Enchanting our Anatomy

Ever since I broke my neck in high school, I've been obsessed with experiential anatomy - learning not just how our bodies move but how to feel how our bodies move. The more obsessed I got, the more I learned, the more awe and wonder I felt for the natural world that is the human body. 

For years after that injury, all I could feel was the pain and protection. Now, I can feel my vertebrae stacked on top of each other. I can feel the tendons between them providing guardrails for movement. I can imagine the discs squishing and releasing like a sponge. And I can wonder at the life force that moves from my brain through my spinal cord, pulsing, communicating, traveling beneath it all. 

When I turn wonder back on, in this way, my nervous system moves from survival and protection and into play and pleasure. When I can feel my structures in this way, I have agency over how I move them, finding both mobility and safety. 

Our bodies are our first site of nature. They are water, dirt, fire and air. They have everything to teach us about the earth and our universe and the ways that matter and spirit organize and move themselves. Learning to feel our anatomy, its shapes and patterns, and how it moves as we move allows us to move not just with empowerment, but building worlds we believe in, worlds we feel good inside of. 

Want to hear more? Have a part of your body you'd like to enchant?! Over time, I've shared quite a bit of my Enchanted Anatomy research on IG. Click here to scroll through a few examples, and send me a message if there's something you're aching to hear more about!