Moving is a Journey: Resilience is ALIVE in Diversity
Apr 06, 2020
When I found Bowspring in 2015, I resisted it at first. It was wildly different, incredibly challenging, and it was contradicting everything I thought I knew about yoga and movement. (Now-a-days, it is not as avant garde as it once was, as some of these same concepts and ideas are being shared by movement experts across the globe).
I think the only reason that I really gave it a chance is because Jonathan Boyd took time to break it down for me, and encouraged me to look at it in a deeper, more connected way. If I am being honest, I suspect that my ego was present when I was deciding to tap into this new practice. Nevertheless, I gave it a chance.
Bowspring gave me a structure to work within. It taught me intricate details, alignment, and functional concepts of movement.
Before I found Bowspring, I was too loose. I was working within a realm of yoga that had no boundaries and no rules. I see now: Bowspring was a necessary aspect of my teaching and practicing evolution. It landed in my world to show me containment, structure, and systems.
It truly is a beautiful and smart practice; in three months of practice, my injuries disappeared and I landed a handstand. I was stoked. And I was all in. I made the decision to fully dedicate myself to Bowspring. I stopped practicing all other forms of yoga. I even gave up teaching some of my yoga classes because I only wanted to teach and practice Bowspring. I learned this practice intimately, inside and out.
Consequently, I was intensely polarized: if it wasn’t bowspring, it wasn’t right. In my mind, bowspring was the only practice that anyone should practice. I judged other alignment systems, I judged yoga, I sat in a seat of superiority, claiming bowspring as the best, most evolved practice.
And this was a mistake.
Leaving my politics behind, I am seeing clearly now.
I am coming back to my own vision, intelligence, and awareness.
Trust exists in polarity. And resilience is alive within diversity.
These are my truths.
I know that I needed Bowspring’s structure and details: a solid foundation, a system in which to understand the anatomy of functional movement and mobility. And now, I am ready to move back into the creative space that is free, open, and experiential. The place that is curious, inquisitive, and un-contained.
Bowspring is a beautiful addition to my healing and moving tool belt. It is a great resource for information, but it is not the end and be all. It is not the ‘only’ or the ‘best.’ It is not the superior: it is simply another set of ideas and concepts to add to the belt.
I once found Bowspring by being open, curious, and seeking. So, it is with these same qualities that I am moving back into being that open, curious, and experiential student and teacher- I am moving back to the part of me that knows: resilience is alive within diversity.
There are many paths. I made a mistake to think bowspring was superior to all. While I value knowing this practice, I also value knowing many others as well.
I know that: our body craves new ways of moving, this is what will keep it healthy and thriving. And, when you maintain only one shape- no matter what shape it is... It is bound to injure your body.
I am holding bowspring as a tool, as well as reintegrating yoga, and other movement concepts into my practice. I am listening more closely to my body, I am moving from that feminine place of knowing, intuition, and feeling.
I am a yoga teacher, teaching my own style of yoga. My practice and offerings are informed by bowspring, budokon, ido portal, and other movement concepts and experts. It is also informed by my own intelligence. My own experience is my gold: my body is my best experiment.
One of my students recently said: "You are a scientist of movement." And, I love that. I sure am!
I know this is a higher path: one that is inclusive, free, and open. One that remains curious, accessible, and informed by many, not just one. I know that there are many paths, and to form a stance of superiority is not the path for me.
So, I am grateful to have learned in great depth the bowspring method, and I am also grateful to see more clearly, to open up again, and to move back into my knowing: resilience is alive in diversity. I am so excited to remain diverse! To keep expanding, growing, and trying new things, new ways.
The box: is not for me. I am strongest when I am free.
Truth exists in polarity, always: both are true. Many are true. Truth is an experience, a perspective. It is personal. Resilience is adaptability, shifting, changing, and moving in flow. It is the ability to recover quickly through difficulties, the ability to spring back. It has the qualities of liquid, elasticity, transmutation. It is moving beyond systems and structures, it is working like a tensegrity of connection.
There is never just one way, and all ways are beautiful. Thankful for the lessons. Thankful for the realignment. I am back on track now. Thank you.
To conclude: I think it is so lovely to look back on your journey- to reflect and understand... Everything shows up in your life at exactly the right moment, for important reasons. And moving in flow, is exactly the best way to go. Let go. Be in your own flow.
Stay open. Stay curious. Stay yoga.
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