movements and gestures: general 803

When you move in a traditional Chinese bodymind practice, particularly one with a clear focus on healing, “you” work and cooperate with the muscles and joints to improve the coordination in the musculoskeletal system in coordination with the functioning of the inner organs. But of course, you don’t do that without a broader context. We want to escape isolation—physically, emotionally, and mentally. Physical unfitness, emotional instability, a potential susceptibility to illnesses, a weak immune system are hints to take a closer look at the (missing) connections between the various aspects of our life, at our weaknesses, but also our strengths. A traditional Chinese bodymind practice is a wonderful tool to support these kinds of reflections, regarding our individual and social existence, but also our being in the world more broadly.

In traditional Chinese bodymind practices, the terms 地 earth and 天 the universe (heaven) are absolutely essential as the framework for human experience (天地人). To use classical Chinese terminology, we ground ourselves, we “grow roots”, we “embed” ourselves in the ground, the earth—we work with gravity. We extend, stretch, “spread out”  into the universe. We use the connecting potential of centrifugal force. There is an immense variety of exercises for connecting with 地 earth and 天 the universe (heaven) in the Chinese movement traditions.

In Taoist movement traditions, we explore the physical expression of our personality in order to enter into more profound dialogues with all aspects of “our” being as “one” tiny element in the larger organism we are a part of. We learn and practice to care for (us as) parts. We want to constructively take part in our larger environments. This is an ongoing endeavor. It is learning by doing. This is a lifelong “interdisciplinary” learning journey. The longer you are on this exploratory journey, the more complex are the connections you can uncover. The “I” is always a part of the “we.” Because the boundaries between the individual and the whole are murky, improving one’s health in these kinds of practices is therefore best seen and best handled in the context of our smaller and wider contexts. The plasticity is enormous, but healing needs a clear focus on the communication with past and present distortions—near and far. Here the exploration of the concept of connection is an inextricable part of the act of connecting.

Back to the concrete movements: The complexity with which you can send impulses through your bodymind and connect is growing over time with your practice of interacting with the ground in movement, and with the earth in the way you treat food with the knowledge, the gratitude and the respect it deserves. The pulsing communication between ourselves and the ground is a good teacher of the open boundaries between individual existence and the larger existence individual existence is a part of, of the simplicity and the complexity of unity.