A Phenomenological Exploration of Relaxation as a Movement Skill

ABSTRACT This article takes a phenomenological approach to explore the phenomenon of relaxation as a movement skill. The phenomenological perspective takes inspiration primarily from selected works of Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Samuel Todes, and Kym Maclaren. The author explores the phenomenon of relaxation as a movement skill by analysing three situations: 1) the new-born embracing and being embraced in interpersonal relaxation, 2) the “relaxed attack” approach of elite athletes, and 3) the yogi’s experience of finding relaxation in shavasana (dead man's pose). The analyses draw on the phenomenological framework of Husserl’s concepts of “passivity”, Maclaren’s idea of “letting oneself be” and Todes’ conceptualisation of a spatiotemporal field further illustrates how the body’s unity with the world. The conclusion suggests that relaxation is an ambiguous movement skill, simultaneously an intrinsic part of being alive as a human being, a precondition for all movement capability and an achievement in its own right.