Freedom of movement is a basic UN Human right, yet this needs to be taken more literally. Being able to move and therefore to feel, is freedom of being. All repressive groups whether corporate, governmental or terrorist are anti-body, and repress its expression. Without movement our awareness withers, and our possibilities contract. This is how freedom dies. Anything that restricts feeling and movement restricts how we think, what we do and even how we perceive. Here are some of the ways the body and social control are linked:
– as kids we are told to sit still and do as we’re told. These two are linked
– as adults, most office workers have to do this too, and others still, are forced to stand and move in certain ways
– others choose to be in yoga classes where they practice obedience
– restrictive clothes. Fashion is uncomfortable for a reason
– the postures of those we are encouraged to emulate are either tense and unfeeling or collapsed and weak. Usually the former for women and the latter for men. When you see a magazine with a man with a tight “six-pack” or a woman twisted with hips and bust thrown out, you are looking at a model of pathology
– by being bombarded with unachievable standards of supposed beauty we are discouraged from being in contact with our own “imperfect” bodies
– by making sexual imagery omnipresent yet sex itself still shameful, we are cut off from the reality of desire, at the heart of our embodiment and being
– the modern gym and yoga fitness industry discourages feeling through excessive intensity, goal orientation and the following of forms not sensation
– chairs. Chairs numb us
– technological design forces us to be still, how much have you moved reading this?
http://www.embodiedfacilitator.com/