As babies, we are born with fresh eyes and hopefully into a very safe, nourishing space to play. Testing out a squat…rolling on your belly…arching your back as you yawn…all natural responses to the environment and innate curiosities. We do without thinking. 

As we “grow up,” mature and age, we can incur experiences that make us tight and tethered. 

We separate body and brain, and shoot nearly all of our energy into our brain space. 

Overthinking is born. 

That once expansive playground looks more like a prison cell. 

How does this happen?

•Psychologically, teachers and other experts tell us what is right v wrong. 

•Physically, parents and coaches tell where we can and cannot explore. 

•Emotionally, thought parameters and movement parameters force our energy of exuberance and love into tight spaces when they are meant to flow and grow. 

Living—a moving experience…and naturally dynamic, becomes very unreal and uncomfortable because we lose touch with natural movement. 

What I’m suggesting as a deep, unwinding reset and renewal to is basically unwind the fear by returning to crawling, rolling, going out of bounds, etc. 

If a basketball player was out of practice for years, he/she would likely return to the fundamentals: single ball dribbling, lay-ups, lateral shuffling, and pivoting after picking up the ball. There is the physical aspect of reigniting the muscle memory of how to thoughtlessly perform these actions. There is also the emotional and mental aspect of rebuilding the confidence it takes to grace rather than brave the court to enter a game of play.

Likewise, if a human is out of practice of being what I’d call “naturally human” versus “modern day human” for years, he/she would need to return to the fundamentals, too.
-Let’s say shaking someone’s hand became an unsafe physical activity because of a fear-riddled pandemic became an unsafe movement, he/she would have to practice the basic handshake again.
-Let’s say climbing a mountain became an unsafe physical activity because as a child he/she missed a step up the stairs*, fell down, cut his/her knee open, and his mom shouted “oh no! you are hurt!”, you’d have to practice in stepwise fashion (wonder where that phrase came from 🧐) walking up stairs again.
-Let’s say looking someone in the eyes became an unsafe physical activity because as a child a bully told you “don’t look at me!”, you’d have to practice making eye contact with humans once again.

You can see how all of these physical activities have emotional, social, and mental branches.

MOVEMENT IS LIFE; AND LIFE IS IN MOVEMENT.

So, back to the main vein of this post: what is the most effective way for you to begin moving like a natural human again?

I’ll simplify it as bluntly as I did in yesterday’s post about going straight to the heart whenever in confusion and/or pain; whenever you are finding yourself in a freeze pattern around physical expression…go back to the basics. I might even say: “act as a baby again.”

Pretend—but really invite your brain to explore this…
that you just landed on Earth and you get to explore this planet for the first time again.

How exciting! How brand new! How fresh!

With all this space around you, how might you move?

Adult you will overanalyze the question, pause, and try to figure out the answer as if it is a great puzzle.

Baby you doesn’t think about it—s/he just moves!

This is the Wu Wei way. The way of effortless effort and actionless action.

Baby you—without the strangling systems 2, sometimes overly logical thinking, gets to exploring. With soul. With flow. With, the spirt of what mythologist and masterful story-spooler Joseph Campbell called “following your bliss.”

There is no reason that you cannot return to that fearless, exploratory mode of moving in the world.

It really is a shame that so much of what I’d consider to be exploratory movements have today been lumped into a category of Impulsivity. Because we automatically put them in the “off limits” category and try to fit into even thinner boxes of movement and being.
-To go off the beaten sidewalk while on a neighborhood stroll to go for a “wee-wee” rush of swinging? “Impulsive!”
-To run backwards on a trail when the path is clear just because you want to experience a new direction? “Impulsive!”
-To dance in the barbell rack between sets cuz it stokes your happiness hormones and gets you jazzed on life? “Impulsive!”

Are you catching on to how many of our physical “don’t’s” have no credible human flourishing basis?

They are just made up rules that we have to challenge.

Unfortunately/fortunately, most of us are so wound up at this point, that we have to practice being babies again.

We have to practice feeling safe, playful, free, and expansive in our bodies in this world. Either once again, or more robustly in the now.

This BABY NON-SENSE is actually a MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY for you to:
-unwind your nerves
-reprogram your subconscious beliefs about your body and your body in space
-feel mobile AF again.

So don’t be such a close-minded adult and shirk off the power of returning to innocence.

This is where we will start.

For the sake of brevity and respecting your busy lives, I will keep this post to an introduction and share a full routine to restore natural movement in the following posts, mimicking the movements we needed to and knew to naturally rep out as babies to grow our brains and evolve healthfully. Expansively!

How does THAT sound?!

Yeah, fucking awesome, I know.

So until that next post, here is your starter exercise:

lay on your back and breathe for six minutes.

It kind of is that simple, but I’ll give you these expert tips:

-Consider swaddling yourself with a blanket or laying a heavy blanket (~weighted blanket) over you.
-Be in a restful, calm space. No bright lights (if outside, the sun is perfect). If inside, find a dim place. Not crazy hot or crazy cold.
-Let your feet fall where they may. Place your hands on your belly, one on each side so you are resting in the space between your rib cage and hip/side.
-Follow this breathing pattern: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds out, 4 seconds hold. This is a classic Box Breath technique designed to bring your autonomic nervous system (which controls involuntary responses) into a more harmonized state—not too alert and not too rested…awake and relaxed and calmly aware.

This is where it starts. Laying on the gracious, spacious ground like you first did as a one-week old youngin’ and bringing awareness to the one most basic movement that we take for granted yet forget how to support ourselves with as time goes on. Your precious bones and muscles—just as precious today, deserve to experience the safety of the floor. Your precious diaphragm, blood vessels, and brain—just as precious today, deserve to experience a state of relaxation, happiness, and gratitude.

By the end of the six minutes, you will have created a new internal environment. One that—supported by the comforts of the swaddle, the quiet, the appreciation of your body, wants to support you.

You may quickly feel yourself unwinding. It may take time. Trust the process.

In the next post, I will dish out the first series of movements to dance with to expand your sense of safety and thus empower you to feel more naturally inclined to playfully move through life!

Happy Breathing!

Your Coach,

Abby Shaye