“When we can celebrate and truly own what it is that makes us different, we are able to find the source of our greatest creative power.” – Aimee Mullins
I’ve been thinking a lot about integrity and authenticity these days. And how movement reveals so much about our ability to be honest with ourselves. I loved teaching from this quote this week. When we practice together as a group we are of course there to create momentum as we move in and out of each pose. We go through the same sequences, listen to the same music, everyone wants to feel like they accomplished something by doing each pose well. We need to have a basic understanding of what we are doing in each pose to practice safely and effectively. And we talk about that too. But I really want to emphasize with my students is that there is so much integrity to doing a pose that honors your unique ability in that pose. There is so much authenticity in focusing on what you do well and not being concerned with whether or not you are able to do something as well as the person next to you. To truly be creative you have to be supportive of yourself. What makes you you and trust in the experience you are having as who you are here, now. So we talked about this in my classes this week. We moved through a back bending sequence requiring us to find strength and stay rooted in that as a foundation for practicing honestly and with integrity to our individual capabilities in each pose. Authenticity baby.