Dynamics. LET IT HAPPEN.

My first knowledge of the word dynamics came from taking piano lessons. I was terrible with them as a young pianist. I would just play everything at one volume, nice and loud, with tons of sustaining pedal. This pretty much sums up the first 22 years of my life. The past six years, I have been discovering my own dynamics. Loud and soft, pianissimo, mezzo piano, piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo! Mute, on rare occasions.

I have been thinking about the word dynamic a lot lately, and how it applies to the human body. Ever-changing, never static, reliant upon other elements, a constant balance of change, progression, regression. You see, though I view myself as a relatively smart person, I can be very slow about some things. I know, I know...we do the best we can with the information we are given, and at the proper time it presents itself.  It finally hit me the other day, when I was agonizing over the 4 or 5 pounds I gained over the holidays, that the body is ever-changing. WHAT?! Yes, it never stops changing...it is in constant flux. Nothing ever stays still, so why should my weight?

What I have observed is the cultural desire and the personal aim for every individual to achieve some tangible level of success. "When I lose those last five pounds" or "When my arms are toned" or "When my hair is this color" or "When I have dancer's legs"... We all have these "whens." I'll be happy....when. I want to be happy with myself...whenever. Just because. Because I am, and because I can be.

So, if my body is in a constant state of change, I should LET IT. Sure, if that change all of a sudden balloons up to 10 pounds of weight gain because I haven't been listening to my inner signals and haven't been exercising, it's time to get serious, but four or five? "Come on, give yourself a break Alexis! You've been running yourself ragged the past three months taking nine credits with a lot of extra stress in between. I also happen to have a hip injury. It's also that time of the month. I have been eating too much sugar (thanks Christmas) and have not been hydrating well so it's time to get that water weight flushed out." In general, I have been resting. Naturally, my body used that time to hibernate and store energy. Over the holidays, my body asked for more sleep, and I just LET IT do its own thing. Yes, now it's time to reduce my calories and starting exercising more because I know I need to move again. But now, my body is telling me it's uncomfortable, that it needs to wake up a little, move a little more, eat a little less. I'm going to LET IT have its way there too. There is a time for quiet and a time for loud. I gave my body a good three weeks of quiet. Time to turn up to the volume. :)