I’m learning acting at the moment, and one of our classes involves watching how people walk, and being aware of how we walk, sit, stand etc.
The overt lesson we’re learning is that we need to be aware of our own tension, how we are etc, so that we can adopt other traits, to create a character other than ourselves.
It’s interesting, that when we’re walking, and others are watching and commenting on how we’re walking, holding our bodies, straight, slouched, stomping, swaggering, feet turned in, turned out, whatever… when a comment comes in like “hunches shoulders”, we immediately straighten our shoulders, straighten our backs, walk tall, like we’re taught is the “correct” way. I know I do.
However, one of the things the instructor is constantly repeating is that this is not a correction thing, we’re not pointing out faults – we’re pointing out what makes us ourselves. How we walk, where we hold our head, where we look when we’re walking, if we stride confidently or shuffle to keep our sore back from hurting, if our shoulders are level or if one is higher than the other from lifting things, if our feet roll in or out, if our knees are close together or we swing our arms when we walk… all of these things make up a person.
So I’m thinking maybe the covert lesson is to not think of ourselves as “wrong”, but to accept that each little part of who we are, whether it’s the ideal of beauty as portrayed by the current society or media or not. Each part of us, from the tilt of our eyebrows to whether we roll when we walk, is part of us, it makes up our story, it shows the world that we’re a unique person, with a life, and a history, all our own. And that we need to be aware of that character, and wear who we are. With pride if that’s part of your makeup, but at least with acceptance that we’re not faulty, we are who we are.
Falling Thought Leaves 