When building resiliency and fostering healing, the 10.27 Healing Partnership looks towards all facets of what it means to be human: our minds, our spirits, our relationships with others, and our bodies. Sometimes our bodies take a back seat when it comes to mental health and resiliency. However, just as all plants and animals within nature are interdependent, just as each of us is connected to one another in our communities, each part of ourselves is affected by the rest. When we want to cultivate healing in our minds, we should also consider how we bring movement into our bodies.
Often movement is discussed through goals and how we can reach certain benchmarks of health or athleticism. Today, instead I want to focus on how people embrace movement, and how it can connect us to the parts of ourselves that live beneath the surface. Movement can bring delight, peace, joy, and energy, and can reconnect our minds and our bodies in a more harmonious way.
In my own life I have always enjoyed movement, whether biking, kayaking, or skiing. But I’ve found the most healing when moving slowly. When I walk through the woods or my neighborhood, I get to witness the world I live in differently and begin to feel that I am a part of something bigger than me. This is a recentering and important part of my day.
I’d like to share some stories with you from your neighbors and community members about what movement means to them in their lives.
Participants in our meditative forest bathing program walking in the Frick Environmental Center.
Jennifer Goldston, Membership and Engagement Specialist and Fitness Social Media Creator at the JCC: “To move joyfully takes the pressure out of exercise. It means to move in whatever way feels good, and to be flexible in your outlook of what counts as working out. When I started at the JCC in 2017, it was the first time I had stepped foot inside of a gym as an adult. The single-minded rigidity with which I approached the gym ignited a passion for chasing the endorphins that I felt at the end of a good workout. At the same time, it threatened to smother the merriment right into ash, and I struggled to find my balance. Months in, and my body hurt constantly. I felt tired, all the time, even when I was rested. I pushed myself hard enough that my body and brain stopped trusting me to know what was good for me. If I was going to push myself to work out all the time, then those two were going to say I needed to nap. ALL THE TIME. It was not until I reframed my workouts from obligation and punishment for eating into a privilege of caring for my body by moving (and eating!) that I began to find pleasure in the gym again. It was also not until my body felt secure that I would trust and listen to it, and let it lay on the couch for an entire day if that’s what it wanted, that it began to tell me that what it wanted was to move again.”
Emery Malachowski, Community Coordinator of the 10.27 Healing Partnership: “Many of the things I struggle with in my body and mind are chronic, which means in some way or another I’ll be working with them and around them my whole life. When I move in a way that feels playful, I practice that push and pull between acceptance and growth. When I run and hike with my dog near my home in Riverview Park I bring softness, care, and attention to the places that hurt, while also enjoying the progress as I get to explore further and further into beautiful places. When I need to rest, my dog sniffs each blade of grass and I gaze at the sun glittering on leaves. When I want to move, I get to watch my dog’s goofy tongue hang out as we bound up little hills together and see how far we can go. When I forget how to give my mind grace or how to challenge myself, my brain feels like a tight fist. Movement and laughter unclench that fist, and I begin to feel like I can breathe again.”
It can sometimes be very difficult to find joy in movement. Maybe we have moved to a new environment, and we are unfamiliar with the streets, parks, or people, or maybe it is because our body has undergone painful changes. Sometimes we have to try new ways to move or find joy and release. That can be frustrating and make us want to give up. Yet learning to move in a way that makes us happy, to think about what we can do more than what we cannot, and to meet challenges rather than retreat, are all forms of resiliency.
If you are interested in exploring movement and reconnecting to your body, the 10.27 Healing Partnership has several opportunities. Every Wednesday from 4pm-5pm we have yoga with trauma-informed yoga instructor Susie Balcom. On February 12th we will hold our next expressive drum circle, where we can connect our bodies to the rhythm of music and community. If you have further suggestions or ideas for programming, please reach out! We’d love to talk to you more.
In Solidarity,
Maggie Feinstein Executive Director 10.27 Healing Partnership
