COMPANION NOTES: the gesture of flexion and finding philosophy in the body
Ideas for connecting to the thinking-body and the feeling-body, thoughts on the practice of turning inward, and more on the embodiment of philosophy than I had first anticipated.
The word gesture originates from the 16th century with its roots in Latin. It means “a manner of carrying the body” or “"a movement of the body or a part of it, intended to express a thought or feeling” (my italics). What, therefore, might we glean about thoughts and feelings when we create the gesture of physiological flexion? First, let’s think about the ways flexion shows up in everyday life before reflecting on how it shows up in movement modalities like yoga āsana.
Some of my experiences might resonate with yours. I might, for example, organise my body in flexion when I settle to sleep, curling my spine and limbs as I rest on one side, or when I am in a migraine and want to limit sensory stimulation, or when I experience certain kinds of pain sometimes physical like those related to digestion (or menstruation and menopause), sometimes emotional like those related to heartache or grief. In short, the gesture of flexion renders for me a smallness, often softness, and cultivates a feeling-tone of tenderness along with a quiet, focused mind.