are you moving slow enough?
/One of my favorite things to do is to lie down on the floor and to start moving as slowly as I can for as long as I want to, anyway I want.
When I give myself permission, really give myself permission to move as slowly as I want for as long as I want, I usually move in that snail space for about an hour and then naturally my body begins to speed up and take up more space. Sometimes it doesn’t though, and I stay slow for a very long time.
I made a dance with Melinda Buckwalter when I was in grad school called Falling Slow. Me and Melinda found staircases all over the Bennington College Campus and rolled as slowly as we could up each staircase.
I loved doing that.
The awareness of my body comes into focus through a new lens when I move slow.
There is space to feel and understand the pathways and the systems of my body in a new way.
But to be really honest, I rarely give myself the time to move this slowly for that amount of time, especially when I am alone.
So, I am starting.
To move slowly through space in whatever way I want to move.
There is the slow food movement, the slow sex movement, the slow work & business movement, so why not start a movement that is about movement?
Slow movement.
Are you moving slowly right now?
Reaching for your cup of coffee really super slow.
Tilting your head to look out the window - as slowly as you can.
Doing a little arm dance right now at the computer oh so slowly.
And I am way into low-ambition right now (thank you Kristen Wheeler) but if you have just a little bit of ambition, why not get down on the floor and roll as slowly as you can across whatever room you are in.
Can you do it even slower?
I think something happens to your cells when you move this slow. Something good, something wise, something amazing.
Someone told me that once.
I have a feeling it is true.
So move slowly through your day and notice what happens.
Your dance mission for the week is:
To do a slow dance sometime over the weekend. Just for a minute or two.
And if it goes on a little bit longer than a minute or two, GREAT!
And if it goes on a little bit less than a minute or two, GREAT!
Just see what happens.
Notice your breath.
Feel your body against the earth.
And this is not so much about moving slowly, but more about falling fast and then slow and it is really amazing.
You have to watch it until the end.
Thank you Emily Saavedra for sending it my way.
With Warmth, Joanna of Joanna and the Agitators sweetly agitating/persistently upending