Harness It!

What if being imperfectly perfect means you have infinite possibilities?
Not infinite possibilities in the sense that we can become absolutely anything, regardless of our circumstances. We are each given a body, a history, an environment, genetics, experiences, strengths, and limitations.
But within all of that, there is still an enormous amount that we can influence.
That is personal power.
Many of us know this power exists. We experience it as vitality, vibrancy, positive energy, spirit, or what some might simply call the force of love. We know what it feels like when something inside us is ignited. We feel more alive, more capable, more curious. Sometimes, we even feel a little like a superhero.
But having power and knowing how to use it are two very different things.
One of my kids’ favorite superheroes is Spider-Man, and I still distinctly remember the message: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
That idea has stayed with me.
If we have personal power, then learning how to harness it becomes essential. Otherwise, the very energy that could create something wonderful can become unfocused, destructive, or simply wasted.
Learning how to harness ourselves is really the process of developing skill.

Skill Gives Power Direction

Skill acquisition is the process of taking something that exists as potential and giving it structure.
I love this idea because it applies to almost everything.
You can have strength, but strength without coordination doesn’t necessarily give you more choices.
You can have flexibility, but flexibility without support doesn’t necessarily give you more freedom.
You can have tremendous energy, but energy without direction can become exhausting.
Potential needs structure.
Skill is what gives our potential somewhere to go.
And this is where movement gives us such a beautiful physical metaphor.

Put on Your Harness

Think about the pelvis and hips.
We are given our bones—their shape and their structure. We don’t get to choose the architecture of our skeleton.
But we do have influence over how we use that structure.
The pelvis is a platform sitting on top of the legs, and the hip joints give the legs freedom to move beneath it. When the musculature around the pelvis is working in relationship with the legs, the body has an opportunity to organize itself upward rather than constantly collapsing, gripping, or compressing.
I like to think of this as putting on your harness.
A harness supports you without taking away your freedom.
Imagine stepping into a three-dimensional harness through your hips. The center of your body is supported while your legs are free to move from the hip joints. Think about an infant supported in a swing: their legs simply dangle beneath them. There isn’t a tremendous amount of unnecessary effort happening around the hips to keep everything in place.
As adults, our habits can change that relationship.
We sit. We work. We drive. We dance. We exercise. We repeat movement patterns thousands of times.
Muscles can become overused, underused, shortened, or poorly coordinated. Instead of allowing the hip joints to move freely, we may grip around the front of the pelvis or lose the strength and support behind us.
Then we compensate.
The body is incredibly intelligent. It will find a way to accomplish a task. But the way we accomplish something isn’t always the way that best supports us.
This is where movement becomes more than exercise.
Movement reveals us.
It shows us how comfortable we are with discomfort. It shows us whether we trust our support. It shows us where we grip, where we collapse, where we avoid, and where we don’t yet have a skill.
That has been one of the most important things I’ve ever learned through movement.

“I Guess That’s How It Is.”

There is a phrase I hear around me that creates a surprisingly strong response in me:
“I guess that’s how it is.”
I understand why we say it.
Sometimes life really does hand us something we didn’t choose. There are things about our bodies, our circumstances, our histories, and our genetics that we cannot change.
But there is a subtle difference between accepting what is and deciding that nothing can be done.
“I guess that’s how it is” can sometimes become the end of the conversation.
And when it does, it can become a surrender of personal power.
I’m not interested in blaming people for their circumstances. I’m interested in helping people discover the places where they still have influence.
You are given your bones—their shape and their structure.
But you are also given the extraordinary ability to learn.
You can develop strength.
You can develop coordination.
You can change habits.
You can improve your relationship with your body.
You can acquire skills that weren’t available to you before.
And sometimes those changes can dramatically alter your experience, even when the original circumstances haven’t changed.

Don’t Force the Outcome

This is something I learned personally through dance.
At one point, the flow of movement from my spine through my hip, leg, and foot became pretty messed up, and I developed chronic pain.
Looking back, I can see that I often tried to make my body reproduce what I heard a movement cue to mean or what I saw a teacher demonstrate. Instead of sensing myself and allowing movement to organize through my own body, I tried to force the result.
I was trying to achieve the outcome without having developed the skill that would create it.
That experience became the beginning of a lifelong study of how the body can move and integrate itself.
And it taught me something that I now return to again and again:
Don’t force the outcome. Develop the skill that gives you more choices.
That is such a different approach.
Instead of asking, “How do I make my body do this?”
We can ask:
“What do I need to learn so my body has another option?”
Instead of forcing a position, we develop the support to access it.
Instead of fighting a limitation, we investigate it.
Instead of repeating a pattern because “that’s just how I move,” we become curious about what else might be possible.
This is skill acquisition.
We take potential and give it structure.

Harness It!

Maybe the goal isn’t to eliminate every imperfection.
Maybe the goal is to learn how to harness what we’ve been given.
We don’t control everything.
We don’t choose every starting point.
We don’t get to redesign our bones.
But we can learn.
We can practice.
We can strengthen.
We can recover.
We can become more aware.
We can develop skills.
And every new skill can give us another choice.
Movement has always been healing for me because it has given me a pathway forward through growth and skill acquisition. It has taught me that the body is not simply something to command. It is something to listen to, understand, and develop a relationship with.
So maybe the next time you hear yourself—or someone around you—say:
“I guess that’s how it is,”
pause for a moment.
Maybe there is something to accept.
But maybe there is also something to learn.
Maybe there is a muscle that can become stronger.
A pattern that can become more coordinated.
A habit that can change.
A skill that can be acquired.
A new possibility waiting for some direction.
Because you have been given a body.
You have been given bones—their shape and their structure.
And you have also been given something remarkably powerful:
the ability to harness yourself.
And perhaps that’s what personal power really is—not forcing reality to give us the outcome we want, but developing enough skill, awareness, and choice to participate in creating what comes next.
Harness it.