Movement is Expression of the Soul

Have you ever finished a hard physical activity and savored the physical sensations in your body? The tired muscles, the satisfied feeling of accomplishment, the mental clarity of being fully present to your experience in the moment?

This is spirituality in action.

The body is the vehicle for the soul’s expression. Movement is the language. We are made to move. The body and mind need movement to form clarity in our being. We want to ground our experiences in physicality so we better understand them in their entirety. If we can find a movement, gesture, sound, or other form for our experience it becomes more concrete.

Grounding our experiences in physical movement allows us to express ourselves more fully.

We tend to follow through on goals better if we have written them down. We tend to remember details more clearly when we have jotted down a note or spoken them out loud (writing and speaking are movement). Studying becomes easier if we pair it with movement, we remember better. This is because our learning is anchored in our doing. It offers another pathway to wire knowledge inside our brains.

Movement helps us take the abstract concept of being and make it real by showing the concept in our physical bodies. When we finish a physical task we can see the product or accomplishment and feel the good feelings associated with doing something. This gives us a concrete example of our strength.

Today I saw mine as I stopped to rest my tired legs on my ski poles. I looked up and back over the powdery mogul field I had finished traversing and felt pride I made it as far as I did. It is a hard task for me and the challenge both physically and mentally left me soaring with positive moods the rest of the day.

We can make inferences about people based on posture, physical stature of their bodies, and the way they move in the world. Often these inferences are accurate and help communicate important parts of our being to others. As a result we are more connected.

In many traditions we are represented to be parts of Goddess, God, Mother, Father, etc. If these claims are true our bodies are direct and unique expressions of the divine. And if that is true are you giving your divinity its due?

Photo Credit: Moguls under Legends Lift 8 at Purgatory. Durango, Colorado. Brave Ski Mom

And as always, if you are struggling to engage fully in your life and would like to see how psychology might be able to help you contact me today!