Get Moving

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement." ~ Alfred Adler

I have lost count of the number of times I have sat slumped at my desk at an impasse with a project, proposal or post only to finally admit this simple truth: that my only remaining option is to extract myself from the chair, put my walking shoes on, get a leash on the dog and head out for a walk.

Slogging through it, grinding it out, trying harder; these all have their place. But without careful attention to the energy they demand, their gravitational pull can lead us into a one-dimensional orbit of limited perspective.

When I get up and get moving, I invite my body to join my brain in a conversation of possibility. Turning hard questions over in my mind, my movement acts as a sharp spade, knifing through the impacted soil of my narrowed thought. I open up the gravelly earth of my thinking and discover what is hidden there, what can only be found with the gifts of space, movement, air and sun.

Inevitably, I surprise myself with a key word or thought that feels so obvious and so clear that I can only wonder why I waited so long to get this change of scenery. Sometimes, instead of insisting on figuring it out in a sustained glut of effort, the best I can do is to create the conditions most likely to aid my search for a new way forward.

We are not made for slumping in chairs, ponderously waiting for a splash of revelation. We are made to get moving and to go out and find it.