BodyLogos Blog
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Tammy Wise
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Tammy Wise2017-01-03 12:37:292018-02-08 15:13:18A Year Round Practice
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Body Logos
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Body Logos2010-07-27 21:49:532017-10-31 20:35:44A Beach Workout that works for the BoardroomWelcome to the BodyLogos blog. Here’s where you’ll get your dose of alignment and balance with grace. (Sign up here to join 1,000 other blog subscribers.)
Redefining Strength
I want to change our perception of strength. Strength is the ability to meet resistance and influence an outcome without compromising ourselves. And we already have it.
Strength is not an attribute; it’s a state of being. Gladiators, bodybuilders, and football players demonstrate strength through brute force, sheer willpower, muscle mass, and relentless pursuit. But we’re also quick to identify dancers and martial artists as strong. Their medium taps into a sense of vulnerability, balance, alignment, controlled power, and grace—but no one can deny their strength. Strength may look different on each of us, but it is an inherent part of who we are.
You are not weak by nature; you are stronger than you think. Your strength is not something you need to kill yourself to gain—it is already within you, waiting to be excavated. The key is to stop chasing something you already have and tap into it, so you can manifest that strength in your everyday life.
Because we don’t think we’re strong, we approach resistance with the idea that we’re not enough. We throw everything we have at it and push past our physical, mental, and emotional limitations. We see strength as domination, but it’s not.
When you learn to listen to your body’s divine wisdom, you cultivate a sense of where your body is developing tension instead of standing in its strength. You end the vicious cycle of unrealistic expectations, injury, and self-criticism and learn how to consciously embrace responsible growth. You stop compartmentalizing your strength into emotional, physical, and mental pieces and operate from the strength of your being at all times.
You learn how to align yourself with gravity—instead of working against it—so you can channel your strength to meet life’s resistance. As you meet resistance with equal parts power and alignment, you transform tension into strength
As in the sword dance above, the power lies in bringing just the right amount of force—not too little and not too much. By meeting the sword’s weight, I meet gravity. I am tapped into a larger source of energy, free of tension, and discover a strength that is wholly and uniquely mine.
About Tammy Wise
Returning to Nature Deepened My Way to See
by Tammy WiseA view of the Adirondack Ridge
As I relaxed into my Adirondack vacation, complete with a mountain view; cooking on campfires; hiking through wooded paths; canoeing through lily-pads; and, watching the sky drift by, I began to see better without my glasses.
I started to notice that when I was physically “in-feel” with the natural world I would remove my progressive lenses because they made me feel nauseous. But, as soon as I needed to be “in-think”mentally, I would put my glasses back on.
It seemed that my glasses were most useful in the man-made world of written words, driving cars, doing needle-point, and even, organizing my thoughts.
As I reflected on this phenomenon, I noticed that the layers of mountains on the Adirondack ridge looked more and more blurry with their distance (of course) and their unknown dangers (hmmm). Or when l looked deep into wooded underbrush, exploring the scary unknown shadows, what was blurry elicited caution.
Blurriness offered me obvious information about distant formations; and, the less obvious recognition about my fear of the unknown.
Did vacation offer the time and space to play with the scary unknowns?
Was I prompted to remove my glasses to deepen my comfort level with the ever present “I don’t know abyss?”
Being in-feel—sensing from my body—always incites these kinds of questions.
This attention to blurred vision reminded me that when I look at someone’s physical alignment in a workout I look slightly past them so they’re slightly blurry. In doing this, I’m able to see them more clearly, to see their underlying formation or skeleton accurately.
Blurriness offers me information about what’s invisible to the naked eye, what’s going on under the body’s surface, and it allows my understanding of human anatomy to be seen.
Perhaps there are two ways of seeing?
One way of seeing is coupled with mental scrutiny, eliciting a sense of safety and “in-think” knowing. The other way of seeing is coupled with physical connection, eliciting a sense of soundness, or fear, and “in-feel”conditions. Together, they elicit right-action.
The saying, “I’m home safe and sound” comes to mind. Might “safe”refer to the mind’s understanding of safety, and “sound” refer to the body’s experience of safety.
Allowing blurred vision to be a part of the way we see, I’ve come to realize, offers us a whole spectrum of information. Seeing both, what’s known and unknown. Seeing with, the mind and body. Seeing for the sake of safe and sound conditions.
20/20 vision may only be half the purpose of sight?!
Please comment and start a mind-body conversation here!