Today we speak to @katrinurwitz, an artisan dance-shoemaker, tango dancer/teacher and Tai Chi practitioner/teacher based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What does this quote mean to you?
A. The statement suggests that there is a difference between me and my body and I guess many times that’s how we perceive it and how western society treats the physical body, as something disconnected from other parts of us – our mind and spirit.I believe the “others” we want to like and approve of us/ our body, are just as much inside of us as outside and many times we are our own hardest judges. When we accept the life and body we have been given we can make peace with the things we can not change and change the things we actually can change.
What does your body mean to you? What do you understand under the word body?
A. My body is my physical existence. It’s what allows me to be, feel, think and love.
How do you think that society and modern life affects our bodies & health?
A. Society has a huge impact on our well-being. Apart from the obvious such as overconsumption, poor nutrition and ultra processed foods, climate change and pollution etc, etc, etc. The stress of modern life takes its toll on many of us and when we get sick we tend to treat only the symptoms and not the causes.
What does the word awareness mean to you?
A. Awareness is key to any kind of inner peace. To become aware of what I do, think, project, expect, is a very important step — to ask oneself “are my actions actually aligned with my words? Am I going in the direction where I want to go?”
How you define nutrition? Is it just food or maybe more?
A. We mostly think of food when we hear the word nutrition but actually we need to nurture ourselves in many different ways, not only related to what we ingest through the mouth.
We need to move our body and we also need to rest, to regenerate and repair our system. We need to feed our skin with contact, our hands need to feel and touch and our eyes need the sun, the sea, forests and open fields to look out on every once in a while. We also need to feed our thoughts and our brain, interacting with other people or learning new things for example. We need to connect with other people and with the world
Art by @_dinka_kartinka_