fingers to lead my arm, the way the leopard let’s its head lead his body.

This is the most important step of our small experiment, so take all the time you need to observe which part of you wants to lead the movement habitually.

If you do the movement slowly, it’s quite probable you’ll start getting tired after a while. We very easily forget that it is not the muscle that does the movement, but it is OUR INTENTION. So, this experiment is an invitation to let go of the muscle tension, but keep the intention! How do I do that??? Start over and this time remember two ideas THROUGHOUT the experiment:

1)  No matter where my arms are in space the support of my whole system will come through the soles of my feet.

2)  I want my fingers to lead my hands, so that my hands lead my arms away from my torso. The direction is not ‘up’, but ‘out’, away from body.

Tips: Keep jolly! A smile on your face will encourage your eyes to stay awake and your system to keep breathing! You don’t want to get too serious and turn the experiment into a torture session; life is too short for this sort of thing…

The reason I chose this experiment today is that it is a simplified version of all movements with the arms, so this small ‘exercise’ can be applied to any activity that involves the arms; driving, brushing the teeth, playing an instrument etc.

If you have any questions or doubts, the answer is very simple: JUST ASK!