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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
Wrapped in Hand-Me-Downs
by Tammy WiseMason & me with Grammy’s knitting!
As I took my first steps into the winter freeze, my braced body surrendered into a sense of unexpected safety. I was warm!
Out my window, heads were buried as they bustled by. NYC had a white dusting that looked like frost. A mixture of snow, salt and sand made every color fade into dusty white hues. The Hudson carried giant blocks of ice that groaned as they traversed.
With temperatures dropped into record breaking lows, wind chills that felt like razor blades on faces, the warmest clothes were unburied: a floor length shearling coat, fur aviator hat, lined knitted mittens, a thick-knit pocket scarf and heavy-knit socks.
As much as I always try to avoid the emotional angst of being cold, just the thought of it triggers my survival instincts into overdrive.
Truth is, feeling safe in the cold has never happened to me before. I actually have an odd fear of cold weather. It’s as if I have to fight for my life! So, when I felt warm and safe in the cold, I was disarmed.
At that moment, I felt overwhelmed with gratitude.
My shearling coat was gifted from a client’s closet. The fur hat was gifted from a friend. Mittens, scarf and socks were all homemade by my mom.
It was the generosity of others that protected me from the extreme weather that was beating up others.
As the youngest in my family, I grew up wearing hand-me-downs. As a dancer/personal trainer, who fits into my friend’s outgrown clothes, I still wear hand-me-downs. I’m a 62-year old hand-me-down queen!
In the past, I’ve appreciated receiving unwanted treasures and enjoyed making them my own. But, gratitude felt like appreciation on steroids!
Gratitude felt warm inside and out.
• Gratitude required me to fully receive what was given… to accept the gesture as them wanting me to have it, rather than them not wanting it.
• Gratitude made me feel worthy of these gifted items, rather than less than because I didn’t or couldn’t get it brand new.
• Gratitude blessed me with abundance byway of my appreciation for YOU—the care giver, as well as, ME—the cared for.
I learned that, appreciation reflects my feelings for the giver; and, gratitude reflects my capacity to receive.
It’s been said that, it’s better to give than to receive. I disagree, it’s a full circle of gifting/celebrating/ honouring. To fully receive is what the giver intended. It’s what makes the giving worth while and honours the love being exchanged.
While saving money initiated my childhood recycled closet, and environmental concerns initiates my adult recycled closet, hand-me-downs are a form of cycling the energy of love anew.