What is Meaningful Movement?
"The first and second conditions have to do with the proper attitude to be adopted by anyone committed to keeping fit. The first is exercising free will because, in contrast to one's daily chores, physical exercise is not compulsory. The second condition is deriving "joy and pleasure and much recreation" from physical activities. Having fun while exercising the body is important because "the passions of the soul are a major cause of health or sickness"
The above is an excerpt from "The Body Exercicio" written by Spanish Physician, Cristobel Mendez in the year 1553. This is believed to be one of the first books ever written about exercise and health and this passage speaks to the heart of the message I'm hoping will catch fire almost 500 hundred years later, having fun while exercising the body is a key to health and wellbeing.
Of course most Indigenous communities around the world understood the benefits of finding joy and pleasure in movement long before Dr. Mendez came along. So with all this history, just where did this soulful understanding of exercise go? And how can bring back again this understanding that movement invites in so much more than simply one minor dimension of human health and wellbeing? More than the physical outline of our bodies and the weight measured on a scale? These questions are what drive my research and my writing.
Exercise- Workout- Fitness- Train
After so many years exercising as a form of self punishment and a way to attempt to control the size and shape of my body, the above terms still carry a somewhat negative charge for me. They represent a consciousness that was fat phobia driven and disordered, a consciousness that I am no longer connected to and one I am working to actively revolutionize out in the world. I knew that if I was going to begin writing about health & wellness, diet culture and the fitness industry, in particular, I needed to work with terminology that resonated more strongly with my own current practice and beliefs. Hence Meaningful Movement was born.
To me, "Meaningful Movement" represents freedom. It signals to me the fact that exercise can take any and all forms and that it is driven by my body and soul's own desires. These words also remind me that when I allow more presence and intention to infiltrate my exercise sessions, wonderful, magical things can happen. Meaningful Movement speaks to one of my core convictions ; the more "meaning" you create for movement beyond a desire for a smaller body and the need to check "workout" off your to-do list, the easier and more fulfilling it becomes to move your body in ways that meet all of your collective human needs and possibly more of the needs of our planet as well.
The above is an excerpt from "The Body Exercicio" written by Spanish Physician, Cristobel Mendez in the year 1553. This is believed to be one of the first books ever written about exercise and health and this passage speaks to the heart of the message I'm hoping will catch fire almost 500 hundred years later, having fun while exercising the body is a key to health and wellbeing.
Of course most Indigenous communities around the world understood the benefits of finding joy and pleasure in movement long before Dr. Mendez came along. So with all this history, just where did this soulful understanding of exercise go? And how can bring back again this understanding that movement invites in so much more than simply one minor dimension of human health and wellbeing? More than the physical outline of our bodies and the weight measured on a scale? These questions are what drive my research and my writing.
Exercise- Workout- Fitness- Train
After so many years exercising as a form of self punishment and a way to attempt to control the size and shape of my body, the above terms still carry a somewhat negative charge for me. They represent a consciousness that was fat phobia driven and disordered, a consciousness that I am no longer connected to and one I am working to actively revolutionize out in the world. I knew that if I was going to begin writing about health & wellness, diet culture and the fitness industry, in particular, I needed to work with terminology that resonated more strongly with my own current practice and beliefs. Hence Meaningful Movement was born.
To me, "Meaningful Movement" represents freedom. It signals to me the fact that exercise can take any and all forms and that it is driven by my body and soul's own desires. These words also remind me that when I allow more presence and intention to infiltrate my exercise sessions, wonderful, magical things can happen. Meaningful Movement speaks to one of my core convictions ; the more "meaning" you create for movement beyond a desire for a smaller body and the need to check "workout" off your to-do list, the easier and more fulfilling it becomes to move your body in ways that meet all of your collective human needs and possibly more of the needs of our planet as well.
my message...
- Our bodies love to move. Most of us don't believe this because it is in direct opposition to what we've been taught our entire lives. Fitness culture messaging implies that there is a laziness inherent to our species, that we must be prodded and pushed through militant means in order to get out and move our bodies regularly. I'm here to try and disrupt that narrative specifically because I've found it to be wildly untrue in my own experience. When we give ourselves the space to move in ways that serve a deeper part of us, it really is easy to foster health and happiness though movement. And when compassion and care is employed over self hatred and atonement, the magic can truly begin.
