M O V I N G with the C U R R E N T S · short exercise
A simple exercise using metaphor and gentle movement to move with the currents, and move with the challenges.
Instead of muscular tension and forceful forward movement—there is nothing as tiring as moving against the current, isn’t there?—I’d like to invite you to think of water…
How water carries things, and how, through its continuous, fluid movement, it gradually transforms the rocks it passes. This kind of movement is not quite surrender; it is a form of intentional movement.
Seaweed once reminded me of this… what if I moved like seaweed? Physically, mentally. Freely moved by the currents, gently swaying. “… and if it flushes against fierce rock, it slips over it as shadows do, without hurting itself”
In a Shiatsu course I followed some years ago, we practiced moving like seaweed. Perhaps you’d like to try this for a few minutes. It’s a lovely practice to return to from time to time—also very suitable to do together with children or the elderly, helping to release tension and invite more flow.
Stand on both feet, or take a comfortable seat
Relax the knees, the shoulders, the jaw
Take your time to arrive
Imagine being in water, warm, comfortable, exactly the right temperature for you
Now your body is gently moved, caressed, and rocked by the water
Allow yourself to gently sway in different directions
perhaps it’s just your head, perhaps you can include your hips
The movements can be very small, slow, or gradually become larger–it may be more a feeling than a doing
Are your arms soft…
Can you deepen your exhale…How are the currents?
Sea-weed sways and sways and swirls
as if swaying were its form of stillness;
and if it flushes against fierce rock
it slips over it as shadows do, without hurting itself.
– D.H. Lawrence
Image 1: photogram by Anna Atkins (1799–1871), English botanist and photographer who created the first book entirely illustrated with photographic images, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843). She used the cyanotype process to make detailed, white-on-blue, photogram prints of seaweed specimens, blending precise scientific documentation with artistic expression.
Image 2: picture of D.H. Lawrence poem in the research paper Shifting Perspective on Symmetry written by Maartje Blans on Scoliosis and yoga.
Image 3 + 4: taken on the mud flats of the Wadden Sea, Schiermonnikoog, NL