Saturday 17 October 2009

Physical alienation

Though I've commented on this before, I haven't made it the subject of a whole post. In a sense, it comes, could come under the banner of HAES. Certainly it's is for anyone of any size, I'm thinking about recovering your connection to your instinct to move.

One of the many reasons many others and myself have become so cynical about the motivation behind the obesity crisis, is the nasty side effects that come directly from that. One is the creation or deepening of a sense of alienation from one's desire to move.

At times this is crudely labelled 'laziness', though I'm not frightened of that word, I think laziness is misunderstood as a moral failing. To me it's more of a signal and sign that needs to be heard and acted upon to relieve or remove a state of on-going indolence. Having some lazy times is fine, when its a struggle to do anything that's something deeper.

I'm talking about wanting to move, sometimes desperately but feeling that to your dismay, you never actually feel able to, without struggle or force. There's always a reason, or you wouldn't have to 'force' yourself. You never enjoy your body in motion, it never feels right, the connection isn't there. It seems heavier than your will and not under your full charge.

There are so many symptoms of this problem. It's important to note that weight makes little difference here, it's more of a question of imbalance. I hate to say mental problem because that gives the wrong impression making it seem as if it's psychosomatic, although, there is nothing wrong with that, it is more of a feedback issue. 

That is, your nervous system is transmitting back to your brain, real feelings of discomfort and sometimes, acute distress though you dismiss it because you're not hurting or injured. It's a general malaise. Because of those feelings, a sense of disappointment can set in, on top of the negative physical feelings. That becomes increasingly discouraging. Making those physical feelings worse.

What I'm saying is, the way we are taught to think about our bodies themselves, including how we talk to and about them, the way we think of movement in general, 'gets into the body itself'.

We need a bridge between getting rid of that and being freely physical.

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