Assumptions vs. Reality: How to Reconnect with Your Body’s Natural Ease

Do you ever catch yourself thinking thoughts like, “I have bad knees,” or “I just don’t move like I used to”?

Subtle assumptions like these quietly shape the way you hold your body—and can create the very tension and stiffness you’re trying to avoid.

In this video, we’ll explore how to reconnect with your body’s reality instead of your judgments, and how a shift in attention can bring lightness, ease, and fluidity back into your movement.

If you’d like to go deeper, I offer free consultations in which we can discuss what you need and how to apply this work to your body and your movement.

A transcript of the video is below if you’d prefer to read rather than watch and listen.

Hello, friend.

Today I want to offer you a way to bring some fluidity and ease into your body by connecting to reality rather than your assumptions.

We all have assumptions about our bodies and these can often quietly and subtly get you trapped in tension and stiffness in ways that we're not even aware of.

These assumptions sound quite logical. They sound solid. But if you connect with what's going on in your body at the moment, you'll start to see that these assumptions carry tension, that they carry a tightening in you.

And that's a clue. When that tightening comes up, that's a clue that you're disconnected from reality.

Sometimes we have assumptions like, “I'm stiffer as I get older, so I can't move fluidly anymore. My body can't do what it's used to. I don't move as well anymore. I have bad hips. I have bad knees. I have bad shoulders. I have a bad neck.” All of that kind of stuff.

All of those are assumptions and judgments of your body, but they're not connected to reality. And just hang with me here. It's something you have to experience because I know they sound like they are connected to reality.

So, how do we connect with reality over these assumptions? The way to do it is with curiosity.

As you're here with me, close your eyes for a moment and bring some curiosity to your body, Rather than having a “bad neck,” What's really happening in your body right now?

Not your judgments about it.

Keep it very simple. So if you're sitting—you're sitting. That's something that's happening right now.

You have a head.

Oh! Your neck is connected to your head.

You have this beautiful long spine. You don't have to make it be long. It already is.

And you can notice what happens if you touch on one of the assumptions. I'll just grab one of the ones I used earlier: “I have bad knees.”

Notice how that brings this tightening attention to your knees.

And you're not even doing anything! Imagine going through your day with this subtle tightening attention. It just makes everything harder. And I don't know anybody who needs to purposely make their life harder or movement in their body harder.

So bring that curious mind to your body in a very basic foundational way. You have a head. “Oh yeah. Here's my head. It's way up here.”

You have a neck. Beautiful.

You have a lovely long spine.

You're sitting.

You have shoulders.

I can't tell you how many times I just remind myself I have shoulders before I even try fixing them. I can “fix” them just by saying I have shoulders. They go, “oh” and they start to switch their position. Not because I'm trying to put them in the right position. Simply by bringing that attention that they exist and not taking them for granted they begin to let go of the weird thing that I was doing with them before I brought that attention.

As dancers we really got into this pattern, into this mindset, which was fine. “I have to have my arm just so. I need my leg just so. I need to move in just a particular way.” Great. It’s very much about getting things right.

That’s great on the stage if that's what you need. Not so great in life where it's more spontaneous. We're moving. We want to be free in life.

By bringing that curious mind to your body and that curious mind to your assumptions about yourself and about your body, you can begin to uncover them and get in touch with just what's happening right now.

“I can't lift my leg as high as I used to.” While you're sitting, you're not lifting your leg at all.

Let go of it. Connect with your leg just right now. It's lovely and long.

This is such a nice practice to do particularly if you feel frustration around your body and what you think is happening. It's not what's happening, it's what you believe about what's happening. So stop, bring in that curious mind. Remind yourself you just have this body, before your judgments about it.

Okay, play with that.

If you enjoyed this video, please let the magic algorithm know by liking, commenting, and subscribing to this channel. Let me know anything you got out of it. If you have any questions or any activities you'd like some help with.

And until we meet again, take care, friend. Bye.