Jul 118 min read

Movement matters: How physical activity enhances wellbeing

Turns out movement is a game changer for me, and many I dance with.

This is from Mandy who suffers from Lupus SLE (Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease. In this disease, the immune system of the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs).

"It doesn't hurt me. It's gentle. I feel better. I know I've exercised but I don't feel sore after it. I suffer with whole body lupus, with Bronwyn i've found a way to move that doesn't hurt me"

HOW MY PHYSICALITY IS AFFECTED BY MOVING OR NOT MOVING

When I move my body I always feel better. In the moments when I stop to take a pause (I have reminders set on my phone to nudge me), put my hands on my lower back then bend back and notice how tight I feel. This often triggers a feeling in me that i’ve not been moving enough or that i’ve been too long in one position. Sometimes I go an entire day or days without doing that and when I come back to it geez those sensations really speak to me. That’s a snippet of how my physicality is affected by moving or not moving. If I move or I don’t move something gets triggered in my body, mind and in my emotions, sometimes it's good sometimes it's not. It's all interlinked. AND if I don’t move, this in many ways keeps me from my spirit, there just feels like too many layers to navigate through to get to it.

If I don't move this keeps me from my Spirit"

Movement matters so much to me. I've always been an active person; not especially sporty but I've always been on the move and often described as a ‘busy little beaver’. One of the reasons Nia and dance is so important to me and why I've created a life where I run classes is because it keeps me accountable to a movement practice (see my blog post on accountability). I’m still active and beavering about the place juggling more disco balls than is probably advisable AND the way I move through life is very different to how I used to. It’s massively tied into mindset. When I move I'm not just getting up and going from here to do that thing over there, I'm paying attention to the sensations in my body, the way in which my body moves, the sensation of the atmosphere against my skin etc. I could go on and on, there’s an endless smorgasbord of options available to a person when they focus on the body sensations connected with movement. Its subtle and quite sweet, just a sense, it's not like I'm spending all day studying every little felt sense in my body. Something I talk about a lot in my classes, at my events and in my 1-2-1 coaching sessions; is the importance of using the body as a vessel to get out of the head and into the body.

I've always been a huge fan of singing, dancing and listening to music; indulging in all three at once is my idea of absolute heaven. When I was younger this trio generally involved alcohol, hours of dancing and nights, conversations and acts I don’t remember. The stuff a parent squirms about.

Shenanigan' noun silly or high-spirited behaviour; mischief.

Some nights I wish had never happened, and overall they are ingredients that have made for an interesting life and have made me me (and for the record, I still LOVE a good night out which might happen 1-2x per year - those nights are HILARIOUS & worth EVERY SINGLE shenanigan that goes down).

I was a bit like a celebrity, I'd get flung into costumes, shows and parades

In 1995 and aged 18 I went on a student exchange to Thailand for 10 months, I lived with a Thai family, learned the language, went to school with 1400 Thai students and studied Thai culture. Thai dancing was one of my lessons. My teacher Ajarn Suwanna was the sweetest thing and we would have 1-2-1 sessions together, they were so special. I was trained up to perform both solo and in group shows on several occasions. Thais are MASSIVELY into celebrations, performances and doing things that give them a space to express. In a culture that is pro uniformity and where deviating from the 'rules' is discouraged, those opportunities to perform were like gold dust to some more than others. Being as I was the only foreigner in the school I was a bit like a celebrity so I’d get flung into costumes, into shows, parades and performances with teachers and students. I choreographed some moves on a couple of occasions, once or twice for and with the teachers, we performed for the whole school. They were CRAZY for that gear! It was so much fun. Thai culture is very community focussed so it's a deep privilege to me that I got to have that experience. It most definitely shaped who I am today.

As I got older and more into wellbeing then became a parent at age 37 opportunities to sing, dance and listen to music came to a screaming halt.

IN 2017 I STARTED DANCING NIA

I thought I was going along to a dance class as a simple way to occupy myself while my son was through in Edinburgh with his grandparents, a way to have fun and integrate just a little into the community. I had no idea that this dance class at this studio upstairs in the little seaside town of Burntisland would change and shape my life forever more. Those early classes with Karen of Island Moves put me in touch with my body and provided me with a pathway to creating more than just relationships with others but it ripped open the calling from my soul to connect with so much more. Getting a ‘taste’ of what it meant to ‘let go’ and to ‘pay attention to sensations within my body’ was startling, uncomfortable AF AND delicious all at once. I had no idea what was going on. Those early Nia days were the ingredients that would start what would be an embodied manual for moving and dancing through life.

