baseworks focus vs traditional exercise goals

3.14. Baseworks Focus vs Traditional Exercise Goals — Transcript (English)

Summary:

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Transcript

So now that you’ve reached the end of segment three, I’m curious, what was your perception of focus?

How does it resonate with other women practices you’ve experienced or even your experience up to now in Baseworks?

As Ash had mentioned earlier, you might have given thought to yourself, why did we even develop these foci and all the other Baseworks principles?

The truth is that it really rolled out organically over the years of working with the dedicated group of teachers across thousands of students.

We inevitably had to adapt what we did to support learning across all different levels of health and different individualized circumstances.

So if you can bear with me, I’d like to share a little bit of my personal experience as to why I developed the Focus Framework in Baseworks.

The main thing was really to differentiate it from what was out there in the fitness and wellness approaches.

Typical fitness goals revolve around things like stress reduction, strength, flexibility, mobility, endurance, and cardiovascular health. a lot of wellness practices address similar stuff.

They have a more specific emphasis on well-being and happiness.

And different to that of the fitness narrative, a lot of philosophical and self-development insights are usually woven into supporting what you can get from a wellness practice.

While Baseworks totally supports improvements in these areas, our focus framework leads to quite a bit more.

In a simple and objective way, the foci relate to the body position and awareness of subtle forces that play within each form and transition.

But the concepts are also so metaphorically touching on structure, spatial awareness, and intention.

So throughout segment three, on an objective and practical level, you also saw how the basework’s movement principles support each focus.

In the structure focus, Distributed Activation and micro movements help you sense how gravity affects your body in various positions, developing the foundation to dig deeper into the gravity focus, or an ascendant torsion using the fixing, separating, isolating principle leads to a solid foundation, really similar to that of architecture.

But we can also look at this metaphorically and not only compare it with just any architecture, but Japanese architecture specifically.

So please bear with us while we occasionally nerd out about Japan.

The truth is that much about our time in Japan really influenced the development of Baseworks.

So a strong foundation is essential for the resilience and stability of anything built on it.

The concept of foundation and adaptability to external forces is a key influence in traditional Japanese architecture. in their incredibly resilient, resistant wooden constructions.

These structures are built with a flexible joinery technique and they prioritize adaptability over rigidity.

Traditional Japanese houses are built to slide on a stone base during earthquakes, using flexibility to absorb seismic forces.

This reflects a core architectural philosophy that values adaptability and resistance to external and unpredictable conditions.

In relation to the Baseworks method, this architectural principle is metaphorically woven into the practices approach to movement, which uses techniques that are a deep part of the Baseworks foci and principles.

And this tech allows us to adapt to our ever-changing physical and mental states, and it allows for anyone to adjust the practice quality and increase awareness.

The concept of foundation in Baseworks is less about building an archetypical physical or fitness framework and more about setting yourself up with a personalized approach to movement exploration.

And again, you know, I’ll say this over and over again, that notable physical changes or gains are only the byproducts of the commitment to the practice.

And although it’s always a bonus to see these changes, it’s not our primary goal.

So I could go into deeper, practical and metaphorical aspects of focus, but we’ll save that for another time.

For now, we just ask that you reflect on your experiences with focus during segment three in the segment reflection below this lesson.

And on that note, we’ll see you in the next segment.