Finding Home in Your Body: The Art of Internal Navigation

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The Familiar vs. The Unknown

Have you noticed how different it feels to drive somewhere new versus familiar? Even with the most sophisticated GPS, we feel disconnected in unfamiliar territory, helplessly dependent on that digital voice telling us to “recalculate.” But driving home needs no navigation – we flow through the journey, choosing routes based on traffic, weather, or simple whim, each choice informed by an internal map built through experience.

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Moving Through Space

This same contrast exists in how people inhabit their bodies. Many move through their physical experience like tourists in an unfamiliar city – following prescribed routes, hesitating at each junction, unable to sense what lies around the next corner. When pain or limitation appears, they feel stranded without their usual guidebook, unsure how to find their way back to comfort. But those who’ve developed an internal map move differently. They explore their range of motion with confidence, sensing options and possibilities. They understand their body’s terrain – not through memorized anatomical terms, but through lived experience. When challenge or discomfort appears, they can navigate around it with the same ease as choosing an alternate route home.

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Building Your Internal Map

As movement teachers, we have the privilege of helping others develop this internal navigation system. When a student tells us they’re “lost” in a movement, they’re often literally experiencing that same disconnection as driving in an unfamiliar city. Try this right now: Without moving, sense the space behind your heart. Feel how your shoulder blades create a protective embrace around it, like two hands cupping something precious. Notice how this awareness immediately shifts your posture, your breath, your sense of three-dimensional space in your chest. This is the kind of embodied knowledge that transforms both our teaching and our students’ experience. When you guide a student to imagine their pelvis as a bowl of water, they naturally find their level. When you describe the arch of the foot as a suspension bridge, they intuitively engage their intrinsic foot muscles. These aren’t just pretty metaphors – they’re tools that help create that internal GPS.

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Three Ways to Build Body Awareness

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Here are three ways to start building this awareness in your practice today:

1. For Foot alignment: Imagine standing in wet sand. Visualize the imprint of your sole, sensing the shape of your heel (both sides) and all ten toes. Allow your ankles and shins to shift as you accommodate this broader connection with the earth.

2. For Spinal articulation: Imagine your torso as a lighthouse, with the pelvis as its solid base and the ribcage as the light house keeper’s room. Watch how this image naturally creates length and stability, differentiating rotation between the ribcage, waist and hips.

3. For Breath integration: Feel the areas that are floating on your breath - riding the inhalation and moving with the exhalation. If no movement is felt, take another breath and wait until the invitation for that deeper engagement is sensed. Using breath in this way will help you to instinctively maintain alignment in any practice.

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The Pathway Through Pain

This internal navigation system becomes particularly valuable when we encounter roadblocks in our movement journey. Just as we naturally find alternative routes when our usual path home is blocked, our bodies have innate detours around areas of discomfort. When a student experiences pain, we can help them explore their internal map more precisely. Like a GPS showing both the blocked route and available alternatives, we guide them to notice not just where movement feels restricted, but also where it flows freely. This detailed mapping reduces anxiety and builds trust in their body’s natural ability to find new pathways. With practice, they learn to navigate around temporary obstacles while maintaining their sense of direction – just as we confidently choose alternate routes on a familiar journey.

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What if you had the knowledge to create these types of direct connections with every part of your body? Instead of getting more technical with your practice, imagine becoming more intimately connected with your internal map.

This March, I’m excited to offer two complementary series designed to deepen your anatomical understanding through both theory and practice:

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Practical Anatomy for Movement Teachers : March 17 - April 14 | Monday Evenings 6:00-7:30 PM PST

Discover how your body moves and functions through clear, relatable anatomy. Experience each concept through guided exploration and awareness practices. This hands-on approach integrates mobility practice with anatomical understanding, allowing you to inhabit your internal landscape fully as you learn to chart it for others.

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Applied Anatomy in Your Gyrotonic Practice: March 21 - April 18 | Thursday Evenings 6:00-7:30 PM PST

Immerse yourself in functional anatomy through your Gyrotonic practice. This innovative 5-week series offers an experiential journey through the body's key anatomical systems, helping you embody anatomical concepts through mindful movement practice.

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Ready to connect with the body in a whole new way?

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Because when we truly understand our body’s map, we can guide others to find their way home.

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Yours, in movement
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Domini Anne

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