Core & Spine

We will be spending the month of December discovering our core.

Not just the core of our physical form, but the core of who we are. We are often moving so fast that we move with fragments of who we are. We might only consider our arms and legs when trying to get a task done. We might simply engage our brain forgetting there is a body attached. I once heard the famous linguist Noam Chomsky say that we function as a brain with a bag of bones attached or something along those lines. I loved that image and had had that experience in my own body many times.

I find we not only do this with our body, but also in our life. We rush from one event to another without knowing why or what we are actually doing. Perhaps, we are afraid to take the time to decide for ourselves what matters and what doesn’t. We look out instead of in for our answer. We value who we are and what we do by reporting it on social media and wait to see if it was liked to determine/assess our worth. 

We live a life of illusion, by choice. Here is really the issue in a nutshell: somewhere along the way we forgot that we have choices, that our life is our own creation and, instead of creating it, we allow it to be created for us.

I’m attempting to take the agency over life back starting with the Core Beliefs workshop. Starting at the core of our beliefs. Noam Chomsky also said “I was never aware of any other option but to question everything”.  We will be asking real questions and getting the answers from inner listening,by understanding what is not just right, but right for us. As I think about vaccinating my son, this is a moment where I feel called to put down the fear and look to what actual science I can find and decide as a family what feels right. One of many serious choices we are being asked to make at this time.

Let’s go back to the body for a moment. How many times have you taken a class that just didn’t feel right for your body? You pushed through because you thought you should, instead of slowing down and feeling what might be the better way to move or to omit a variation and go deeper instead of harder.

I can speak to these matters so easily because I do them myself. I have to constantly remind myself to shut out the noise and go inward. To let go of the fear of “not doing it right” and do it in a way that feels ”right to me”. I am keenly aware of the many mistakes I will make along the way, but at least they will be my own and not someone else’s that I tried on for size. 

This month, we will look deeply at the spine and how it is the central focus of our movement. There is a deep peace that can happen when we learn to move from the spine. We will use this quieter state to take a look at who we really are and how we want to enter yet another new year. Another opportunity, not to change, but to live in alignment with who I am deep down.

I will leave you with another piece of wisdom from Noam Chomsky, “The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions.” 

He is  a thinker and someone who knows himself well. Not because he is incredibly intelligent, but because he stops to ask the questions. He chose to live consciously. In this time when we are being asked to make so many important decisions, we must also ask ourselves what feels right and learn to trust that answer. 

Join me this month for the Core Beliefs Workshop ($ 36 Early Bird or free for members with Yoga & Meditation Memberships) and all the movement and meditation classes to explore our physical, emotional and spiritual core.

Let’s continue the conversation. Pop a comment down below!