Move into your edge with kindness, curiosity, and strength for flow, expansion and good health!
How are you moving through your day?
Physically and mentally?
How are you using your body and mind to reach the borders of your comfort zone?
Why Move into Your Edge
A Wellness Pillar
Movement is another wellness plan pillar. Through movement, we allow and build flow; ease in transition from one task to another, from one moment to the next. It generates liquidity in our body and mind; greasing our joints, massaging our thoughts. Movement begets movement. All of this is true with a big old fat IF attached…
The Big IF
If you listen to your body, find your edge, and lean gently into that, you will find the reward that movement has to offer. If you explore the borders of your mind, pinpoint areas of growth, and challenge yourself to push the flexible side of the balloon, you will discover expansion.
Your Edge
Move with Kindness
Move into your edge. Not your partner’s edge, nor your best friends. Don’t even move into the edge of who you used to be; what you used to be capable of. The rewards come from being present to your current capacity; knowing yourself and your limits. Be kind. Measuring yourself against someone else is downright dangerous physically and mentally. Comparison rings a death knell on your health and happiness. Your edge belongs to you alone and that is beautiful.
Move with Curiosity
Get curious! What does that edge look like and feel like to you? Where can you start? I recommend starting a level below what you think you are capable of and explore from there. Pay attention to how you respond to moving through that level. Do your muscles ache or hurt? The ache is okay. Pain is not. Are your thoughts making you uncomfortable or immobilizing you with fear? Welcome discomfort, back off from paralysis.
Strength in Your Edge
Find strength in challenging your edge. As you gently explore your edges, revel in the discovery of success. Celebrate the triumph of doing just a little bit more today than you thought possible. Feel your body and mind expand into its power. Recognize a coming home to yourself as you get attuned to your needs and ability.
So, what’s an example of how this looks?
How I Move into My Edge
My Physical Edge
Personally, I am very slowly building up my physical movement. I started months ago with 5-10 minutes a day of Qi Qong; slow, intentional, repetitive movements focused on awakening energy in the body and mind. Then in November, I began doing short yoga sessions to challenge my weak energetic edge and build strength in my lower back.
Now, I am doing a 3-week yoga program on repeat. It is through an online service that provides thousands of exercise regimens. 98% of these programs are well beyond my capacity. And that’s okay. Even yoga pushes me significantly. There are plenty of times where I am catching my breath in Child’s Pose as the instructors move through Downward Dog Split or a Chatarunga. With the passage of time, I am needing less frequent and shorter breaks. Some days are easier. Other days I have to pull back and respect the exhaustion in my bones. Again that’s okay. It’s what I need. I am taking it all in stride with curiosity, kindness, and strength.
My Mental Edge
When it comes to mental movement, my biggest recent victory has come from challenging my limits with reading. It’s been over three years since I have had success reading a book because I could not remember what I had read from page to page. As an avid reader, this has been so frustrating. These challenges expanded beyond books into most forms of text beyond a couple of paragraphs. It felt like I was stripped of access to learning and growth.
Over the past several months, I have had more success. I have even finished a couple of books. A large part of my success has come from accepting where I am now, rather than what I was capable of before. I’ve moved through barriers by risking failure and giving room to mistakes. I lowered my expectations of comprehension and retention and granted myself more patience and forgiveness in the process of reading. My reading is slow and involves a fair amount of re-reading. AND it is progress, expansion, and healing.
Where’s your edge?
So, how will you move into your edge today?
What physical limits will you gently challenge?
How will you enhance your flow of thoughts?