01
Interview __ How did Yumiko Kageura get to know Movement Medicine?
Yumiko Kageura, organizer of Movement Medicine.
Kageura moved to a Satoyama row house in Fujino a few years ago.
She used to work for a big company, but what was the main reason for her change to a free and relaxed lifestyle in the Satoyama?
She is a natural, dignified beauty and strength, with a sense of gentle kindness. Even she had an experience of burnout and illness. What saved her then was the wisdom of 'movement medicine', which she received by listening to her body's voice.
At work, she was overworked and tired and collapsed in the middle of the night and was taken to an ambulance. Once she had calmed down, she went to a psychosomatic clinic where she was prescribed anti-depressants and painkillers.
When she took the medication, her thoughts became more and more unstoppable, and when she thought about one thing, she would start thinking about this, that and the other, what about that? and my thoughts became overactive about three or four times more than normal. You could also say that painkillers make you deaf to your body's way of saying 'I'm in pain'.
Not all drugs are bad, but for my body at that time, I felt that my mind was working too hard and the painkillers were causing an imbalance between my mind and my body," says Kageura. Kageura says.
She worked for a while while off the medication, but when she became busy again, she lost the balance of her autonomic nervous system due to overwork, and one night her sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves switched every two hours.
Feeling her body in such an extreme state made her realise how she had been suppressing her body's voice with her thoughts and forcing herself to work hard, and how important it was to listen to her body's voice.
In 2015, Kageura quit her job and joined a Movement Medicine class that had just started in Tokyo. She liked exercise but disliked dance. But there was something about Movement Medicine that was more than just moving your body to a rhythm, something like a depth that caught my attention. When I actually did it, it felt like nothing I'd ever experienced before and I thought, "What's happening to my body? She felt she had to do it again to find out what had happened, and decided to continue with the classes.
As she explored her body and emotions through Movement Medicine, she wanted to explore more and more why this was happening and decided that the only way to do this was to go to the root of it all, the School of Movement Medicine in the UK. What she learnt on the School's programme was to meet herself through her body.
This is how she came to explore Movement Medicine and to share this method with those who seek it, as she once did.
Reference link ____
School of Movement Medicine UK Main School
02
Interview __ What does it mean to integrate Movement Medicine into your life?
We asked Yumiko Kageura what changes can be made by incorporating Movement Medicine into your life. We explored some tips from her real life experiences. This is presented in the form of an interview.
— Kageura-san practices Movement Medicine, but why did you choose it over other methods such as yoga?
I needed to allow my body to move freely under the "everything is yes" philosophy of movement medicine, to let it do what it wanted to do, rather than trying to fit myself into the mould of some method. It was about remembering the obvious: that I own myself.
I think movement medicine is a way of focusing on 'me' and exploring the real 'me'.
— What exactly is Movement Medicine about?
Let me first give you an overview of Movement Medicine, Movement Medicine is the idea that body movement is medicine.
Movement Medicine is a new bodywork and unconventional dance created by the English couple Suzana and Jacob Darlingcan in 2006. It is not so much a dance as a formless, natural movement of the body.
There are many different methods of movement medicine, some that work alone and some that work in relationship. We dance in relationship with me and you, me and my community, me and the invisible beings, me and the Great One. Some of them give me a sense of connection with the present, the past, the future and the whole forest.
I remember the first time I took a class, I felt something I had never felt before.
I didn't have the words to describe it at the time, but now I think it was something as seemingly simple as 'moving my body freely'.
It is not easy to be suddenly told that you can move freely. In everyday life and in sport, for example, we first have a pattern that works, such as 'grip the racket' or 'hit the ball', and then the head commands the body to move in a way that follows that movement.
But in Movement Medicine, the important point of the method is that I can allow my body to move in ways that I do not intend.
Allowing the body to move in a way that is not intended by Movement Medicine is something that is not normally done (or possible), so the body feels free.
Also, no one says anything, no matter how strange the movement is. Or rather, everyone moves so spontaneously that I feel even freer. As I moved, I felt an increased sense of happiness and a sense of myself opening up freely.
I didn't think about it much at the time, but the normal chain of command in the body is 'head -> mind -> body' or 'head -> mind -> head -> body', but it felt the other way around: I think that by moving my body it changed to 'body -> mind -> body -> head' and something unusual happened.
It is often said in the field of psychology that you can't get angry while doing the "Hail Mary", but I think this is also a phenomenon of the instruction system that is mainly transmitted by the body.
— Who should attend a Movement Medicine course?
A sore neck, blurred vision, a feeling of heaviness in the body...
Every small signal is an important message from your body.
You can ignore it, pretend you don't notice and carry on, or you can take medication to suppress the painful symptoms. In today's society, where thinking has become dominant, most people will do this.
The body will work hard even if the messages are ignored, but if you keep working hard without taking time to rest and recover, you will eventually reach your limit. In the meantime you may be carrying a bigger message, such as an even bigger illness or injury.
Our bodies never want to bother us. The body is a unique and precious being that will be with us from birth to death.
Why don't you listen to your body and get to know it better?
We hope that the Movement Medicine Retreat in the rich natural environment of Fujino will be an opportunity to listen to your body's voice and an invitation for you to live a richer and more fulfilling life.
03
Interview __ We have experienced Movement Medicine ourselves.
The author, who had recently felt that her autonomic nervous system tended to be ataxic and that she was having trouble sleeping, actually experienced Movement Medicine.
My autonomic nervous system has been ataxic for a number of years. When I consulted an acupuncturist and a Chinese doctor, they both agreed that I was not moving enough.
I was then invited to attend a workshop called 'Movement Medicine', where 'free movement is medicine', which was perfect for me.
However, I was in my 40s and had lived a life that had little to do with dance. I feel that dancing in front of people is something very special, and I am also very reluctant to dance myself.
But when I experienced Movement Medicine, I can sum it up in one word: it was very good.
It is difficult for me to verbalize how I, a person who is not comfortable with dancing, was guided by Mrs Kageura's Movement Medicine and was able to enjoy the retreat both physically and mentally.
First of all, I felt the power of 'place'.
It is not easy to create an environment where you can move freely and no one is bothered, even if you try to do it alone.
In Mrs Kageura's Movement Medicine class, a free "place" emerged as she led us.
The power of this "field" was one of the important factors that allowed me to concentrate on Movement Medicine.
As I mentioned before, I am very reluctant to dance in front of others. However, in Ms Kageura's Movement Medicine class, I was a little apprehensive at first, wondering what was going to happen, but then Ms Kageura led us to "move your shoulders" as a trigger for movement, and when she said "yes to any movement", I began to be able to focus on my own movements.
It is difficult to put into words, but I recall that it was like entering a bit of a meditative state where I was no longer concerned with the way others (and perhaps myself) looked at me.
What I realized after the Movement Medicine experience was that usually I was always hearing some kind of noise (the noise here is like various unpleasant noises or pressure to do something I did not want to do). Conversely, I realized that there is a state where I can focus on myself and not hear the noise.
In other words, I realized that there is a world outside the world in which I am completely embedded, and I could feel the possibility of other worlds. I felt that I had glimpsed such possibilities.
As I've only experienced this once, I don't think it means that my autonomic nervous system has begun to function normally. But I definitely feel something like a sign that homeostasis has been restored.
I also felt that by moving my body freely, I was able to meta-recognize myself, and as I did so, my mind also became freer.
Thank you so much.
I would love to come again!