New Year, New Times, New Movement
by Marko Kowalski
(with Valerie Hahn)

When was the last time you jumped out of bed?  When was the last time you bent over, stretched up in the air, rolled your head all the way around, swung your torso back and forth, and noticed only energy, with no stiff or sore spots anywhere?  When was the last time you said to yourself, “Right now I am exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to be doing?”  When was the last time you realized you were with the person you wanted to be with, enjoying complete focus on that person without the whir of distractions or worry, without hearing any “shoulds,” “musts,” or “have to’s?”

Well get ready, because whether we have realized it yet or not, freedom of motion, spontaneity, and focus are our natural inheritance as human beings.  If we chose so, we can incorporate them into our lives every day in this new year!  Why is it, then, that so often we allow what life tosses our way to knock us off balance and leave us struggling just to stay on top of it?  Must we simply endure things as they are?  Do we not dare to imagine ourselves alive for a moment in our authentic power, living out our hearts true desires overflowing with vitality, compassion, and joy for whatever comes next?
 
The answer, of course, is that we can imagine life this way.  We can attain our heart’s desire.  The months surrounding the New Year are ideal times for each of us to reflect and internalize the wintry symbols of letting go.  They are also a time to create new mental images when we ask ourselves, “Where am I going?” and “What will I manifest for myself this year?”  Now – right now – is also an ideal time to make changes in our lives.  We can break out!  We can dissolve the imaginary boundaries that govern our lives.  This is a new year; these are new times.  We can have new life!
 
Facing Today’s Challenges 

It’s true that life hits us from all sides Technology is changing so rapidly that things just created yesterday are already obsolete.  When we walk into an electronics store, or even a grocery store, we are surrounded by and subjected to the use of gadgetry we hadn’t even imagined three years ago.  We must adapt to more change, information, and unfamiliarity than ever before.

We get pulled in life, not just physically as our rural ancestors were, but also mentally and emotionally.  We stand at a counter, sit behind a desk, or do some other activity that keeps us in the same position all day, then drive around in the stress of traffic.  We have meetings with people that barely pas for human interaction because both parties are so preoccupied.  After all of it we just might have enough energy to go for a run or to the gym, or out for a few after work cocktails “to unwind”.  As if concerns with our health, our children, careers, bills, investments, etc. were not enough, we add the compromised state of the natural world and our immediate environment to our list of worries. 

Is my food safe to eat?  Can I drink the water?  How much longer can I keep driving my car?  Will my children be able to walk in this forest?  Is this relationship going anywhere?  Did we really vote for these charlatans?  Will my job still be here in six months?  Should I change jobs?  Worry, uncertainty, anxiety.  It’s no wonder we become distorted!  The small physical and mental tensions we carry or degenerative postural habits we tolerate day after day become aggravated to larger problems that prevent our whole system from functioning in balance. 

When we lose our alignment in this way, our body-wisdom the subtle harmonizing force within, speaks in an undeniable language.  It speaks in the form of stiffness, pain, sluggishness, weakness, and immobility; also in injury, illness, depression, and negativity.  Our body says, “Hey what about me?  Please, release me!  Let me have some freedom.  That’s what I’m here for!” 

The fact is, the very particular stresses of our culture and way of life cause our bodies to call out for very particular ways to deal with what’s around us. I recently overheard a physician comment, “Eighty percent or more of the things people see me for could be alleviated if they just got up and moved around regularly.”  Recent medical data also indicate that many of our most common diseases (like heart disease, hypertension, and some types of cancer) are encouraged or even caused by our mental and emotional states.  We work so hard and stay so busy we rarely give our bodies a chance to tell us how much anxiety we actually carry around day by day, until we end up with a heart condition.

On a milder level, we go through our lives seldom having the opportunity to use our bodies for expression  - for spontaneous movement, for making noise, for creative play.  When do we ever allow ourselves to shout out loud or giggle as we roll around on the floor?  When do we create the opportunity to listen to what a certain problematic area of our body has to say to us?  When are we encouraged to use our vocal chords to give voice to overlooked or forgotten parts as we stretch and begin to move the energy trapped inside us?  All these activities, in addition to enhancing our physical condition, can be part of an exciting and healing journey toward self-awareness and integration. 
 
