Awareness is curative. The space we often call “the now”, or “being present” is a place of infinite possibilities. When you truly drop into this space, you become aware that any path is available to you. It is a place of healing. It is a place of transformation.

Where you place your awareness is where you send your energy, your resources. Quite simply, being aware of something gives it “life”.

Awareness is a powerful tool in the healing/transforming process. Whether the transformation happening is seen as “psychological”, “physical”, “emotional”, “structural” or otherwise, being present with it helps the process. What we call the conscious mind directs energy to that which needs upgrading, bringing intelligent resources with it. Intelligent resources that know exactly what to do.

In a world where your awareness is often being pulled in many directions, slowing down can bring awareness to the “physical” body immediately and powerfully.

You can apply this principle to any movement. Even something as simple as moving your ankle in circles will feel very different when you slow it down. You will become more aware of the movement without having to try to become more aware of the movement.

Moving slowly creates more feeling. More awareness. More awareness creates more healing, more transformation.

Slowing down also removes the need to “try” to be aware. “Trying” brings with it more tension, so whenever we can just “do” or “be”, all the better.

Slowing down also brings with it more control over our movement, more skill. When we then move at “normal” or faster speeds, this will translate into better performance and therefore more enjoyment. Feeling more skillful at something always feels good.

I’d like to invite you to try it. One of the movements below can be challenging, especially when done slowly. Don’t worry if this is the case, start where you can. If you need to remain with your knees on the floor, do so. If you are not able to move once your knees are off the floor, hang out there for a while and feel what’s happening in your body. Stillness is as good a teacher as any. Find movement within the stillness. See where the body tremors and moves while you remain still. Wherever you are at is good and any slow movement will help you connect with your body. This leads to exponential improvement if done regularly.

As was said earlier, you can slow down any movement and connect with the body but to save you having to decide what to do on this first occasion, I’ve put a couple of examples below. One is more challenging as it is a “loaded” movement, loaded by your bodyweight. The other is not and as such, while not creating the immediate rush of feedback, provides a more gentle way in.

Loaded (and awesome in so many ways):

Get on your hands and knees. Eyes looking forward, lift your knees up so they are under your hips, a few inches off the ground. You are ready to crawl. Keeping your back relatively flat, start to crawl forwards, keeping those eyes on the “horizon”. Crawl as slowly as you can and feel where the body is “talking” to you. Where there are imbalances, adjustments to be made.

Stop at any time and allow these adjustments to integrate into the body. The time in between doing these exercises is equally as important as the doing. 5 minutes of crawling will be noticeable the next day in terms of posture and how you feel. If you get up to 15 minutes (even every other day), you will see huge improvements. Always give yourself time to allow these adaptations to integrate, and whenever you are doing the exercises and feel a strong pull saying “that’s enough for now”, please listen to that internal voice.

A lighter loaded exercise is to simply take off your socks and shoes and walk really slowly barefoot outside. See what you notice about how you move, how you feel. Close your eyes if you can, feel the wave like movement of the foot as it rolls across the floor, sending a wave back up through the ankle, the lower leg, the upper leg, across the body and into the opposite arm and shoulder. Then across and all the way back down the other side. It’s a bit like doing the walk from Saturday Night Fever. And that’s always a winner. If you’ve not seen it, please go and watch right away and copy.

Unloaded:

Moving your hands/wrists in circles really slowly. Close your eyes as you do to enhance the sensations. Closing your eyes when doing anything enhances sensations and awareness of movement. A “stillness” version of this is simply to close your eyes and bring your awareness to your hands. If you notice your awareness wander, gently bring it back. You can’t do it wrong. Be playful with it, feel how your hands feel for a few minutes – Don’t be surprised if they tingle and maybe even feel like balls of light. This also makes for a powerful meditation of sorts.

Slowing down (and finding movement within stillness) has a powerful effect on how we move, how we feel and therefore how we live. Within every moment of slowing down/stillness are infinite possibilies to “level up”. Move slowly whenever you can and see what happens. You might just enjoy it.

Much love

Andrew

Water carves through and flows around seemingly immovable, impassable objects. We are “made” of around 70% water and we too, have this potential. To carve our paths and flow through challenges in a seemingly effortless way. We are powerful. magical beings. We’ve just forgotten it.

From a perspective of movement and physical well being (which is also mental well being as the two are intertwined), if we can tap into the powers that water has to help us move better and feel better, it will serve us well.

While we are mostly made of water, we are also made of things like fascia and muscles, things that send messages (via our nervous system) to tell us they are “stiff” or “tense”, sometimes even “sore”. These are areas of restricted movement, created for many reasons but mostly to protect us from perceived “threats” in all of their various forms. Angry squirrel, knife edge mountain ridge, same result. When in fear or doubt, the body says “stop” (moving) to keep us “safe” and this creates patterns of restricted movement.

