From Yoga to ‘move as you feel’
I have been a dedicated passionate yogi for 3 decades, had the privilege to be taught the wisdom of yoga by a prime teacher (Teresa Caldas, senior teacher of Vijnana Yoga), am forever grateful for all I learned and will probably always be a yogi.
But… just today I was teaching my local class, thinking: ‘‘actually, I’m done with telling people how to move! ‘‘ And then a student asked me how long / how tight to hold mula bandha in a breathing exercise … and I clearly felt a split between teaching what I know and teaching what I feel! ‘‘Well… I don’t feel like tightening my pelvic region any longer! Although I am totally aware of ‘why’ we are supposed to contract and lift the pelvic floor from a yogic point of view and it is super important to be able to hold strength in the core, but: I want my hips to be loose! I want my blood to flow freely and I want to feel my energy moving down there!’’ That’s what came out of my mouth answering my student’s question, thinking… ‘‘Oh God… I hope I’m not disgraceful to this ancient tradition!’’
I find we are in a pandemic of sucked in bellies, hard groins, tight bums and anuses and hips that lack life flow. I strongly believe we should do something about that, in order to hold our species…!
Some years ago I started dancing contact improvisation. A dance that is improvised moment by moment. The brain kind of switches off, the bodies are connecting and in constant conversation with each other. Moving as you feel! I love it! I love to tap into the body intelligence and just let my body decide where the next move should be. In this way, the body will look for what flows naturally and it will not push me over my own boundaries because of a certain posture I should perform. By the way, my teacher did not teach me to perform a posture! But I see it a lot in the yoga world!
When I really listen to my hips, they very often ask me for bouncy, circular, undulation - and shaky movements and they love to be touched, rubbed and nourished.
Maybe check in with your own hips for a moment! Take a breath and feel - is your blood flowing or is it locked up? Can you engage AND relax the fascia, the bands and the muscles of your pelvic floor?
For most women, then pelvic floor holds a lot of tension. Tightening more an area of tension… hmmmm… not sure if that’s good as it will rather create muscle fatigue. So, I believe it’s better to first learn to loosen, totally relax, to gain awareness of this amazing region of our female body and then to learn to strenghten again.
In my own practice I do both. I combine the disciplined way of breathing and moving (maybe the more masculine way) with the chaotic, moment by moment move as I feel (the feminine way) and that's how I start my day with great contentment.
Besides that, I have transitioned Algarveyoga (a yoga retreat company I run for the past 20 years with great fun and success) to Herjourney ( & female embodiment) … I’d say a more feminine way of moving as we feel!
To hear more, listen to this podcast from Linde ten Broek interviewing me :-)