Integration of Mind, Body, Spirit
 
Imagine what would happen, then, is we began to move with purpose, tackling our ever-present concerns with all the power and strength and agility stored as potential in our wonderful bodies!  What might happen if we included our physical selves, and began working deliberately to release and empower our mental and spiritual aspects as well!  Joy for life and power for change aren’t out there in some book we have to buy or some video we have to watch, they are within us – in our very flesh and bone, mind and heart.

Where can we go to unlock our potential?  There are many opportunities for self-improvement ranging from very simple to very complex – how do we choose?  This is where it becomes absolutely vital to listen to what our body needs.  For example, when we’re hungry, we listen to our bodies’ promptings to determine what we’re hungry for, what will satisfy our body and make it feel whole.

We can approach fitness and well-being programs in much the same way.  Many folks use strength-training programs to get in top physical condition, yet have no idea how to engage their mental or emotional bodies.  On the other hand, we may find that meditation, yoga, tai chi satisfies certain aspects of our being.  These systems have powerful contributions to make in giving people what their whole being needs.  But what if our body/being is yearning for something total – a spiritual integration session that enables us to become grounded, centered, expanded, focused, strengthened, stretched, loved, expressed, and supported, all at the same time.  It’s your life what will you choose off the menu?  After 25 years of martial arts training, I began to wonder about these questions myself.  I began to discover that what is lacking in our complex world is a simple new paradigm: a single place where people can get everything their body, mind and spirit need without having to run to a host of different classes and seminars and groups.  There are a lot of places we could go to train to be strong, and even to defend ourselves, but where can we go to learn to heal and create balance in the body too?  Inspired by an old saying, “The masters and the samurai always change their art to meet the times.”  I began to look for ways to integrate strength, flexibility, healing, and self- expression in the mind, body, and spirit.  Martial arts techniques are beautiful, and awesome in their effectiveness.  When taught properly, they help to create a sense of well-being, of personal power, speed, and agility.  This bodily empowerment becomes reflected in our mental states – enhancing our reflexes and how we respond to life’s issues.  I began to realize that though these are ancient disciplines, we can utilize them in today’s world.  We can redirect them for our times using a different focus from self defense, to help people learn how to truly express their piece of life’s puzzle, the uniqueness of why (who) they are. 

One thing that is exciting to see happening now in the world is that so many people are gaining spiritual awareness and seeking a deeper sense of life’s purpose.  Unfortunately, in doing so, many people try to get out of their bodies, to stay in their heads or on some other plane that has nothing to do with the most basic elements of existence.  In order to have the power and integrity to bring light into our lives, and put it into action, we must embrace our bodies and make physical movement an adjunct to our spiritual practice.  This will open new avenues of inspiration and creativity and enable us to express our unique gift to the world.

One benefit of spontaneous and energetic physical movement is that we learn to trust our intuitive nature.  We listen to our gut feelings, sometimes for the very first time, and allow them to guide us in the process of life. 
 
Spontaneous Living
 
What might it look like to trust ourselves and live spontaneously?  Because there is a universal intelligence that is living through us, we need only tune into the core of our being to know what to do at all times.  Whether it is changing careers, ending relationships or committing to a new one, or even treating a child to a special event, living in our heart’s desire in spontaneous action causes every aspect of our lives flow with synergy – despite life’s pressures. 

Movement aids us in the process of becoming more spontaneous and flowing more evenly through life.  It helps us break up our habitual patterns and tensions, uncluttering  our mind and preventing our ego from getting in our way and dictating our lives.  Through movement we can begin to experience life-changing transformation.  We can shake-up our desires, dreams, potentials, and resources.  We can shake up all our negative talk, anxiety, and the self-sabotaging behavior patterns that prevent us from reaching our dreams and desires.            

When all this has been shaken up within and without, a sense of calm becomes present in us.  We learn to “drop in” to silence and wait to see what settles out.  We become free to allow ourselves not to know.  Our heart is released to understand what our mind cannot.  This is when we can identify what we truly want to do – for ourselves – and identify what areas hold us back.  In one of my recent workshops, there was a person who had been writing poetry since childhood.  She hadn’t admitted to anyone, including herself, that poetry was really her heart’s desire.  She had all sorts of feelings of shame and dread about being a poet because she saw poets as alienated from others and not in line with what she was “supposed” to do with her life.  When she realized all she wanted to do, regardless, of the people around her, was to write, it allowed those crippling feelings to come out in a very freeing way.  She realized that somebody was going to be a poet and it might as well be her. 

