KineOasis
“Improve the quality of movement and you improve the quality of life itself” ~ Moshe Feldenkrais
Summary
This excerpt from the "Age and Quality of Movement" article, written by KineOasis, explores the relationship between aging, movement, and the quality of life. It argues that while the quality of movement naturally declines with age, it is crucial to engage in strategic approaches to maintain and enhance movement throughout life. The author emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, honesty, and care in our relationship with our bodies, advocating for mindful movement practices that foster a dynamic connection between brain and body. The piece highlights the "invisible path" between our minds and bodies through movement, emphasizing that by consciously engaging in this dynamic dance, we can improve the quality of our lives and experience living more fully. KineOasis presents itself as a resource for individuals of all ages seeking to explore this path through their safe and fun movement classes.
Movement changes as we age.
It often becomes stronger, more precise and refined, but as time keeps flowing it begins to take away more than it gives.
While this is an obvious statement for most adults, many of us do not think of the qualitative change of our movement unless (and until) we face physical tasks that trigger some level of uncomfortableness - ranging from pain to inability to perform those tasks.
However, the changes are multi-layered and include changes in our reflexes, changes in our ability to coordinate, balance, recover, etc. In other words, as we age, our bodies begin accumulating wear and tear, progressively impacting the quality of our movement in negative ways.
Athletes and generally all very active individuals fare a slower rate of quality deterioration, unless of course they encounter injuries along the way or unforeseen physiological events. It is generally accepted by everyone that a physically active person will have better chances at experiencing a high quality of movement for a longer period and with a slower decline. Yet decline is inevitable, and this is when each individual’s state of mind comes into play. This is where each one of us must determine the level of commitment we give ourselves to maintaining our health and to striving for longevity in our movement. Based on that commitment, we must then engage in strategic approaches to maintenance and longevity.
In this strategic approach, we do have allies. Some allies reside within our own bodies, some are external, and their ability to help us depends on our choices.
Lifestyle is a sum of choices, hence a strategic approach to living one’s personal life. Some lifestyle choices may or may not be within the means of every individual, but some of these choices and their respective actions are always within reach, except of course where physical impairment is preventing it. One such choice is Movement.
Regardless of one’s fitness level, age, social status, and even environmental differences, each living human being can generate some degree of movement within and with their bodies, depending on their individual level of health and functional abilities.
There are countless ways to move. Ranging from walking, jogging, working out, yoga, dancing, climbing, swimming, and performing physical work, we have designed nearly infinite ways to engage ourselves through movement. One of my favorite approaches, however, is a lesser traveled path, where I use movement to establish a dynamic flow between my brain and my body.
In the simplest of explanations, I use movement to influence my brain and use my brain to influence my body through movement. In exchange, both my brain and my body inform my movement.
This approach is free of competitive mentalities, form-based structural rigidity, and, it provides a continuous sense of new and exploration, which in turn leads to learning, which in turn means change.
While the sports, fitness, and wellness industries have devised insanely complicated systems to sell the very best and the most efficient way to move in one way or another, my invitation to everyone is to push the pause button of searching outwards, and instead shift attention and awareness to oneself - with candor, care, and simplicity.
There is pleasure and fun in movement when we are free of “precision, perfection, goals, and preset levels”, but beyond the pleasure and fun aspects hides a much more functional and powerful aspect. Through Movement, we actively and consciously engage in a candid dialogue with ourselves. This requires us to be honest about ourselves, to care for ourselves, and be humble in both our actions AND expectations. This also means observing common sense at all times and continuously staying informed - learning and updating our understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.
As with any true dialogue, we have at least two participants in the conversation and the quality of the dialogue depends on a two-way engagement in expression and listening. In this case, our brain engages our body in a fluid conversation through movement, AND, through movement, our bodies awaken our brains and senses.
The quality of movement can heighten our self-awareness or numb it, it can charge up and focus our mind or it can soothe and relax us into a state of mental, physical, and emotional healing and regeneration. As it happens, the quality of movement depends on the quality of intention and the quality of intention can strategically be influenced and determined by our state of mind and overall attitude. This dynamic dance between our minds and our bodies through the body and its movements, is how - in essence - our brains experience living; how WE as human beings experience living.
Therefore, by consciously engaging in this dynamic dance we begin to influence the quality of how we experience living. This is at the core of all of our KineOasis classes, for all ages. In every moment, we seek to find and travel on the invisible path between our brains and our bodies, through movement, as Life.
Thoughts or Questions about the article? Join the conversation inside our private KineOasis Community
May the river of your life flow gently and strongly under the splendor of many Sunrises and Sunsets, and for many years to come.
Explore KineOasis Classes:
KineOasis invites Seniors to explore our safe and fun movement classes: Ballet, SeniorFLOW, and Feldenkrais for all.
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