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Moving/Being
Gardening as Emergence
by Paul Linden
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Moving/Being
Gardening as Emergence
Springtime is the time of new life, new energy. Emergence.
Springtime means we can get back out to our gardens. We can touch the soil, feel the earth coming back to life. Cultivating the soil can be a deep pleasure.
However, cultivating the soil can also be a form of self-cultivation. Every time you use a shovel or a hoe, every time you plant a seed or pull a weed, you can be practicing refining the Self. The body mechanics of gardening movements can be a means of cultivating an integrated spiritual state of power and sensitivity. Out of one level of activity, a wholly new level of being can emerge.
photos courtesy Paul Linden |
Let's look at one gardening chore as an example. Photo #1 shows the way people typically hoe. The arms and back are used to generate movement and guide the hoe. However, the arms are relatively weak, and the back will be subject to strain. In addition, this bent-over posture compresses the breathing instead of allowing free breathing. Notice that my awareness is visibly restricted to the top half of my body and the narrow segment of the world taken up by the hoe and my target.
Note how fragmentary this way of moving is. This way of moving is essentially a practice of incompleteness and separateness. I'm separate from my body and separate from the environment.
In contrast to the usual way of hoeing, photos #2 through #4 show a way of moving that is open and balanced and free. The legs, pelvis and spinal column are well-aligned, and power is generated by the legs and hips. There is a balanced and open awareness of the Self in space.
For greater clarity in the photos, I'm using the large hoeing movement I'd adopt if I were chopping through a particularly stubborn weed with thick, strong roots. Hoeing ordinary smaller weeds would use the same movements but in a lighter, shorter form.
Having raised my hoe (photo #2), I'm supporting its weight with my legs and hips. Notice that my upper torso and arms are placed directly above my pelvis and legs. Notice also that my awareness is much more evenly dispersed throughout my whole body and the environment around me.
In photo #3, I have finished the chopping motioin with the hoe, and it is clear that the power comes from the forward weight transfer movement of the legs and pelvis combined with the vertical downward movement of the arms. The fourth photograph shows the pull back that comes at the last moment of the chopping action and which serves to pull on and move whatever is being chopped.
This way of moving makes use of openness and expansiveness of breath, body posture and movement. It is a practice of feeling all of my body, all of my breath and all of my environment. Moving this way makes the practice of correct body mechanics a meditation, a practice of paying attention to my self and the world I live in. Out of the physical level of body mechanics emerges a spiritual level of practice.
Paul Linden, Ph.D., is a specialist in body and movement awareness education and co-director of the Columbus Center for Movenement Studies (www.being-in-movement.com), at which he teaches Aikido, Being in Movement ® mindbody training and the Feldenkrais Method ® of somatic education. Paul is the author of Winning is Healing: Body Awareness and Empowerment for Abuse Survivors. His work focuses on the applications in daily activities of an integrated mindbody state of awareness, power and love.
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