After two failed attempts to go shopping for warmer clothes to get through this SNOW IN LONDON (eep!) I’ve decided to give up, settle inside, thaw my frozen toes and reflect on this past week.
(though i still managed to make it to my favourite cafe…)
The thing that’s affected me most lately is a book I’ve recently finished: “The Blue Zone” by Dan Buettner. If you’ve never heard of it before, Buettner (a journalist for National Geographic) examines and explains his findings regarding the lifestyle of people in the “Blue Zones” – the pockets of populations with the largest proportional number of centenarians.
There was nothing in this book that was revolutionary to me, and yet there was something very powerful in being able to witness a (albeit small) day in the lives of these long-living people. Something that struck me as most poignant was what wasn’t said. A 90-year old woman in Japan rises from the floor in a fluid movement, another 90-something year old man treks through mountains as a shepherd for miles per day… these bodies are able, and it challenges and offers some comfort to what is a big subconscious fear of mine (and perhaps all dancers) – my body failing with age. These glimpsed awarded me the insight to see that perhaps I was self-sabotaging myself.
When I was younger, groaning as you moved, feeling creaky and stiff was what grown-ups experienced. I’ve started doing it myself when I wanted to be more “grown-up”, and this mentality can often mean that exercising and repeating phrases over and over again can feel uncomfortable and tiring. Increasing my awareness of this attitude, and resolving to be the old lady who springs off the ground in her 90s (hey, it could happen…), the tiredness in subsequent rehearsals has lifted. I don’t creak, I don’t feel stiff, and repeatedly falling down onto my knees (though it bruises) doesn’t have the same heaviness that it did. This isn’t an accurate experiment, and whether I can maintain this attitude with minimal sleep and or exhaustion remains to be seen, but for now, it’s helped me, and it seems like it could keep me going with gusto a lot longer.
So now, for the weekend, I’m springing to Edinburgh, snow and all… snowman anyone?
