Beginners Mind – Beginners Body



Beginner’s Mind – having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level.

Beginner’s Body – having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when moving, especially when at an advanced level.

“I need to start over, I just can’t stay stuck in this place.” This is a wonderful skill to bring to your life – Sharon Salzberg on working with the breath.

What if we stopped, just for a moment, thinking about fitness and health, strength, conditioning and endurance? What if we just thought about moving? There is no shortage of information to keep us busy for hours on end. Each month there is another brace of books and articles, new methods and protocols, studies and recommendations. Every week there is a new report on diet, exercise, weight loss and wellbeing. What if we hit the off switch and simply worked with what we know, with your own experience? A little knowledge may well be a dangerous thing but a lot of knowledge can lead to very little action.

For me, the focus must be the fundamentals. Our obsession with bigger, faster, stronger obscures the real need to be better, fitter , sustainable. Better at dealing with the daily needs we all have, fitter to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life, creating a sustainable practice that doesn’t diminish under the demands we all face. I am all for experimenting and that is what I plan to do for the next year, adding, subtracting, observing. But it has to reflect what I need, the time I have and the outcomes I want.

So maybe it’s worth asking yourself…Bigger because..?…Faster for?…Stronger so…?

Beginners mind, beginners body, each day a new start.