Moving to Remember, Moving to Think

My mind works better when I am moving.  If I'm having trouble remembering something or thinking through a problem, simply getting up and starting to walk often brings the answer.

I grew up identifying my body and my mind as two separate things.  Something about us makes that easy to do, I think.  After all, the judgements we make about them are consistent with separation.   "Really smart, but clumsy as an ox."  "Incredible athlete, incredibly stupid."

We tend to identify with one or the other -- at least I did.  I wasn't physically inept, but was never the best at sports either.  I was particularly smart, though, and went through most of my school years identifying, and identified by others, as having a quick and capable mind.

The result of this sense that we are a combination of independent parts can lead to the mind thinking that the body is just a container to carry the mind around.

The practice of yoga, including physical practice and meditation, bring an integration of the whole person.  Increasingly, I understand the connection, and ultimate wholeness, of my person.  Not a mind in a body, but a single, complex, physical presence with cognitive functions.  And I'm sensitive to the way that the state of the body directly affects the functioning of the mind, and vice versa.

Physical activity can retrieve memories and activate creative thinking.  Mind can monitor physical sensation and initiate changes in action to find a place of balanced effort, where I am working very hard in a yoga posture, but, due to the balance in both body and mind, feel light and effortless.  

Sometimes I write out a sequence of yoga poses, and then practice them.  Often, I find the movements to work well.  Sometimes I need to make adjustments.  Other times, I initiate from the body - starting from some point and then moving as my body and intuition lead, then writing the sequence down.  On any given day, one of these approaches will seem more accessible to me, but both lead to the place in the middle - not a separate mind and body, or a mind controlling a body - but rather an integrated being with both cognitive and physical capabilities.