Failure Isn’t the Opposite of Success
If I were to make a list of the "necessary evils" of learning and growing, failing would certainly be on it. But even using the word "failure" triggers negative emotional responses for many—fear, shame, sadness—because that label carries significant normative weight. We assume that if we have "failed," we aren't "good enough" in some moral way, rather than attributing the failure to any number of mundane miscalculations, missteps, or happenstance. Whether we "fail" at something, though, depends on the goals we set and the latitude we give ourselves to engage in exploration. Failure/success is a false dichotomy: there are infinite shades of gray, progress that seems nonlinear, and learning and growth that can only happen by finding out what doesn't work. That's true whether we're talking about the work you do in the gym or your movement practice, or the work you do politically in your community.
Movements Start with movement
Physical training and physical movement are inherently politicized because bodies are political, but they are themselves the foundation for building a political practice. Political transformation requires hard work, discipline, and commitment. Who knows those patterns better than people who practice physical movement?
Mentorship Matters
Mentorship should be a community resource. Instead, we're offered something co-opted and cheapened by our capitalist landscape. That’s where political peer mentorship comes in.
What’s Love Got To Do With It
One could construe love as the most fundamental necessary evil in existence — without it, we probably wouldn't experience relational pain or grief or loss, but we also would lack senses of care and connection. In that sense, there is no perfect love, only a process of finding out how we want to feel it, give it, receive it. And from there, that love can add up to all kinds of messy and beautiful things in our communities if we let it. This is your invitation into that practice and process of discovery: don't settle for what you know already exists, but rather let your first act of this new kind of love be letting yourself search for something more.
3 things you can do right now as a movement guide
If you've caught yourself thinking "...but I'm just a [personal trainer / yoga teacher / coach / artist / performer / dancer / juggler / bodyworker / etc.]" this is for you. It's easy to feel powerless or helpless or like you aren't the "right type" of person to contribute in this moment, but the truth is that everyone has something to offer, and how you act in this moment can determine the path we chart collectively. Here are a few things you can do.
Why Your Physical Practice Is Political
The physical practices you engage in — strength training, stretching and mobility, calisthenics, acrobatics, handstands, yoga, dance — are political practices. I am not the first or only person to have this insight, but I want to express it definitively because it's at the center of the work I do, as well as how I understand my own personal movement in the world.