“The great sea

Has sent me adrift

It moves me

As a weed in a great river

Earth and the great weather

Move me

Have carried me away

And move my inward parts with joy.”

~ Uvavnuk/Eskimo

I used to prioritize perfection over process. I think a lot of people do and that part of me still exists. I have to keep breaking her with love, yoga, play and compassion. We hold the illusion of our ego or the perception of who we are as a shell to keep us safe from that which we fear. Almost as if we project a certain thing we can stay safe and separate from any upset.

This is of course impossible—the nature of life is like the weather, beautifully unpredictable. And what we miss in the process of hanging onto our fear is the spirit of life.

The beauty of a moving practice is that it can invite flow back into the sedentary parts of our body. A bit like a river running dry, the edges become arid and no longer part of the flow. Our body can be like this and it manifests itself not only in our physicality but in our “mind-set.”

Conversely, how soft are children? How playful, inquisitive, open? As they learn and develop and move they approach life with simplicity, interest and newness. We can embody this childlike spirit through starting every practice with what Linda Hartley refers to as a “beginners mind.”

It’s in the falling, wobbling, laughing, crying, being that we find the beautiful strength in fluidity. Exploration rather than expectation is perhaps the key.

There is something akin to the fluidity and strength of water that can be found in the nature of moving practice.

“When I speak of fluidity, I am also referring to the idea that what we call ‘body’ is not matter, but movement….We can be seen as a fluid unfolding of innate intelligence”

~ Emilie Conrad

Through this approach to practice we can become aware of our rigidity. We slowly find places to yield and soften. Then we hit another layer and we see if we can penetrate that and deeper and deeper we go…..until the view becomes increasingly vast.

Our life and true nature can be scary, just like deep water, but once you’re in it feels invigorating, playful, liberating and exciting.

Spirit, freedom and creativity live here.

Einstein said “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking it is stupid.”

How many of us spend our life being fish climbing trees? Life is a fragment of time.

So stop climbing trees and get in the water.

Photos of Carly Mountain taken by Jamie at image23.co.uk

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Ed: Bryonie Wise