A Change is as Good as a Break (part 1 of 2)

How do you ‘recharge’? After a stressful day at work, what is your mode of ‘relaxing’? Let’s turn this question around: After 2 weeks of lounging on the beach, are you glad to get back to your work/life routines? Certainly the answers to these questions will be as variable as the persons who respond. This brings me to considering exertion-recuperation cycles. Rather than viewing exertion and recuperation as polar opposites, I invite you to consider them on a continuum. They are mutually constitutive, as in a yin-yang relationship. In every exertion, there is some recuperation, and in recuperation there still exists some exertion. For many children, summertime is recuperation from school. Running in the sprinkler is great fun and is recuperative, AND there is a lot of exertion within that activity.

Rudolf Von Laban, father of modern dance, was very influential in the UK during the industrial revolution. He assisted factory workers in becoming aware of their individual styles of Effort phrasing (when did they begin and end a movement phrase, and where was the emphasis within that phrase, what qualities of Effort existed in their tasks, and so on). Not just based on body level activity, he was also exploring the mind-body relationships found within a person’s style of movement phrasing. In making intentional choices in performing a task, the worker could develop a rhythm of exertion and recuperation, and thus not exhaust themselves. This was revolutionary (pun intended) for factories in UK and production increased significantly, NOT because they hired more workers, but because workers could become that much more harmonious and effective in their movements!*

Here are two examples from our time period: the first shows an effective exertion-recuperation cycle, the second illustrates what is NOT efficient exertion-recuperation. (1) EFFECTIVE: Working/exerting at your desk (exertion: sitting, mostly immobile, focus on computer screen, with recuperation when you get up to go to the bathroom) and then walking/recuperating after dinner (exertion: active engagement of most of your senses, increasing cardiovascular rate, with pauses/recuperation when you cross the street). (2) INEFFECTIVE: Working/exerting at your desk (exertion: sitting, mostly immobile, focus on computer screen, with recuperation when you get up to go to the bathroom) and then vegging on the couch watching TV (this is NOT recuperation because you are still immobile and still focused on a screen). Next month I will offer a few insights and explorations to help you deepen your awareness of your personal exertion-recuperation style in movement. For now, let’s get an overview of what exertion-recuperation looks like in a general sense. This is a ‘journalling’ type activity.

Life rhythms (~20 minutes, or as long as you like)

In the following scenarios, consider for yourself, where you find periods of exertion (when are you busiest?) and times of recuperation (when are you relaxing?). Try to articulate some detail for yourself, as this will help you with clarifying your phrasing:

• your life, from birth  present
• a single year
• a month
• a week
• in one day
• in one activity of your day

*Laban, R., and Lawrence, F.C. (1974) Effort: Economy of human movement. (Plymouth, UK: Macdonald & Evans)