Monday Love to your Flex and Flow
“ The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
~ Albert Einstein
OK, it’s riddle time again. Name something that you need but you can’t buy. Everything and everyone has some degree of it. When you’ve got plenty of it, you rarely think about it, but when it’s missing, you know you need it.
It exists both in the physical and metaphysical realms. It’s more of a property than a thing of itself. You could even say that it’s a value, or an idea, or a concept. I could be talking about a lot of things, but the thought for the day is: Flexibility.
As I was coming back inside after our morning stretch, I opened our front door and heard it creak as it flexed. Noticing how even the glass and wood has to give a little bit to function properly made me think about my body and bones that just loosened up for the day ahead.
Taking it a step further, I thought about people I know and their personalities and how the idea of flexibility relates to one’s overall quality of life.
One of the interesting properties of flexibility is that if you suddenly need a lot of it, you’re out of luck, but if you put a little attention on it over time, it increases.
When it comes to the physical world, flexibility is an all important topic. You don’t build a bridge or design a skyscraper without some smart people with calculators doing a lot of math before hand.
With people, it’s another story. When it comes to your body, it’s use it or lose it. If you’ve spent much time dancing or doing yoga, you know just how much your body needs practice in order to stay flexible.
Keeping your mind limber is different. There seems to be some trick to the aging process that fools people into being more and more rigid as time goes on. But practicing non-attachment and developing the ability to be flexible and go with the flow will ease your path forward as time goes on.
Too flexible, and you might be called wishy-washy; too rigid, and you’re stubbornly set in your ways. There’s a balance between having willpower and a strong backbone and being able to change course when the winds of change blow.
It’s one of those things that bridges the physical with the metaphysical, the world at large with your being within. Whether you look at it as an emergent property, a spiritual value, or simply an essential facility — maintaining your ability to flex when needed is worth the effort!
Much love and limber living till next week!
À bientôt!
M+
Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine
