Tag Archives: movement

athletics, exercise, fitness, health, lifestyle

The Importance of Listening to our Bodies

By Eileen Kim

I am a dancer. One of the greatest gifts that dance has given me that I apply to my everyday life is awareness of my physical body.  Dance has given me the time and space to be fully aware of all of the possibilities my body holds. It has given me an understanding of what I can only corporeally know, creating space for me to listen to my body. For me, there is no separation between life and dance because we are constantly in motion even when we are still. There is choreography in our everyday life, whether we are continuing patterns or creating new ones. Therefore I find that listening to our bodies and being aware of our physical bodies should become a daily practice, especially in the difficult circumstances of the present time. 

Photo of Eileen dancing

Our bodies are hyper-intelligent vessels that have the ability to hold and absorb an incredible amount of information. The body often understands things that are happening to us before we are consciously able to understand them. For example, as infants we enter into stages of crawling and walking through the intelligence of our bodies. Most of us can’t remember when we first started crawling or walking, but our bodies remember even when our memories forget. Before we learn how to speak or read, we first understand the world through our physical bodies. The intelligence of our bodies is limitless and when we allow our bodies to take over and find time to listen to our bodies, I believe we will be surprised by how much our bodies have to say. 

Eileen expressing movement through dance

So how do we go about listening to our bodies? Connecting to our bodies can happen in multiple ways. For me, I find time to connect through my daily practice in dance. However, I believe that listening to the body can happen whenever we consciously choose to do so. Physical activity might be a gateway to understanding how to listen to our bodies because we are constantly sending signals between our brain and body when we are moving. However, this connection can be lost if we are not conscious of how we move. Being distracted while moving is a significant problem of our generation. Treadmills and ellipticals in gyms have TV’s, we text and walk, or check our emails while commuting.  These distractions, while engaging in any type of movement, make us skim through the process of listening to the body.  Therefore, it’s important to understand that even in stillness, we have the ability to tune in to our bodies. A quick body scan at the beginning or end of the day can make a huge difference in our wellbeing. Try asking yourself the following questions:

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activism, Advice, Asian American, Cultural Exchange, culture, L.A. Life, Outlook, USC

USC Student Voices on Black Lives Matter

[15 minute read]

Editor’s Note:

Unprecedented times call for unique actions. Oftentimes it is easy to forget that history is not a thing of the past, but rather something that is being created every day. A large and powerful university such as USC has a significant influence on its community, and that community spans from on campus inhabitants to the Los Angeles population to the United States as a whole. Students and faculty have a choice, as part of a major institution, to make their voice be heard through the variety of platforms, privileges, and opportunities through which USC has afforded us with.

When we observe discrimination, particularly in a time where information is so easily accessible, it is imperative that we educate ourselves and raise awareness for others. The voices of the Black Lives Matter movement and families across the country who have experienced losses similar to those of George Floyd’s family need to be heard. The death of George Floyd, as well as the economic consequences of COVID-19 occurring at the same time, have made it clear that certain members of our community, especially minorities and low-income families, are not being granted the rights that our country is founded on. As a part of the USC community, the USC American Language Institute recognizes these problems and leaders in some of our programs have stepped forward and written their own thoughts and reflections on the matter at hand.

The American Language Institute bridges an important gap on USC’s campus: the gap between domestic and international students. As students in the United States, it is important that all members of the USC community remain open and informed about the history that still plagues America to this very day. Three students have written about this movement, not only in the context of America and USC, but in the context of other minorities (particularly Asian Americans) who also play a significant role in shaping America’s history. We have united these voices, and below you will find three articles: Yellow Peril: What Black Lives Matter Means To Us by Tina Wang, Black Lives Matter: What Is It? by Kaitlin Foo, and Privilege in the Light of COVID-19 by Sarah Ta. Through these voices we hope you find inspiration and knowledge to help shape your own role in the history that is being made around us at every moment. The USC American Language Institute embraces our international community with open arms as well as the community at large, and we hope you will find some of your questions answered through these articles.

-Natalie Grace Sipula, Editor

YELLOW PERIL: WHAT BLACK LIVES MATTER MEANS TO US

By Tina Wang

As I am sitting here on a Wednesday morning writing this article, I am filled with disappointment and sadness for what has been occurring in this country. For those who are not aware, protests and riots have consumed the nation in the past week over the recent death of an African American man, George Floyd. On May 25, George Floyd was detained by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a local store owner reported suspicions that Floyd was attempting to purchase a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit bill. In the ensuing encounter, Officer Derek Michael Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes while Floyd proclaimed, “I can’t breathe,” and “Don’t kill me.” After those eight minutes, he suffocated. Recorded on video tape, for 2 minutes and 53 seconds after the victim became unresponsive, Chauvin maintained his knelt position. George Floyd later passed away, and several different autopsies have produced different results, some claiming that his death was due to pre-existing heart conditions, and other independent studies stating that his death was a direct result of homicide by asphyxiation. The video of this encounter quickly surfaced on the internet and spread like wildfire throughout the country, with people nationwide crying “Black Lives Matter” and demanding that justice be served to the officers who were involved in his death. Because of national outrage, former officer Chauvin’s charge with third-degree murder was updated this afternoon to second-degree, and three other officers involved were charged for aiding in murder. 

Photo by munshots on Unsplash
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