Parkour is integration

Finding the relationship between dependency and your expression,
challenging the obsolete and true as well as
taking responsibility for growth with fear

Imprisoning freedom

“You cant cross the same river twice”
- is an old antique saying, very true and applicable in our contemporary realities due to our present world the river flows faster each day, sped up by our digitalised, connected and social communication through the internet which is influencing our ideas, self images and relationships more than the environments where we actually are breathing, smelling,
observing and standing.

A world with many perspectives and opinions is a judgemental
and comparing world

I ask myself if we as physically tied, earthly bound and dependent creatures are letting fear grow in us. Fearing ourselves and what we are not, associating comparisons, wishes and longing with development and social status.

A world where limitlessness is fashion and sought after,
created by limited humans

Paradoxically in a case of more access to information and different realities, we as users are clustered searching for many different “the truth”.

The large amount of migration to western Europe in the recent years have dominated the political debate, poising a revaluation of democracy and asking ourselves how wide our doors should be left open.
Our cultures are changing faster, and for many out of their control, resulting in a spring of conservative, nationalist and xenophobic climates, opinions and parties taking advantage of our common, human insecurities;

• “What can I lose?”
• “Am I important?”
• “Can I influence my environment?”

Paradoxically immigration and foreign cultures strengthens our economies, voices a debate about minorities and challenges us to reflect upon our collective shortcomings and positives.

The truth that nothing can be taken for granted, nor that life happens without us are not easy to accept, digest or make sense of.

The feelings of being out of time, not understanding the development around you and “being passed by” lies within everyone.
However, they are neither constructive or making us able to influence,
- Which for me is the essence of integration; the ability to influence yourself, the self esteem in doing so, and finding ways/strategies of gathering strength in environments.

Environmentally you

“The environment is everything that isn´t me”
- seeking the diverse, uncomfortable and obscure realities around you makes you grow more slowly, sustainable and empathetic.
We are dependent on what is occurring around us, others perceptions and connections. It forms us, and we form what forms us.

However, we can easily get dragged down, consumed and lost in the world. Finding ways to expose yourself with trust, undress, can be a difficult task.

One way is to learn and explore the possibilities of feedback, and to actively be vulnerable, creating understanding and courage within others.
Another is to communicate non-violently, befriending your needs and finding ways to fulfil yourself, in order to be there for others.
Both are methods and practices to become “individually dependent”, creating value within and environmentally.
A third is parkour. Interacting with the environment through feedback (“how can I make my landings hurt less?”), exploring limitations and saying no
(“I wont be able to control my jump”) and with creativity (“What can be done here?”).

Being a practice that only requires clothes and shoes that you are comfortable in, its open for many no matter the economy or social status.

Parkour can be an opportunity to connect with lower socio-economic areas with high unemployment rates and the “losers” in a capitalistic society, since those areas often host many spots to practice parkour. On the other side, many from lower-socio economic areas get the chance to explore other realities, possibilities and worlds.

To summarise;
parkour is a way to connect the whole body and being to a growth mindset, creating personal terms and conditions
for development and traversing between neighbourhoods,
economic differences and realities.

Parkour is a way to mirror yourself and seing
potential and possibilites in the reflection.

A dependent avantgardist

I am inevitably dependent.
I am vulnerable and need comforting,
and that is what makes me alive and strong.

I use parkour as a method to be conscious and mindful in exploring an artful and chaotic world. Playing with restrictions, seeing opportunities in negatives and creating life in the previous dead.

Let me make an example, another pair of glasses,
about an integrating mentality;

Imagine that you sit on a bench
Someone has designed and constructed this object with a
predestined function in mind
in this case to sit.
What happens when you challenge the benches purpose,
what can be done with, or on, a bench?
Balancing, jumping over or climbing under, precision landings,
or a springboard to reach new heights?
Our world is filled with purposes to challenge.

Pairing your imagination and body with an object creates integration,
strength in refering your expression with what already is,
and trust in your ability to influence.

Parkour is dependent on objects, thoughts
and hinders to mirror yourself to,
and its through the quest of finding a way,
another perspective or expression,
we can heal our judgements, set emotions free and reach self knowledge,

… therefore is parkour integration.