Sometimes, during my morning practice, I move through an exercise from Twyla Tharp; it may remind you of yoga, but there’s a difference.
“The exercise I call egg is a great way to start a creative session. It couldn’t be simpler: I sit on the floor, bring my knees to my chest, curl my head down to my knees, and try to make myself as small as i can. In this minimized shrunken state, I have nowhere else to go; I cannot become smaller, I can only expand and grow. And so it becomes a ritual of discovery for me.
If I lift my head and straighten my back I become tall egg. If I stretch out my legs and point my toes, forming an l-shape, I become jackknife egg. I stick with it as long as it remains interesting, sometimes going through as many as a hundred positions. I’ve been doing this daily for years and I usually find something new in the process. I remember one time sitting in a ball and twisting slightly so I inched forward. eureka! I discovered walking egg, which led to walking backward egg and a dozen new positions. I live for those moments. this discovery delights me and lifts my spirit - and keeps me coming back to egg.
It may remind you of yoga, but there’s a difference. In yoga (or any other prescribed exercise routine) you are following a defined sequence of poses and positions that are good for different parts of the body. that’s not what’s going on here. There’s no instructor or manual telling you what to do, no exact purpose to the movements. You’re not asking anyone “what do i do next?” You’re following your impulses, letting your mind and body provide you with the answers.
I also like egg because if forces you to think about change. Once you shrink yourself into a fetal ball, you have no choice but to do something expansive. you cannot hold the starting position forever, though you can hold it for as long as you like. Eventually, though, you’ll have to do something. egg is an exercise that teaches you how to accomplish the most difficult task in any creative endeavor: begin.
Egg makes you move. I can’t say enough about the connection between body and mind; when you stimulate your body, your brain comes alive in ways you can’t simulate in a sedentary position. The brain is an organ, tied integrally to all the other systems in the body, and it’s affected by blood flow, neural transmission, all the processes you undergo when you put your body through its paces. you’re making it work differently, and new directions can result.”
—Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit
Somewhat related: ‘tis the season for local eggs, I’ve been loving omelette’s for breakfast or supper; prepared with homemade golden nectar; such whole body nourishment.
a morning prayer [ft. bon iver] | similar but not the same as the morning before and the morning before that; a conversation with and through the shape we share in common: everybody or Every Body is human. let’s move together.
a morning prayer | every morning — 365 days of the year — yoga shapes are made outside. this is a practice, which is why it happens daily. i like to practice listening to my body because it says different things depending on the day, the season, my mood, the amount of sleep logged the night before. making time to listen while moving during the early morning hours, gives me a sense of what's needed to thrive instead of survive on that particular day. today asked for quiet and more green things during mealtime. | more on insta.
if you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have? these exotic revelations bubbled up involuntarily and i began to understand that the sleeplessness and vigilance and constant feedings were a form of brainwashing, a process by which my old self was being molded, slowly but with a steady force, into a new shape: a mother. it hurt. i tried to be conscious while it happened, like watching my own surgery. i hoped to retain a tiny corner of the old me, just enough to warn other women with. but i knew this was unlikely; when the process was complete I wouldn’t have anything left to complain with, it wouldn’t hurt anymore, i wouldn’t remember.
there are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.
