Conscious Movement
The Key to Health and Body Alignment
by Lorrel Elian

Conscious movement is a term I use often.  It’s through the verbal cues I use when teaching yoga, or in workshops, that I remind students to get back into their body and become aware of their alignment before proceeding. Incorrect, or bad posture, and unconscious movement can be a damaging combination, and often is the root cause of physical and emotional pain.

People are surprised by how much pain they’re actually carrying because they’ve become so used to suppressing it. What can be even shocking, is when they discover how it looks on them. Not realizing that the price they’ve paid for years of grinning and bearing it has cost them their youth.

Unconscious, incorrect movement, and weak walking patterns can cause your body and appearance to prematurely age.  Weight gain and restricted movement associated with improper use of joints can make you feel old before your time.

Joint pain, tendons, ligaments, and bone can be released from ongoing, or unexplained pain and discomfort, by conscious and correct use of movement. Even improper functioning of internal organs like the intestines, uterus, bladder, and pelvic floor can be toned and your quality of life restored. 

There’s so much good news here. You have so much more control over these situations than you previously knew.

I’m not a medical doctor, and I’m not making any medical claims. What I am sharing with you is from years of experience as a teacher and a practitioner, helping people to understand the shape they were in. I searched for decades for solutions to my own health journey, wanting to alleviate the unexplainable pain, countless surgeries, treatments, and medications that didn’t change my suffering. I’ve had a wonderful doctor for over thirty years.  Yet after exhausting all medical options I found a different direction.

I left my career and life the way I knew it, and traded it in for a whole new program.  

Leaving old patterns behind got easier with every new habit I adopted.  At the time I didn’t realize that this was why I was able to shift the condition of my body so effectively. The more I got involved with movement, the more I was inspired by how good it felt to be in my body.  Yoga, Yamuna Body Rolling, breathwork, biking, skiing, being active in nature, it all had a positive  impact on me. I studied how movement and the environment affects how people feel, think, eat, react, respond, or thrive. You are a sum total of your environment. What’s going on around you?

The key to shifting your body and your life is through conscious movement.

Your body is designed perfectly to serve you, although from a young age we’re not educated on the correct way to use our anatomy, and therefore don’t recognize that we’re not using our joints and ligaments correctly. 

In the absence of that awareness is where the misalignments and injury start creeping in and eventually look like hunchbacks, swayed shoulders, back pain, sore knees and ankles, and possible replacements. Like your body, life is a big puzzle that becomes more interesting when you can strategically solve these pain problems that rob you of joy, and affect your quality of life.  

Conscious Movement invites ease and grace through moving your body the way it was designed to move. By articulating your joints, connecting with your own natural rhythm of breathing, and using your body’s natural logic, you prevent and avoid a multitude of situations that could easily escalate into requiring therapy or medical attention. If you’ve been searching for relief from joint pain, headaches, sleep issues, pain during intimacy, depression, weight loss, or decreased flexibility, this may be your solution. 

It’s easy to get started.

From a standing position, observe those around you.  How are they walking, standing, talking? Now observe what your own body is doing. 

Without correcting, just look down at your feet. 

Notice the differences between the size and shape of each foot. Compare them to each other, what makes them different, is it the size and shape of the toes? 

How far apart is your stance? Is one foot pointed more outward than the other? 

Learning what this all means takes time, be patient and become more observant. It’s worth a deeper look, and it provides insights as to how you do you.

Your body shape has a lot to do with how you walk, so that’s a good place to start. Do you drag your feet, or are you quick to jump in? Are you conscious of how you walk through your everyday life? How you do one thing, is how you do all things.

From the tip of your toes, to the top of your head, the connective tissue that is in every cell in your body, from your facia, bones, ligaments, and arteries to your lymphatic system, and blood, is affected by your movement… conscious or not.With each step you can either be contributing to empowering your body’s infrastructure, or working against yourself. Either way, you play a powerful role.

I created a video for you that gives a broader explanation of how to be empowered through conscious movement. You’ll find it on my website at www.consciousbodybydesign.com.

Lorrel Elian is a 5-time best-selling author, retreat specialist, and the visionary behind Conscious Body by Design, dedicated to empowering women through conscious movement and soul-activated practices. Lorrel’s life purpose is to show women how to break through the barriers that hold them back and guide them to become their own therapist. She seamlessly integrates extensive certifications including RYT500hr Hatha Yoga, Colour Therapy, Psychosomatic Therapy, Yamuna Body Rolling (YBR), and Human Design, to create a holistic approach to wellness and self-empowerment. She lives in the heart of the prairies with her husband and fur babies. For more information and to contact her, please see the display ad on page 13 of the 30.5 January/February issue of the WHOLifE Journal, and visit www.consciousbodybydesign.com.