SELF-IMPROVEMENT
How Can You Move, Sway, and Flow in the Way Your Body Wants to Move?
Day 46, 50 questions for deep self-reflection
Trigger Warning: Psychological exploration and personal growth — everything here is a reflection of self only. If you are triggered, please stop reading immediately. Always put your own mental health first!
Have you ever been somewhere and had the urge to move your body in a way that was perhaps not appropriate for the environment? And why wasn’t it appropriate for the environment? Societal expectation? Is it because we’ve been taught that in a corporate workplace, you don’t bust out the Hammer dance or that you don’t headbang on a crowded bus (unless, of course, Rhapsody Blues is on, in which case, that whole damn bus better headbang)? Why did we learn that? Ew!
This is day 46 of the 50 Questions for Deep Self-Reflection challenge from Know Thyself Heal Thyself created by Diana C.
DAY FORTY-SIX: How can you move, sway and flow in the way your body wants to move?
Level 1
My first instinct is, what the hell does that mean? If we look at just the physicality of the question, is it asking how I can allow my body to move, sway, and flow in a way that is physically unheeded? I know there’s obviously much more to the question than that, but if we look at the surface, at only the physicality of the question, then the response through a physical framework would be to improve flexibility and strength. Improve muscle stamina, load bearing on joint joints, pay attention to joint muscle health, and pay attention to health in general. On the surface, if we choose to ignore the implications of where this question will undoubtedly take us, then, that’s it. Done. But since when do I stop there?
Level 2
How can you move, sway, and flow in the way your body wants to move?
Move, sway, and flow doesn’t necessarily mean physical movement. For me, it very much links back to the challenge question on Day 43: How can you trust your body whilst also challenging your mind?
In that response, I explored how I could allow the meat sack of mine to intuitively respond to thoughts and emotions instead of trying to control the body.
“Perhaps it was never my lack of trust in intuition that got in the way. Perhaps, in all these years, I just needed to trust my body to respond to intuition.”
I wonder if this question is asking me to take that a step further by developing the solution around releasing control.
The Tangent — AKA Level 3
My brain just took me along another thought process which I think is very appropriate and perhaps even hits on this question from an angle I wasn’t expecting. Surprise, surprise! What if the real question is in defining what your body wants to do and allowing it to do that as opposed to controlling it to align with the expectations of others?
For example, if you’re in a supermarket, and a song comes on, and your body wants to move. Do you? Or would you not dare dance in the middle of a supermarket for fear of somebody else thinking that you look stupid or crazy? Especially on your own. Personally, I don’t bust a move down the aisle but I definitely stim.
Allow me to reframe the question:
How can I release control of my body without the fear of external judgment?
Because that’s what this question comes down to for me. Ouch! And if anybody else went there with me, sorry?! Think about though. Because ultimately, if we didn’t control our physical movements to align with societal expectations of ‘normality’, whatever the hell that is, how many of us would be just breaking out and dancing? I know I would.
So, why don’t I?
Good question!
Why Don’t I?
That’s going to need a little more exploration. For now, let’s come back to today’s question.
How can I move, sway, and flow in the way my body wants to move?
- By releasing the fear of external judgment.
But that’s easier said than done. And I can say, “I don’t care what other people think,” as much as I want, it doesn’t change that I know it is still ingrained in every lived moment and experience and mirrored in moments like not dancing in a supermarket. That all shows me that I do still fear external judgment.
I don’t know if I found my greater truth in this today, but I certainly walk away with more strings of exploration to unravel and knit.
Thank goodness I have therapy this week!
Here in Melbourne, Australia, the supermarkets have a knack for playing decent music occasionally. Songs I want to sing to. Songs I want to dance to. But, I don’t. Do you? Why do we restrain ourselves? Who taught us that? Who the hell was the idiot who decided that we should resist our basic urge to feel the enjoyment of movement? I don’t like them. They ruined supermarket dancing. How does your body want to move and how can you let it?
If you are interested in the journey so far — all the days that came before, I’ve collected all the article links here: