Now I can walk in the mountains without feeling dead when reaching the top
Groven, K. (University of Oslo)
In this paper we take a phenomenological approach to movement, emotions, and bodily change. Drawing on the experiences of individuals having undergone weight-loss surgery we explore changes in the meaning of movement in their daily-lives. More precisely we ask: How might phenomenology have us recognize the meaning of physical activity for individuals losing dramatic amounts of weight? Bearing in mind that bariatric surgery involves irreversible visceral changes we explore how emotions intertwine with their experiences of physical activity. What senses, feelings and moods are evoked when being physical active following WLS? And how do these feelings, senses and moods change over time? Exploring men and women’s long-term experiences through a phenomenological sensitivity to their changed and changing bodies, we seek to gain insight into the ways that movement practices such as yoga, running and walking acquires significant meaning in their daily-lives, including the ways that such movement practices evoke specific feelings, emotions and moods. Moreover, we illuminate how engaging in such movement practices can be interpreted as ways of making sense of a changed and changing body. In line with our phenomenological inquiry into these matters, our exploration draws particularly on Merleau-Ponty’s perspective of the body as the vehicle of our being. More precisely, he holds that it is the body that catches and comprehends movement. In addition, we are inspired by Sheet-Johnstone’s elaboration on how movement is one of the principal ways by which we acquire important insights about our surroundings and sense of selves, including our capacities and limitations: “We literally discover ourselves in movement”….”We make sense of ourselves in the course of moving”….. (p. 136). Finally, we draw on Shusterman’s notion of body consciousness as a means of gaining insight into men and women’s
engagement in various movement practices as a means of re-discovering oneself.
In this paper we take a phenomenological approach to movement, emotions, and bodily change. Drawing on the experiences of individuals having undergone weight-loss surgery we explore changes in the meaning of movement in their daily-lives. More precisely we ask: How might phenomenology have us recognize the meaning of physical activity for individuals losing dramatic amounts of weight? Bearing in mind that bariatric surgery involves irreversible visceral changes we explore how emotions intertwine with their experiences of physical activity. What senses, feelings and moods are evoked when being physical active following WLS? And how do these feelings, senses and moods change over time? Exploring men and women’s long-term experiences through a phenomenological sensitivity to their changed and changing bodies, we seek to gain insight into the ways that movement practices such as yoga, running and walking acquires significant meaning in their daily-lives, including the ways that such movement practices evoke specific feelings, emotions and moods. Moreover, we illuminate how engaging in such movement practices can be interpreted as ways of making sense of a changed and changing body. In line with our phenomenological inquiry into these matters, our exploration draws particularly on Merleau-Ponty’s perspective of the body as the vehicle of our being. More precisely, he holds that it is the body that catches and comprehends movement. In addition, we are inspired by Sheet-Johnstone’s elaboration on how movement is one of the principal ways by which we acquire important insights about our surroundings and sense of selves, including our capacities and limitations: “We literally discover ourselves in movement”….”We make sense of ourselves in the course of moving”….. (p. 136). Finally, we draw on Shusterman’s notion of body consciousness as a means of gaining insight into men and women’s
engagement in various movement practices as a means of re-discovering oneself.
Imagine Being Me: Movement in self-elaboration
Barnstaple, R. (York University)
We are made to move - from subtle uncurling to kicks and spasms as a fetus, we unfold ourselves through movement,
simultaneously sculpting experience and interpretation. Our nervous systems evolved as a consequence of having capacity for an infinite repertoire of movement, and through the complex process of calibrating internal rhythms and responses with the external environment (Buzsaki, 2006). In conjunction, our capacity to understand the life-worlds of others is honed by visceral experience; through the cultivation of rich, diverse movement vocabularies, we explore the terrain of the self while detailing the empathetic realm of the imagination. Dance - complex, organised movement that elaborates on function while producing flow - coalesces our human attributes and potential, while expressing aspects of memory and anticipation. If the ability to reason results directly from movement (Gallagher, 2005), and our embodied experiences are cemented in deep neurological structures that undergird thought (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999), then dance expands on the essentiality of movement, conditioning how we relate to the world. Through expressive movement, we discover and determine who we are, and who we may be. At this time, many children’s movement repertoires are unprecedentedly condensed and specific, constrained by the demands of technology, and we simultaneously witness colonising of the imagination by the loss of free play, natural spaces, and unmediated reflection time. The consequences of these phenomena are yet to be demonstrated, but increasing anxiety and depression among young people suggest our global health may be undermined by diminishing movement familiarity and scope. I hypothesize that a return to the practice of dance, involving movement exploration that is more-than-functional, is needed for the full blossoming of subjectivity and awareness. Movement is the basis of thought, and the dramatic reduction of our collective repertoire is predictive of a collapse in the empire of Being.
We are made to move - from subtle uncurling to kicks and spasms as a fetus, we unfold ourselves through movement,
simultaneously sculpting experience and interpretation. Our nervous systems evolved as a consequence of having capacity for an infinite repertoire of movement, and through the complex process of calibrating internal rhythms and responses with the external environment (Buzsaki, 2006). In conjunction, our capacity to understand the life-worlds of others is honed by visceral experience; through the cultivation of rich, diverse movement vocabularies, we explore the terrain of the self while detailing the empathetic realm of the imagination. Dance - complex, organised movement that elaborates on function while producing flow - coalesces our human attributes and potential, while expressing aspects of memory and anticipation. If the ability to reason results directly from movement (Gallagher, 2005), and our embodied experiences are cemented in deep neurological structures that undergird thought (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999), then dance expands on the essentiality of movement, conditioning how we relate to the world. Through expressive movement, we discover and determine who we are, and who we may be. At this time, many children’s movement repertoires are unprecedentedly condensed and specific, constrained by the demands of technology, and we simultaneously witness colonising of the imagination by the loss of free play, natural spaces, and unmediated reflection time. The consequences of these phenomena are yet to be demonstrated, but increasing anxiety and depression among young people suggest our global health may be undermined by diminishing movement familiarity and scope. I hypothesize that a return to the practice of dance, involving movement exploration that is more-than-functional, is needed for the full blossoming of subjectivity and awareness. Movement is the basis of thought, and the dramatic reduction of our collective repertoire is predictive of a collapse in the empire of Being.