When Hope is Rebellious - How Movement Can Change the World
I believe the world is full of world changers, right in this moment. I see that our culture and world is full of pain, part of that being physical pain. I also know, from personal experience, that pain causes us to disassociate; from specific body parts, from the feeling of pain and discomfort, from others. Chronic pain is even worse, because then you add in a healthy dose of hopelessness and medications with nasty side effects. When I came to find movement as a form of healing and, one might look at it as, a therapy, I was in a place of feeling hopeless and powerless. The traditional medical system had left me with no real options but to live with 'it' or start down the path of continual surgeries with negatives side effects. I was in a place of feeling betrayed by my own body and fragile.
What I initially found was hope. As I researched this concept, these beginning paradigm shifts from laying on my couch barely able to do the basics and feeling totally overwhelmed by all of life, let alone the idea of making dinner, I found a glimmer of hope for the first time in that part of my journey. Could my body heal? Could movement be a key component to my healing that I hadn't used yet. And it started so tiny. Tiny 5-minute walks outside. A tiny calf stretch or two during the day. But those tiny movements moved large mental blocks that were sitting in my way. They were tiny and massively rebellious acts against the idea that things were hopeless, that my body was the way it was and wouldn't shift unless it was getting worse. They were acts of defiance against the sighs and hopelessly definitive diagnosis of doctors. They were tiny steps in a battle for hope.
I walked my path and continue to walk this path daily. The from the terrifying beginning of learning to hope, to all the tiny changes, until the momentum builds into healing. I have gained a massive tool box from which to pull from and am continually adding to it. I now know my body much better, I have an active relationship with it, knowing what it needs and how to provide for it with more nuance, even if I do experience pain or disfunction, I know it is not a permanent state but that I am only in the beginning stages of my healing.
And so, once I found this work, this paradigm shift, these tools, I knew this was what I wanted to do 'when I grew up'. I am honored to now share these tools. I am honored to speak hope. And my motivation is to see people who are trapped in pain, start to breath this hope and dream. Dream big dreams of how they too can pass on hope and dreams and the idea that we are all on a path toward healing, rather than stuck and hopeless. So, yes, the Calf Stretch or the amazing Psoas Release could be looked at as small innocuous movements, or they can be seen as a counter cultural stand, a refusal to accept the status quo, and a stubbornness to allow life to happen to us, but to take authority over our own destinies. So yes, I offer simple movements and exercises to you in not always the most eloquent YouTube videos, but I am also offering you my stand against 'just accepting' the way things are. I am honored if in anyway, the tools and information I share and continue to share are at all beneficial to your journey towards hope and dreaming your own dreams. Let's change the world together, one calf stretch at a time!