The Inner Excellence of Parkour – everyone can do parkour

What do you imagine when you hear the word parkour? Some of you might be well-versed in parkour, embracing it as a part of your movement practice. Others may feel like it’s not a possibility– you envision the extremes or restrictions. The truth is parkour is a form of discovery and potential liberation. It can be a great method for self-exploration as you move into midlife. For me, parkour is about identity. It changes and transforms every day.

I see who I am.

Inside.

By how I approach what I can do outside.

Parkour allows you to explore, navigate the world with curiosity, interact, play, challenge, overcome obstacles and move for the joy of movement’s sake!

There are many definitions of parkour, most of them will change depending on who you ask. For some it’s about getting from point A to point B in the most efficient way. I prefer to think of it as learning to overcome obstacles. These can be physical, mental, or emotional barriers that are holding you back.

It can be literally the brick wall in front of you.

Simultaneously it can be the fear of what MIGHT happen if you attempt to go over that brick wall. And the emotions of committing to take a step towards the wall. Knowing what those steps are and the reality of what you feel in your mind and body at that moment.

You can be the most physically capable person, but committing to that movement stirs a new mental barrier within you. Parkour provides an opportunity for you to witness and experience your own fears. It allows you to break boundaries, and evolve alongside your movement. To witness who you are in that moment of decision or indecision on any given day. And that is always changing.

This is the essence of the inner excellence of parkour that I want you to explore.

Parkour forces an internal and external transformation in a really powerful way.

When it comes to any movement practice, the challenges we face overflow into our lives. The crossover. When many people move their bodies, they disconnect from their minds. In reality, everything’s connected. We live in constant synergy with our mind, body, and soul.

Some people stay trapped within their own ego of accomplishment within their movement practice and never truly fully benefit from the depths of the practice by transferring the wisdom gained from one aspect of their life into another.

When you’re building physical resilience, you’re building it mentally. For some people, parkour is solely about achievement. It’s often seen as extraordinary physical movement in unlikely spaces. And it is spectacular! There are feats currently being achieved that most of us agreed never knew were possible. It is a lived and evolving culture.

When you open the wide lens of parkour, there’s a lot to break apart and observe. Your mindset begins to shift. Parkour in many ways trains your brain how to reimagine obstacles. For example, if you’re looking at a park bench, normally you would think let me take a seat? If you are practicing parkour, you start seeing the dimensions, your perspective broadens. You begin to think, could I go over it, under, around, on top? The bench becomes so much more. You begin to plan your movement and reimagine something you once would have seen as impossible or in simpler terms.

Parkour encourages a new way of thinking. Of possibility, expansion, creativity, courage and curiosity. Similar to the bench, the same thing goes for you as well. When you dig deep and broaden your perspective, what do you see? You begin to unravel this fixed identity and discover the layers of yourself. The inner you. And like the bench you are not ‘just’ who you are.

There’s freedom in this as you step into new possibilities. The inner excellence of parkour is less the action itself, and more about self-reflection. The parkour mirror. Whether it’s a big or small movement, you get to see who you really are. Maybe you start asking yourself, can I do this? Am I emotionally prepared for this? Will I follow through? Our brains are good at creating these excuses that can hold us back. Spoiler alert… you are not your brain!

Brains like safety, it’s a key driver to our everyday unconscious way of living. (another blog on this vast subject coming soon). To navigate our way from the inner , or sometimes very loud and clear dialogue of “can’t won’t, never” to dipping your toe in the water, to take a step towards, to begin the journey of progressions no matter how miniscule is essential.

Similar to parkour, we change every day. Every cell in our body is replaced every seven years. We weren’t created to stay the same forever! We have to be open to this change and work alongside ourselves. Ryan Holiday writes that the obstacle is the way, my suggestion is that if you are the obstacle, how much are you getting in the way?

But it’s also important to listen to what comes up for you during these challenges. To clear this mental space for yourself when you’re moving. To feel and be safe. With parkour, you need focus. It forces you into the present and demands your attention. There are no thoughts about the on-going ‘to do’ list, the reply to an email. Parkour challenge needs you to be in the NOW. A rare state in a world full of dopamine induced, good, bad and shiny distractions.

This should be a priority for any practice you take on. Don’t think about what you’re making for dinner, or when you have to get on that next conference call. Give yourself that window of time to experience your body and mind. What are they telling you? Are they working together, or is your mind resisting? Has it been so long since you’ve been able to turn off the incessant chatter of anxiety and life’s self-induced critique that it feels freakishly liberating or are you blissed out at the notion of that possibility? Movement is emotional! These are the moments when you start to unravel the layers of yourself and reach clarity.

When was the last time you asked yourself to be brave?