Skateboarding
SKATEBOARDING is the PERFECT PHYSICAL EXPRESSION
THE NEED FOR MOVEMENT - An excerpt from Volume 2 of the TAKE BACK THE POWER SERIES
Skateboarding is the perfect healthy blend of order and chaos. Go to a large, busy skatepark, and you’ll see people moving quickly in every direction. Skateboarders fall and their boards shoot out erratically. Tricks don’t get landed and the rider tumbles out of control, falling hard on the concrete. At first it looks like madness.
Look closer and you’ll notice order start to develop within the chaos. People tend to wait their turns. Skateboarders group together at certain parts of the skatepark and understand each other’s intentions and lines of movement. There is a rhythm that exists, patterns develop, and people try to stay out of each other’s way while focusing on their own set of tricks. When someone falls and their skateboard shoots out, someone else may go and pick up their board and give it back to them or help the fallen skater up off the ground. Even the falls are often graceful, a sort of dance, minimizing pain while the skater tumbles onto concrete and eloquently rolls out of the fall, often unscathed.
A lot of the time skaters don’t land their tricks. They give it their all and the board just doesn’t flip the way they want it to. But sometimes, all the effort aligns perfectly and the trick is landed. When this happens, often time other skaters cheer, clap, or bang their boards against the concrete in a skater culture way of saying ‘congrats, nice work, and we saw that and that trick was awesome’. Then the moment is over and they all continue doing what they love. It’s difficult to land a trick. One can practice the same trick for months and finally land it and then the brief moment is over almost before it started. Some of the most impressive skateboard tricks in history lasted only a few seconds. But we live for these moments and we’re proud of them. From the chaos of trying something repeatedly comes the order of landing the trick. Other skaters appreciate this process.
Skateboarding is rejuvenating, fun, challenging, and a total body work out. Skaters don’t go out afraid that they might fall because they know that they likely will fall. It’s not the fear of falling that exists, but instead the confidence that the skater can fall with grace. It’s part of the experience. It’s even part of the fun. How often do we worry about things that haven’t happened yet, like falling, when instead we can understand our own strength know that when we do fall, we’ll do it with grace because we have trust in our own movement and abilities?
Skateboarding throws you straight into the moment. No time for living in the past or future. There is only awareness in this present moment, with this trick right now. No worry about work drama, some unresolved issue, or anxiety of the future. Only skateboarding in the moment. It’s like a type of magic. I mention skateboarding as an example because it’s one of my favorite things to do and I’ve been skating for most of my life.
Movement is a part of the human experience. We have legs - use them! We have arms - lift stuff up! We have a core and abs - use them! Your muscles are there to be used! Get stronger! Use your body for what it’s there for. Your physical well being is important and the way you use your body is important.
Lots of people feel mentally stuck when they stay in one place for too long. We’re not meant to sit still all day. A significant amount of back pain, joint pain, and physical pain is caused by too much sitting and not enough movement.
Experience your present moment through your body and through movement. Your physical health is often a reflection of your mental and spiritual health. If you don’t like the types of thoughts you’ve been having, get physical and do some cardio work out. You have an obligation only to yourself to be physically fit and healthy. Use your body to help you be healthy. You owe this to nobody other than yourself.
When you pick an activity that is physical, try to appreciate the order that comes from the chaos of the activity. The moments that are challenging and out of your control result in confidence and inner strength which manifest as an orderly response. Fully embody the order. Fully embody the chaos. Be one with both. Grace and style emerge from the uncertainty.
Of the over 50 people at the skatepark riding in all different directions, the skater hero emerges, focused intently, lands a miraculous trick in the middle of all the action, people cheer and smile, then the moment is over and the park returns back to chaos.
Use your movement to get stuff done, accomplish great things in the moment, and keep your body strong. Movement is a type of power and it only occurs in the moment.
