Cultivating Unstuckness

Currently I am reading, Be water My Friend- The True Teachings of Bruce Lee, written by his daughter, Shannon Lee.

Bruce Lee was a master martial artist and a philosopher, his most memorable teaching is to “Be Water”.

His daughter shares from his writing,

When man is living, he is soft and pliable; when he is dead, he becomes rigid. Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether we are speaking o the body, the mind or the spirit. Be pliable.

I love a philospher who can make their idea pop with this kind of every day thinking. It feels true and universal and I can not find an argument against it.

In fact I practice flow, which sounds a lot like the same concept from a different angle.

Flow in the body-moving the joints in a full range of motion with awareness.

Flow in the mind-allowing curiosity, and desire to be the driving force toward challenge.

Flow in the soul-maintaining expansion and connection simultaneously.

And HOW?

How do you actually DO any of this stuff.

You practice.

You reflect.

You practice more until you begin to cultivate what is working.

And so even during the practice to become you are what you desire to become.

The truth is most of us are stuck in some way. Life maybe is an ongoing adventure in cultivating unstuckness.

Here are a few(a very few) of the practices I use with clients every day to bring them into flow with thier life.

Fitness for the BODY:

Practice innate movement-developmental positions and transitions.

Challenge the body with force, speed, rhythm and load.

Coordinate breath and stability.

Fitness for the MIND:

Be here now, start where you are.

Ask questions.

Do you like this?

How does that feel?

What is working?

What would you do?

How does this relate to your life?

Fitness for the SOUL:

Know the deeper truth underlying your actions.

Connect to your essential self: pick a joy - add a fitness action - turn it into a challenge.

Do Nothing.

I know these actions work because I have been using them for over a decade to move people toward the life they want to live in a body they love.

But everyone has to start somewhere and the best place to start is right where you are, because you can not become unstuck if you don’t make friends with reality.