Suspension: the Life Between Two Deaths
On Saturday, I took a master class with Eric Parra, a dancer in the Limón Dance Company of NYC. It felt like a return to my roots since my modern dance teacher in college was trained in the Limón technique. It was fundamental to my practice and understanding of modern dance, and having the privilege of dancing in that style again with someone who dances it every day was freeing and comforting at the same time. At one point during class, Eric encouraged us to think of the suspension of the body in the air as a life between two deaths. The deaths are the stillness, or stagnancy, that the body lives in before suspension, and falls into, thanks to gravity, after suspension. Therefore, choosing to feel and express as much life as we could during the moment of suspension creates the most physical expansion and visual interest. How far could we stretch? How long could we hold ourselves up? How much energy could we exude?
It is such a beautiful and applicable metaphor for work and life. We could look at waking and going to sleep as “two deaths,” and the day in between as the suspension of life. Or we could look individually at any project we are working on, experience we are going through or task we undertake in the same light. I love the concept of suspension because it implies being held on either side, anchored, like a suspension bridge, in solidity. It is the way we choose to move between each beginning and end that determines our life. It is the process that matters.
The second definition of “suspension” according to Merriam-Webster is, “the act of hanging.” This brings to mind a hammock and leads me to wonder if life is actually more about surrender and allowing ourselves to hang between two points with ease and grace than it is about eking the life out of something. I have been exploring the concept of surrender personally lately, and I am finding it is harder for me than pushing, proving, achieving. To surrender, allow, receive, hang in the balance, requires a certain amount of “suspense,” of tension, growth and acceptance of the unknown that is at the very least, uncomfortable.
The cultural and societal paradigm I was raised in (and I suspect many of you were as well) taught me to prove myself, achieve (often at a high cost) and push through until I accomplished a goal. The goal was what was important. Keeping your eye on the prize was prized above all. Yet, as I grow and learn, I discover that what I actually value and where I find the most life is in surrender, suspension, letting myself hang between two deaths with ease as a creative trapeze artist flying through space.
As a follow up lesson later in class as we moved across the floor, Eric asked us to take the biggest step we could to begin. Take up space! Begin with greatness and faith in our ability to step out in a big way. Take risks! Falling was only positive evidence that we had risked and began movement with gusto. Be fearless! The suspension was all the more intriguing and exciting to witness when we were all in.
Therefore, the way to give suspension, aka life, clear direction and greatness of purpose, is by taking the biggest step we can to give our bodies, minds and spirits momentum. This could mean making that call you’ve been dreading, but you know you must make in order to move forward in your business. It could mean choosing to invest in yourself and learning a new skill. It could mean physically stepping forward into an event or experience that feels scary but calls to you. Or it could mean starting a hard conversation with a loved one.
When we take a big, often hard, step to begin, we find each consecutive step a bit easier because we trust ourselves to keep breathing life into each suspended moment with increasing courage. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey wrote as Habit 2, “begin with the end in mind.” Based on this lesson, I might adjust this habit for myself to: begin with the biggest step possible towards the end in mind to create greatness in between. For the in-between, the process, the journey, is where the learning, the growth, the life happens. When we are brave enough to stretch, suspend and surrender to life in each moment, the end may be more beautiful and grand than we could ever imagine.
How can you breathe life into suspension in this present moment - physically, mentally, emotionally?
