Exuberant Animal culture
The Exuberant Animal culture includes elements from martial art, functional fitness, biology, education and popular psychology:
Multi-disciplinary
At first glance, it might appear that matters of the body should fall into the category of "health and fitness." But things just aren't that simple. Not only does the body have an immensely deep and rich history, it also touches a myriad other disciplines: anthropology, biology, biochemistry, history and ecology. And because the human mind plays such a pivotal role in health, we also find ourselves drawn into humanities, literature, music and storytelling. We may think it convenient to pigeon-hole the body into a single discipline, but it's just too big. If we really want to understand how the body works, we have to expand our vision.
Holistic
In popular circles, many of us tend to think of holistic health as a matter of mind-body-spirit. This is a good place to begin, but there is more to the story. For indigenous and aboriginal peoples of Africa, Australia and North America, the holistic perspective includes not just mind-body-spirit, but also tribe, land and ancestors. Almost every account of first people includes references to all six vital elements. At Exuberant Animal, we explore these relationships at every opportunity.
Biocentric
Exuberant Animal is part of the deep ecology movement, a recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind an integral part of the natural world. Hinted at by Charles Darwin in his 1859 Origin of Species, the phrase deep ecology was coined by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss in 1973. This orientation has since been validated by copious scientific research pointing to human commonality with other forms of life.
Emphasis on balance and proportion
At Exuberant Animal, our interest in balance and proportion can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks, Taoists and others who sought out the middle way between extremes. It is an ancient theme that has powerful relevance in today's modern world.
Our first level of interest begins with the body, in our ability to simply manage our upright posture in the field of gravity. Many of our games and movements are practiced on one leg. This makes us better athletes, but it also provides a physical metaphor that ripples out to other levels of organization and experience. When faced with challenge and complexity, we always try to find the sweet spot between hyper and hypo.
Gravity and levity
Our philosophy is animated by both serious inquiry and light-hearted comedy. These two elements complement one another to form a larger whole with great emergent properties. We practice "serious fun."
Both elements have their place. Clearly, there is good reason to focus on fundamentals in training. Many of our games are active and robust; safety is important. So too, we need to respect our practice and each other. We are doing important work that must be honored with due diligence. If we are serious about transformation, we have to dig in.
That said, we also need a counter-balance, a perspective that honors our capacity for folly and absurdity. Comedy is a vital ingredient in every learning environment. By alternating back and forth between gravity and levity, we scramble our thinking and expose ourselves to richer and more illuminating ideas. This combination ultiimately yields up far greater rewards than either gravity or levity alone.
Slow Fitness
At Exuberant Animal, we have little interest in fast food, fast fitness or fast fixes. In a world obsessed with speed at all cost, we seek a different path, one that allows time to savor the experience and maybe take some side trips along the way.
In this way, Exuberant Animal embraces the values of the Slow Food movement and seeks to apply them more broadly to matters of the body. In this, we propose a Slow Fitness movement based on the values of sustainability, community and quality. Health is not something to be pounded into the body with desperate haste. Rather, it is something to be lived throughout life, every day. We take our time.
Intrinsic rewards
Many health and performance programs come with a built-in set of incentives, rewards and punishments. Some have carrots, others have sticks. In some cases, these programs produce short-term results, but mostly they teach people to focus on the wrong thing: the carrots and the sticks.
At Exuberant Animal, we take a different approach. That is, we look for experiences that are intrinsically rewarding, activities that people will do for their own sake. These activities are considered "auto-telic."
Goals and objectives have their place in training, but ultimately, transformation can only be sustained by intense interest in the process itself. Thus we look for ways to fall in love with movement. We look for ways to fall in love with the process. Rewards and punishments are distractions that take us away from the path. Better to focus on the journey.
Pro-social
In the modern world, many people report feeling isolated and alienated from community. To make matters worse, conventional training practices are intensely competitive, further separating individuals from one another.
At Exuberant Animal, we look to build tribe and community through cooperative, non-zero sum games. In this type of game, rewards are basically unlimited. Each person's success contributes to the total effort. Moreover, cooperative games both reward and develop communication skills. The better our ability to express ourselves, the better we all do.
Low-tech, high touch
When it comes to functional movement training, play-based fitness and team building, the less technology the better. We can get great results with gravity, momentum and other human bodies. In a world saturated with digital devices, we desperately need a simpler path, one that reminds us of our primal selves. In a world of scarce resources and skyrocketing energy demands, exercise machines make little sense. Instead we ought to be focusing on appropriate technology, simple toys and tools that support our journey in the simplest possible fashion. Medicine balls, wobble boards, ropes and hula hoops are cheap, durable and infinitely adjustable for different ability levels.
Positively physical
Throughout most of the 20th century, medical science and psychology operated under a "pathologic paradigm." That is, the lion's share of time and resources went towards diagnosing and treating disease and malfunctions of the human mind and body.
This is a worthy practice, but it is also highly limiting. By focusing only on afflictions and negative states, we neglect our capacity for growth, development and discovery. Now, a growing band of psychologists is forging ahead with the positive psychology movement, a discipline based on discovering and growing the human potential.
Likewise, Exuberant Animal looks towards positive, joyful states of physicality. Instead of focusing exclusively on the problems of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, we design experiences that are intentionally pleasureable. This in turn leads to sustainability. Once people learn how much fun and meaning they can experience in physical movement, many of their former problems will simply disappear.
A culture of collaboration
Exuberant Animal is not a top-down, authority-driven hierarchy of expertise or professional knowledge. Instead, it is built on the assumption that all participants have the potential to contribute. Our method aims to be as inclusive as possible.
This is not to suggest that our events are a chaotic free-for-all. There are facts to be learned, sequences to be followed and practices to be adhered to. Our trainers are highly qualified leaders who understand functional movement and group dynamics. Nevertheless, when it comes to vigorous, vibrant movement, we are all capable of creativity and exuberance. By playing together, we often find ourselves inventing new movements and generating new ideas. The process is ultimately co-creative.
