Why You Should be Moving Like an Animal!
Animal references are EVERYWHERE in the movement arts of ancient cultures: from the famous "dog pose" of yoga, to the Snake style of Kung Fu, movement masters down through the millennia have advised us to mimic our fellow creatures on planet earth!
Is this just a quaint idea from the past, or does it have relevance to our modern, scientific age? Our ancestors were definitely closer to the natural world than many of us are, and so they had many opportunities to relate with animals in a sacred way. Often the sacred animal movements would emerge during trance as a way of honoring and embodying the specific power that creature had to offer. Over time, these dances became codified into a repertoire of healing, and altered-state inducing practices.
I think most immediately applicable to most of us, though, is the fact that Animal movements will force you to move in ways that are unusual. We all have somatic "blind-spots" where our bodies have contracted around injuries or emotions, and we've limited what is possible for us in expressing our human form. While running, deadlifting, and cycling are certainly healthy, and will get you conscious of many unknown parts of yourself, the yogic traditions bring something special to the table that transcends mere stretching.
When moving through the downward and upward dog pose, the pigeon, the eagle, you're flowing in different ways than ordinary life usually requires you to, but which are required for a pain-free and emotionally open body!
Taking it a step deeper, one can utilize the type of technique my Daoist master taught, where in addition to doing the physical movements of the form, you attempt to take on the "Spirit" of the animal. Then, rather than simply doing the prescribed motions called "Deer Qigong", you're actually moving as the deer. In my studies of martial arts and sacred dance, I've found that some subconscious process actually changes the way your body moves in very interesting ways. It's different to move like a deer, than to think "I am a deer".
My Sifu was constantly reminding us that the most important thing to train was our weak links. To me, those are the places where we've somatically gone to sleep, become guarded, or integrated a habitual pattern of movement that no longer serves us. By engaging the ancient art of animal meditation, we can find these places, and gently begin to stretch into what's possible when we integrate something new!
