Moving From Your Heart

I was once told this beautiful story about ballet dancers and integrity. It begins with a need to solve a problem, as so many things do. 

Apparently, the difference between dancers who get injured frequently and those who don’t, is the fact that the latter are taught to begin each movement with intention. The story goes, that the dancers of the Royal Ballet, while unequivocally brilliant technically and artistically, kept getting injured. The dancers of the Kirov Ballet, meanwhile, equally brilliant, not injured nearly as much. Why? What could possibly be the difference? Training, obviously. The Russians must have been getting some specific training cues that kept their bodies safe. 

It turns out, they were: “Move from your heart”. You don’t move your arm, your heart moves, the arm follows. You don’t bring your leg up to your ear, your heart moves and your leg lifts almost magically.

To me, this sounds like moving with intention, moving from your core, being connected. Your limbs are not separate entities you fling about, they are intrinsically connected to your inner being. When we move from a place of alignment, from our whole being, we don’t injure ourselves. From a pilates perspective, this makes total and complete sense. It is what I train clients to do all the time, move from your deep, inner body, connect your movements to breath, to core, to your intention.

So much of life is about moving from the outside in. The right clothes, body, career, income, etc. We so often fall prey to the idea that once we have those external pieces in place, all will be well. But if all we tend to are those pieces, we get injured. Cracks begin to show. As we race from one task to another, one attempt to another, limbs flailing about in an attempt to get our leg up to our ear, we pull ourselves apart and are left limping backstage, or worse, recovering at home in bed, completely sidelined from the show we thought we wanted to star in. 

I want to live the way those Russian dancers are trained. I want to move in accordance with my heart, move with integrity. Live from a place of intention, not like a pinball bouncing from thing to thing. It is a practice. Those dancers don’t suddenly wake up and perform Swan Lake. They train for years, every day. They practice. And while I don’t feel the need to punish myself the way ballet can punish a body, I do realize the need for daily practice. So many voices clamouring for our attention, so many bright shiny balls to distract. Listening to my own voice can be hard sometimes, knowing what I want, moving in accordance with my heart. I think this practice is a gentle one. Consistency, patience, some space are required.  

So, what are those practices? What are the things I do to help me move from my heart? Well, meditation helps, writing helps, movement helps, forgiveness helps. Practicing all of these consistently helps most of all. 

And you? What are the practices that help you hear your own voice, help you move from your heart?

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