Reframing failure
FIGHTING THE MONKEY MIND
I am a mover.
A dance artist.
And I am RIVETED by the physical practice that is called FIGHTING MONKEY.
The fundamentals of this practice concerns:
(snippets taken from their website)
With the use of “unorthodox games that aim to provoke creativity and ingenuity”, the development of “Coordination and Rhythm”, “the development of communication within ourselves as well as with our social and physical environment”, they “aim to refine our learning strategies and to create stories which will inspire and feed our vigor for life unity.”
All this as a framework for what they refer to as “fight the monkey mind”.
This mind of ours that runs rampant and leaves a big mess. This mind that blocks us from going where it’s uncomfortable so that we can learn, expand and evolve.
A side note — there are no certified FM trainers. The ones that continuously practice with the founders, Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek , are eventually invited to become what they call “Stray Dogs”. From then on they are welcomed to use the logo and officially say that what they offer is “Inspired by Fighting Monkey”.
For the past three months I have been training consistently “Inspired by Fighting Monkey” with Elke Shroeder, founder of One Animal Movement.
Every “Stray Dog” brings their flavor to the practice.
One very unique and powerful perspective that Elke offers is the possibility of REFRAMING FAILURE.
As we practice we put ourselves in what is referred to as “movement situations” where we explore task oriented exploration with the intention of stepping outside of what is comfortable.
The practice is established to purposefully bring us to a place of physical and mental (and in my opinion emotional) “instability”.
As a participant, to get the most out of the practice, we agree to consciously push our limits and move beyond the point of fatigue so that we can discover where our blindspots are.
Simply said, FAILURE is ESSENTIAL to our evolution.
We collect information such as “where am I weak/strong, limited/agile, stiff/soft, unstable/dynamically aligned?”.
And this in turn enables us to gather awareness of ourselves and how we move.
A potent formula for building RESILIENCE and ALIVENESS.
PUTTING MEANING TO MOVEMENT
One of the main reasons I am so excited about this practice is that I have finally found a well rounded, intelligent and FUN physical practice that I can use as a structure to make connections between PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL and MENTAL MOVEMENT.
What I mean is that I believe that there is a correlation with the way we MOVE OUR BODIES and the way we MOVE ABOUT IN THE WORLD.
Movement IS life.
There is no separation.
My hypothesis is that our physical capacities and deficiencies point at the way we make connections, how we cope with our environment and how we show up in the world.
Let’s consider this idea:
I have very little mobility in my ankles. I wonder if this is a reflection of the fact that I don’t necessarily believe that I will “always land on my feet” in life. I don’t carry the unshakable belief that life has my back and that everything will always workout for the best. I shy away from jumping off even from a short distance from the ground as I am not CERTAIN that I will land well.
My partner has a good range of motion in his ankles. He trusts his capacity to physically jump from a relatively high place and land on his feet. He also carries a firm belief that “life has his back”.
Is this law? Is this true for everyone? Can we say that every person who doesn’t have the confidence of physically landing on their feet from a high jump has no faith in life? Probably not.
What I’m interested in is how we can discover our truth about our limitations, make our own unique connections and then use the practice to transform.
I am on a quest to discover the lasting positive impact this kind of practice, coupled with energy and consciousness work, can have one our lives.
Can you imagine a physical practice where we acquire the benefits of “working out” along with the development of our mental and emotional stamina?
Employing movement as a way to identify strengths, weaknesses and blindspots, and combining it with consciousness work in order to process and integrate.
A mighty combo for TRANSFORMATION.
THE EMOTIONAL COMPONENT TO FAILURE
I realized recently that for most of my life I have been running away from “FAILURE”.
With all honesty I’m not sure why or where it all started. And before I took a moment to question myself on what I believed FAILURE was, I was unconsciously and fiercely driven by it.
There is something in me that says — “You need to get it right, right away!”, “AND it needs to be impressive, accurate, and out of this world amazing!”
The fear of “FAILING” instantly has me stroll down that bad neighborhood in my head, where all the goblins and ghosts reside.
These voices appear whenever I “put myself out there.” Whenever I show up FULLY as myself.
“Don’t FUCK UP” it says.
“Or what?” I wonder
“We won’t love you anymore. We will shame you and tell you you are worthless.”
BOOM! There it is — one of my worst nightmares.
How could I ever survive everyone hating me and telling me I’m worthless, and that what I do has NO meaning or value?
I’m sure you can imagine, with all this going on inside me, the amount of energy, courage and focus I must harness to do something as “minor” as posting a video of me dancing.
I suspect that I am not alone in feeling this way.
Oddly enough, even with all the inner work I’ve done, I hadn’t considered until now, that the best way to move beyond this is to allow myself to FEEL what it would be like if it did happen.
Visualizing all the terrible things that could happen and allowing myself to experience it while “holding my own hand” so to speak.
AND I could also hold my own hand while I explore this.
Accepting this “terrible outcome” as a possibility, processing the emotions that come with it, and then arriving at a place where I SURRENDER to this outcome coming to pass, has great power.
The greatest gift that I have developed and that I keep giving to myself is the reassurance that I can TOLERATE any emotion that comes to pass.
It really feels like a SUPERPOWER.
I know now that I have the RESILIENCE and SELF LOVE to welcome and tolerate all that I might FEEL if I were to face “FAILURE” straight on.
REFRAMING FAILURE — A LIFE PRACTICE
Elke Schroeder said during our practice today — “If you’re frustrated this is great!”
I was elated and relieved to hear this. How refreshing!
Not only is it good, but it is encouraged and fruitful to explore this edge in oneself.
In our society we value finding comfort and stability. No wonder it’s so damn dramatic when we find ourselves in the unknown, under pressure and uncomfortable.
I am on a mission to REFRAME FAILURE for myself and others, by exploring how the FIGHTING MONKEY practice (from Elke Schroeder’s perspective) as well as with my understanding of CONSCIOUSNESS related to ENERGY IN MOVEMENT.
I invite you to join me in living in the question of “how can we shape and transform your lives through movement?”
Let’s dare to “fail” and GET UP again, and again, and again, and again.
Let’s light our INNER FIRE by going beyond what we think is possible and TRANSFORMING how we MOVE about the world:
EMBODIED. EMPOWERED. FULLY SELF- EXPRESSED.