It is after these important and transforming realizations that the work begins.  Once the obstacles are identified (like family expectations, feelings of inadequacy, fear of failure, or inability to choose what’s healthy for us,) we must learn to deal with them directly.  There are many ways we can use movement to put the awareness we gain into empowered daily practice. 
   
Release, Empower, Flow, Unify
 
The main objective in an integrated movement program is to reach and work with the whole individual, including our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.  For example, in release work we begin to dispel the mental and emotional obstacles, which hinder us and allow healing energy to flow through our muscles and joints.  Often we have fears, anxiety, anger, etc. that we can’t or won’t express because we do not have a safe environment in which to do so.  Other times it is a joy and boundless desire to be creative that we repress for lack of opportunity.

These blocked feelings accumulate and settle in certain areas of our body that are prone to misalignment.  But energy – healing energy – follows attention.  When we do exercises while using our voices, for example, we create a synergy between movement and sound in specific locations in the body.  This helps release stagnation, fatigue, and knots of tension created deep inside by our inability to express our feelings.  We can actually shake the difference stiffness out of our bodies by getting inside a spot and moving it around.  Releasing movement also helps free the rebounding energy we have inside us to express the joyful, exuberant facets of our being. 

To illustrate, I had someone in class who had been mentally and verbally abused.  By doing these types of exercises, the person reported that for the first time much of the emotion surrounding the abuse was released.  She experienced an internal cleansing, and let go of the abusive influence that had been stored for 15 years.  The part of her body that stored the most discomfort, her hop, began to feel better as well.

In addition to making us feel better, this work has direct application to every movement of our lives.  We train using specific, effective movements to align our whole being and prepare us to encounter challenges and opportunities with vigor and enthusiasm.  Release, Empower, Flow, and Unify are the concepts we use to organize the variety of techniques we learn.  In addition to the movements themselves, each of these concepts provides a metaphorical modality that we can visualize and actually apply in our lives.  In general, training in these areas provides the tools and support with which to face the wide range of life’s situations.
 
Where does this energy come from?  
 
Underlying every movement we make, both training and in life, is the hara: the area one inch below the navel which is considered the center or focal point of the body’s energy.  If we learn to breathe from the hara, we activate this center of energy instead of cramping it.  We learn to create resonating sound from the hara, and eventually move from this powerful center in every aspect of our lives.  Whether walking, jumping, taking class, or going about the daily business of life, if we use the hara we move with the focused energy of our whole being.  It might sound strange at first, but everyone who has had a gut feeling and acted on it has responded from the hara.  We train to develop this gut feeling, to be spontaneous and alert 24 hours a day. 

Once we begin to move think and act from this center, we are free to use all the energy at our disposal to be creative, to stand up for ourselves, to ask for and receive what we need from life and from others.  For people in business, or on an artistic and creative path, this kind of movement helps open a current of life energy (chi) stimulating their creative intuition.  To go along with their intuitive ideas, it provides extra energy to produce their work. 
 
Sending it back into the world: The Universal Body
 
The challenges ahead of us call for deep reflection to discover what is blocking us from living spontaneously and with authentic power.  Total integration – mental, physical, and emotional – lets us stand in our authentic power, lets us become empty vessels honoring a force that is greater than our own.  Living from this place of being allows us to be truly present in our lives, and in the lives of those around us.  It is essential to embrace everyone – young and old, rich and poor, male and female – and to create love/support systems that celebrate our whole being. 

Uncovering our gift and providing the environment for it to flourish is not easy.  However after we do, we can’t stay focused on ourselves, concentrating on our own struggles forever.  Once we know what our gift is, it is our responsibility to share it with others.  In a greater way we’re all connected.  There is a web that moves through us all which is spirit.  I believe that until you heal, then I will never heal, and unless I heal, then you can’t fully heal. 

When injury or disease comes into our body, it is part of our body’s natural instinct to send healthy cells to remove or heal the damaged cells.  In our world, we are all interconnected like cells in the body.  As we evolve and become more healthy, than we have a responsibility to other parts of the world to help heal them.

Ultimately, all work focused on developing whole-person well-being is going to stimulate healthy cells to heal the world.  When our whole person becomes involved in healing, we grow truly strong and flexible, and are able to bring real help to places of need.