- We need to add compassion and our humanity to the equation. Most of us attempt to perform exercise as if we are machines. We sign up for fitness challenges and programs attempting to create a level of scheduling and accountability that the majority of us are never able to fulfill. Or if we do, it's often at the cost of other parts of our lives such as much needed REST, time with loved ones or creative endeavours. I believe this is because we don't trust ourselves to move when and how we feel like moving nor do we allow any amount of grace for the nature of life as a human. Of course it sounds good to attend yoga class every day for 30 days but as we all know, LIFE HAPPENS! This is where we set ourselves up to feel failure and shame. When we don't show up on day 8 or alternately we find a way to the mat by pushing through fatigue, illness or the disappointment of missing our nephew's band recital, we are no longer honouring our health an wellbeing or the movement itself. There is a middle way somewhere in there and it starts with a heavy dose of compassion and an honest look at our humanity.
- Movement actually happens in the pause. One of the biggest lessons I received in relearning how to exercise came in the form of my inability, and to be 100 % honest, my abject unwillingness to pause with regard to my life. I had spent most of my 40 years looking constantly outside of myself for guidance and direction, reacting without reflection or any connection to my inner self (this is trauma, people). Exercise was no different. Ultimately I think I was fearful of what I might find in that pause and in truly connecting to my body. And that fear was warranted to a degree because it turns out I had a whole lot of grieving to do. Now the pause is where I find my truth, my body's truth in that moment and it's authentic needs with regard to movement and rest, creativity and connection.
- Movement as ritual lends itself to healing, both personally and globally. There is a synergy between the treatment of our bodies through exercise and the treatment of our environment. As a climate activist and someone who has been deeply grieving the loss of of habitat-ice, forest and ocean-over the last several years, I see a very real ability to connect our movement and exercise practices to an increased reverence for nature and the land. I wrote a post about it here, if you would like to know more.
- I understand privilege and how my own has served me despite my struggles. I cannot even begin to speak to the pain and frustration of navigating health and fitness spaces, (let alone the world) while living in a larger body, as a person of colour, as someone who is disabled, transgendered or any intersection of these marginality's. Even at my largest, my body still fell into a range where I could purchase clothes easily, travel comfortably and not be secretly photographed or snickered at while at the gym. I've never felt afraid for my safety in fitness spaces. I'm continually working toward understanding this privilege more fully and using it to become a better ally out in the world. I understand that my expertise here is in speaking to the cultural misfires in how we attempt to motivate people and speak about and approach exercise in order to help more people get free and that my experience as a white, thin, straight, cis gendered woman differs greatly from the experience of those who are not. I will not get it all right and I know that. I am happy to be called in when I misstep and welcome the chance to learn from any mistakes in this regard. Also, please consider supporting Decolonizing Fitness, a company run solely by black trans folks who are championing diversity and inclusion in fitness spaces.
- We conflate thinness & fitness with health not because it's borne out by facts but because we are fat-phobic. I remember when I first began to understand that the link between health and weight wasn't what I had been taught it was. I credit fabulous educators and inclusion warriors like Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant of Be Nourished and Christy Harrison and her many incredible guests on The Food Psych Podcast with helping me shatter that myth. The truth is that the studies simply don't prove the connection in the ways we have been told and even when they do, it is often because the effects of marginalization and discrimination experienced by people in larger bodies is not taken into account. To put it simply, the way fat people are treated in the world negatively effects their health, more so than their body weight. This simply must change.
I'm writing a book about my process
For the past several years I've been working on a book about Meaningful Movement. It's a labour of love that I've attempted to let go of many times but it seems that this book simply refuses to let go of me. Ultimately I believe in my heart that the world needs this message and the response I get when sharing some of the concepts is most often excitement, relief and resonance. I'm hoping this book will act as a permission slip to do things a different way and see through a different lens- to help people understand that when we connect to deeper, more spirit nourishing and authentic reasons for movement, our bodies reward us by guiding us to enjoy just the right amount of movement and rest each and every day. We need only to connect and trust.
In an ideal world my book will also challenge industry norms in fitness and health. Maybe just maybe it can transform the fitness profession from the inside out and alter the prescription and messaging of exercise everywhere!
For the past several years I've been working on a book about Meaningful Movement. It's a labour of love that I've attempted to let go of many times but it seems that this book simply refuses to let go of me. Ultimately I believe in my heart that the world needs this message and the response I get when sharing some of the concepts is most often excitement, relief and resonance. I'm hoping this book will act as a permission slip to do things a different way and see through a different lens- to help people understand that when we connect to deeper, more spirit nourishing and authentic reasons for movement, our bodies reward us by guiding us to enjoy just the right amount of movement and rest each and every day. We need only to connect and trust.
In an ideal world my book will also challenge industry norms in fitness and health. Maybe just maybe it can transform the fitness profession from the inside out and alter the prescription and messaging of exercise everywhere!
*If you would like to receive announcements about the book and/or be part of my team as I continue my research, please type your email below!