NIA WAS THE START OF THE JOURNEY OF A REALLY PROFOUND CONNECTION BETWEEN MY BODY, MIND AND EMOTIONS WHICH HAVE LED ME TO MY SPIRIT

In 2018 I attended my first Nia training 'See blog post 'How Maori culture enhances transformation'. Since then I’ve completed 3 trainings (I have a white and 2x Blue Belt) and this summer I'll attend and complete my Brown with US based Nia Teacher/Trainer Britta von Tagen in Burntisland. The trainings and the body of work that is Nia just keeps on giving. Be it in a training, attending another teacher's class as a student, learning a new routine, studying the educational material or leading my own class - there are so many strings to this bow, and the invitation is always always there to move in my body's way and to lean into the joy of movement. Its so simple and yet so effective. Becoming a teacher of Nia and then expanding into offering Mindful disco sessions (which generally always involve ‘some’ Nia tracks) has been one of the greatest gifts for me. See a previous blog post ‘Waking the dragon within’ for more chat on my love of movement and Nia. Not only does it serve to get me out of my head and into my body but it's also created this really profound connection between body, mind and emotion spirit (3 of the 4 realms that Nia talks about, the 4th being Spirit). These 3 realms are essentially powerful pathways to that part of me that makes me me, that lives and breathes in and around all that I am, that isn’t defined by what I do or don’t say and do, the part of me that is ageless and timeless - my S P I R I T (even as I type this, I’m full of gratitude that life has sent me on this path).

DANCE IS A POWERFUL TOOL THAT ALLOWS ME TO SHIFT THROUGH STATES

Over the last five years i’ve deepened into what is happening in my whole being, and dance is a powerful tool that allows me to shift through states. IT BLOWS MY MIND!!! Let me give you an example. Right now in this moment, i’ve just scanned my body. I’m able to detect a tightness across my shoulders. I see that I have three options.

I can sit here and ruminate on it, how I'm not more this or that;
I can ignore it and just 'crack on keeping doing more of what I’m doing' OR;
I get to pay attention to what is happening in my body and do something about it.

*This is where my mind is noticing and maybe even labelling what I’m noticing as 'tight, stiff, stuck, or trapped'.

*Then I find an emotion for how it makes me feel 'overwhelmed and anxious' (truth be told I’m attempting to squeeze a weeks worth of work into a morning - joys of being beautifully busily brained!)

*With this I know I need to move my body.

And as luck would have it, I'm currently practicing a Nia routine I'm about to start teaching so I use it as a golden opportunity to practice one of the tracks! #boom #practicalKiwiMove.

Back to the tightness across the shoulders. Whilst I was dancing I was paying particular attention to my shoulders and the area between them, each movement unleashed a new sensation and a change in mindset and my emotional state! It’s such a gift to have a tool to witness this gear. Deliberately making the decision to do something different as a catalyst for a really powerful change created something new in me. In a very short space of time I felt slightly longer, stronger, calm and grounded in body, mind and emotional state. #Win!

Moving through the realms of body, mind and emotions to establish a deeper connection with my spirit is fundamental to my core nowadays, it gets a 'look-in' multiple moments in a day, It's so flipping valuable!

Movement is a tool that allows me to compartmentalize my human experiences.

Being able to witness the shifts in my humanness is the ‘secret sauce’ to my life now. It’s not uncommon for me to become a little bit hyper focussed on the changing of sensation and noticing the how my system shifts through the layers. I even welcome the times when I’m ill as there’s a clear start and end point with the sensations I know I’m going to experience over a book-ended period of time. Every witnessing of a sensation becomes a beautiful gift that guides me back to my spirit, the ageless, timeless, painless free part of me that makes me me. Which isn’t defined by my health, illness, my past, present, future or my human existence. Where I’m returned back to the truth of my being.

How cool that in the work I do as a transformational coach I get to draw on some of that powerful language and themes that come up in coaching in movement sessions. And as a movement teacher I get to work with clients to fast- track them from where they are focussing their attention and living life from back to the truth of who they are and who they came to this world to be. [Share link to blogpost Coaching and dancing at the same time: Why I've chosen to blend these two passions together]

Yes - movement matters.

To find out if your soul is craving for help fast- tracking down the truth of who you in your human form came to this world to be, get in touch and lets see if together we are the secret sauce to unleashing something that is ready to be set free through a journey of movement and meaningful words and conversations! Over to what some of those that have moved with me have to say: