“Blood cells that don’t move cannot transport oxygen, lungs that don’t move can’t breathe, hearts that don’t move can’t pump blood, and spines that don’t move can’t create the motion required for proper joint nutrition, for the activities of daily living, or for the stimulation of the joint-brain pathways required for proper brain and body function.” In short, movement is what enables our bodies to operate in all their delicate, wondrous complexity.
James Chestnut, chiropractor.
Dance and movement keep popping up whenever I consider current issues in my life, particularly in relation to my shoulder injury and the urinary tract infection that won’t go away. Of course I am doing what is appropriate with the medical profession, just because there is a lot wrong with modern medicine doesn’t mean that it isn’t a wonderful method of dealing with some problems. But expecting someone else to do all the fixing isn’t a useful way of thinking, if I want to get better then I need to participate in the healing process with as much mindfulness as I can muster.
I’ve been moving less because of my shoulder injury, still can’t do my regular yoga class and struggling to get myself to do any kind of practice at home. Sometimes I don’t even know what makes it flare up, with that kind of uncertainty I am a bit scared to do anything that might conceivably make it worse. And becoming less physically fit isn’t going to help my immune system with the infection it’s dealing with. My sugar addiction is going strong again too which doesn’t help with this overall picture, certainly doesn’t look like the optimum health that I am aiming for in this life.
Not the state I aspire to!
It’s very easy in a place like this to feel like there isn’t anything I can do to change this, the mind may know it’s possible but the emotional body feels trapped. What needs to happen is an internal shift of consciousness that breaks the old patterns that are flaring up at the moment. Each time I have been in this space I have found various ways of breaking the loop and the message that keeps coming to me right now is to move my body. My Beloved and I are about to spend four weeks on five acres with dogs and cats and alpacas and not much else so a space is opening up for exploration and for play.
Sometimes it will be movement to music but there will be times when I invite my body to move to its own rhythms. This can be done alone but it is even more powerful with another as witness, simply observing, not participating except to give feedback afterwards. This is one activity that can be guaranteed not to hurt my shoulder, I have learned how to move so that it can participate without trauma. And my body always feels better when it is in regular motion, even just a short walk is enough to perk everything up. So while I will continue to call upon doctors to support me in my healing I will also be taking responsibility for my own wellbeing.
And once the shift in consciousness has occurred then all the other stuff becomes so much easier! When my head is in the right place healthy choices seem simple and obvious. I need to be kind to myself and take one step at a time, after all I have done this before. And each time I do it I find myself in a better position than the last time it happened, slowly but surely I am getting healthier and healthier.
Hooray for the opportunity to create a happy and healthy life on the lovely planet known as Earth!
The life I have chosen to lead teaches me all the time about impermanence, the shape of where I am going to live always fluid. Now we are making a bigger shift as my Beloved and I begin the search for a new place to call home base. Somewhere to keep our stuff and to be at when we are in between house sits, ’twill be interesting to see what the next shape of our anchor is going to look like. I have fears that come up around this kind of change but more and more they are small and not so hard to let go of. Feels like there is a knowing in me that knows perfectly well that if we trust the flow we will move on to exactly where we need to be, in Divine Timing.
Through the Vortex 