If you lie on a hard surface, such as a wooden floor (even with a yoga mat) you will most likely find areas of restricted movement, also known as “tension”. You will especially notice these if you lie on your side (i won’t go into the why’s of being on your side here, i’ll simply invite you to try it and see). These may reveal themselves as discomfort and maybe even pain (it’s best not to move into pain so if it hurts, back off). These are signals that your body wants “you” (your conscious mind) to pay attention to, hence the sensations it creates.

If a child of 6 or 7 lay on that same floor (or a dog, or cat), they would most likely feel perfectly at home and would have no trouble falling asleep when they became tired. In my experience most adults would not feel the same. they would likely be so uncomfortable that they would be lucky to get a few minutes of sleep (at least on the first attempt).

This is because we adults (this is increasingly found with younger adults and teenagers too) typically have more areas of restricted movement and this is how it reveals itself when presented with such a surface – Something we very rarely do anymore with soft sofas and beds. How many of us spend time sitting, squatting and lying on the floor these days?

When our bodies meet “hard”/immovable, they need to be able to become soft/malleable. They need to be able to flow onto and around, like water. If we have areas of our body that cannot do this, they will show us in the form of sensations to assist these areas in being “healed”. Where you put your focus is where you put your energy. Sensations create focus, focus sends resources. Put simply, we don’t spend enough time on the floor.

The good news is twofold – One, awareness is curative and two, simply finding a firmer surface, one that reveals enough and yet still allows you to rest, is a great place to start. You don’t have to go to a wooden floor with no mat. Or a bed of nails – yet.

When i say awareness is curative, what i mean is that when the conscious mind focuses on these sensations, the Mindbody system starts sends resources to where they are needed. As above, sensations create focus and focus sends resources. This includes the activation of healing mechanisms such as neurogenic tremors, pandiculation and other involuntary (and semi-voluntary) movements.

Experiencing this is an interesting process as the the mind/body is telling you how to move, often in very specific ways you haven’t done before – such is the power of communication with the body.

This takes many forms, from something as obvious as neurogenic tremors to becoming uncomfortable enough that you feel you have to move/shuffle. The body is even capable of creating itches that make you stretch and scratch in such a way that something suddenly releases (i won’t even get into the chemical releases created by a good scratch!). This might sound crazy, “it’s just an itch” but having seen this with enough people, it seems the body may be using whatever it can to get you to move how it wants to in order to optimise itself.

Whatever the method, all of these movements create a “dissolving” of tension. A restoration of movement, a lessening of discomfort, a changing of mood through chemical changes and potentially much much more. But don’t take my word for it, try it and see.

You can also use fun techniques to help this process. When you find “tension”/an area of discomfort, “be there” with it – Allow it to teach you. Observe it, feel it, ask it what it needs, ask it to show you how it heals you. See what response you get – you might be surprised. It may move somewhere else, it may trigger a tremor. You have only to be the student, listening to your masterful body show you what it needs. If you can get over the fact that you might feel a bit crazy, this works wonders.

And, as a good friend of mine (and movement legend) likes to say “It’s crazy enough that it just might work”.

If you are feeling playful (or even if not), you could smile at it. This has a profound effect, not least because smiling is the physical form of acceptance/love and as such, has that effect on the “physical body”, often causing tension to dissolve seemingly without effort.

A “free” reset for the system:

One of the best things about this is that you don’t have to do anything. No complex attempts to restore optimal movement, no overthinking about whether you are doing something right or wrong and therefore creating more tension (overthinking and trying create more tension, not dissolve it).

You are simply returning to spending more time on a surface that’s not too far from the ones we would have for most of our (healthy movement) history. Allowing the body to reset while you rest/sleep. You don’t have to leap into sleeping on firmer surfaces either, spending time on your side on such a surface while awake is hugely restorative and a great way to get some floor time too.

I could wax on about exactly why this works, breaking it down further and further, explaining why being on your side for at least some of the time is hugely curative and so on but that takes us away from the essence of this and it’s simplicity. Spend more time lying/sitting/kneeling on a firm surface without accoutrements and see what happens. It might take a couple of days to feel the change, it might take a couple of weeks – But it will help to restore you.

With love

Andrew

A “free” reset for the system:

You are simply returning to spending more time on a surface that’s not too far from the ones we would have for most of our (healthy movement) history. Allowing the body to reset while you rest/sleep. You don’t have to leap into sleeping on firmer surfaces either, spending time on your side on such a surface while awake is hugely restorative and a great way to get some floor time too.

I could wax on about exactly why this works, breaking it down further and further, explaining why being on your side for at least some of the time is hugely curative and so on but that takes us away from the essence of this and it’s simplicity. Spend more time lying/sitting/kneeling on a firm surface without accoutrements and see what happens. It might take a couple of days to feel the change, it might take a couple of weeks – But it will help to restore you.

With love

Andrew