For the most part my clients and customers fall somewhere forty and sixty. Yesterday found my working with a younger client who had interesting things to say about me.
First was the grilling about my dubious credentials, followed by the statement that I am “tilted”. After that came the observation that I hold my left hand up by my chest in an affected manner and, to the point of this post, I never stop moving.
At least they didn’t ask me what was wrong with my face.
Leaving all the other points aside, it is true that I never stop moving. The above statement, stasis equals death is one I have been using in workshops and privates forever. The truth is we don’t stop moving until we die. As long as the heart beats the body is moving.
But that is being literal and I don’t stop moving simply because it feels good and natural. Also, standing still is really hard; hard to do, and very hard on the back.
In many workshops I offer an exercise that I have written about before that speaks to the fact that something inside of most people craves stability, or in a harsher light, stasis.
We are ever changing. It is unavoidable yet we cling to permanence in an impermanent world. I have always thought that this is the essence of the message in the Buddha’s first teaching on the Four Noble Truths.
We suffer due to a desire for things to stay the same though they never ever will.
When it comes to back pain I think stasis equals death applies though it might be a bit dramatic. One of the concepts I teach people who suffer from back pain, as well as my yoga students, is people very often get hurt in transition.
When it comes to standing still, all too often the first movement after stillness can cause a spasm or injury. For me this comes up most when cooking .If I am in the kitchen for a long time and prepping in one position, I often feel my back unhappily when I make a sudden move to the sink or garbage.
For whatever reason I find it hard to do my swaying thing when cooking and on occasion I pay for it.
Finally, I can’t imagine I made up the phrase stasis equals death but the only reference I see to it when I search it online is to a screenwriting book. And now I’ll start using the phrase with my daughter who is interested in acting. I think it has deep meaning on many levels.
“Buddha-painting” by Otgo Otgonbayar Ershuu –