If some higher God-like source were to tell me I could only teach one movement lesson for the rest of my life it would be this:
Teaching people how to move from standing on two feet to lying on the ground completely flat on their backs and then to take it back up to standing.
Of course I would want to ensure they could do this with ease, efficiency and effortlessness.
Without the use of their hands.
Without falling to the ground or going “BUMP”.
WHY?
This movement (or the learning of it if you can’t do it) requires strength, coordination, flexibility, breath, self-awareness and balance.
All the things that make up a good healthy human system.
And now, just this past year, research is actually showing that the ability, or inability to do this will predict how long you live, or don’t live.
I’m not joking about this!
This capacity to literally GET DOWN to the ground, and then, GET BACK UP AGAIN is serious stuff.
Important stuff.
A little walk down memory lane…
When you learned how to move and get up off the floor for the first time (think as a baby -> infant -> toddler) you had to discover balance, skeletal support and muscular efficiency all in one go. You didn’t go do some leg exercises and then after a rest or stretch do a few balance drills.
Then, once this task was mastered, the apprenticeship stopped.
For most of us, once we start navigating life solely on our two feet, our movement, way of life and even our thinking becomes very linear. Make believe play and creative imaginings lessen.
Our linearity of movement co-exists with our linearity of thought.
And vice versa.
Most of us have lost the curiosity and desire to play with our body and imagination in the way we once did.
The result of this is a stiff body and rigid mind, neither of which can bend and play, discover and invent like it once did. If you keep exploring the richness and diversity of movement that the body can offer, it can open up richness and diversity in both thought and creativity. Stop this richness and diversity in the body and the brain gets dull along with it.
As adults we rarely go to the ground and play around “down there”.
For many of us it scares us.
When we lose this curiosity, play and ground-time what happens is a decrease in functionality. Fear of falling becomes the norm, we slowly lose our independence and, according to this new research, it can even determine how long we will live.
To be continued, Irene.
Read about this research HERE.
