Why do Inversions Matter?
Within the depth provided by embracing a personal Movement Practice, there's immense potential. It's cathartic to discover how life transforms through the commitment to moving daily.
From learning new skills to refining motor abilities and expanding psychological capacities, life becomes more colorful when we invest in new ways to navigate through time and space.
Inverting oneself is a true gem in this sense. Regardless of age, the joy of discovering the ability to see the world upside down and momentarily escape the tyranny of verticality is unparalleled. Watching someone succeed in rolling, handstanding, or cartwheeling for the first time always generates a glorious and innocent expression of joy, whether that person is six or sixty.
The Power of Play
And why so? What gives inversion its tremendous power to shift and brighten our internal lives? Clearly, no one believes that rolling around or standing on one’s hands will heal a broken heart, mend family relationships, or fast-track a mortgage payment. Yet, in the act, we return to a childlike state and find fulfillment in something that, from a broader perspective, might seem insignificant.
The first reason is, of course, the playfulness of it. We often talk about play and analyze its concept, yet we rarely engage in games that are truly infinite. We tend to use playfulness to describe spaces that are either fake, leisure-based, or nihilistic. An infinite play has no dire consequences, but it has natural constraints and meaningful challenges.
Inversions are an infinite game. There is always room for improvement, no matter how skilled or experienced you are. But the greatest victory is simply to keep playing - an objective independent of economic and social circumstances.
A New Perspective
Another reason lies in the necessity of releasing the mind’s grip when going upside down. The consequences of a sedentary lifestyle and the conditioning to move solely to function within the workforce are well-known and degrading. While many movement patterns help us break out of horizontal routines, none deliver the visceral sensation of doing things differently, quite like dynamic inversions.
When you go upside down, you immediately experience the world from a different angle. Your limbs move in unfamiliar ways: the arms become the primary movers, the hips and legs are the gestures in space, and the tailbone commands the motion. The head becomes merely a weight to be swung underneath - a rebellious act against its authoritarian command for most of the time.
Beyond the First Encounter
However, the challenge lies in going beyond that initial encounter with dynamic inversions. Dry repetition can turn even the most playful activity into something robotic without joy and excitement. As someone deeply passionate about skill acquisition, I believe that constantly discovering new ways to invert is an excellent antidote to monotony.
As a dancer, I also advocate for using inversions not just for health and wellness but for expressive purposes. When this way of moving becomes second nature, it opens the door for deeper self-expression. Our favorite music, personal stories, and even our successes and failures can be transformed into a clownish, animalistic dance of shifting from feet to hands and back again. Here, we draw inspiration from Charlie Chaplin’s words: “Art was an additional emotion applied to skillful technique.”
An Invitation to Invert
Considering all of this, adopting dynamic inversions as a sustained movement practice can become an act of beauty. It aligns with Nietzsche’s idea that life itself can be an artistic pinnacle. Doing things differently is not merely an achievement or principle - it is a purpose in the journey of discovering who we are between birth and death.
Inversions add humor, discipline, and creativity to the art of living. They help us live more beautifully—in other words, more out of the box.
And that, my friends, is something truly worthwhile.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to explore the world of inversions with me. In my online courses, I introduce accessible and thorough methods for this practice. The courses fit suit both for beginning or deepening your journey with dynamic inversions:
For live transmission, I invite you to join our upcoming live U.S. workshop tour, where we will dive into this topic and see how it relates to many creative aspects of the Movement Practice. A significant early bird discount on all events runs until 1.1.2025:
Happy Holidays, Tom
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