My favorite picture book of all time is Eloise , the sweetly quirky, playful and poignant story of a six-year-old girl who lives at the top floor of the Plaza Hotel with her Nanny.

When I was young, I spent hours gazing at Hilary Knight’s detailed and imaginative illustrations of Eloise traipsing around the Plaza like she owned it. I delighted in the naughty, messy, all-over-the-place Eloise and her antics with her dog, Weenie and her turtle, Skipperdee.

Illustration by Hilary Knight from Eloise by Kay Thompson (c) 1955

My favorite page of the book was a big fold-out section that showed Eloise messing with the elevator operator, driving him bananas by pushing the buttons and riding up and down, then running up and down the stairs so she could push the buttons again. That Eloise, she loved to explore all the floors.

If she had been a girl like me, who followed directions and stayed in the lobby like she was supposed to, it would have been a much different … and frankly, incredibly boring story.

One of the Essential Nutrients of Movement is Explore All The Floors, and it is inspired by Eloise.

Our bodies love to move down near the Earth,

in the middle in the heart plane

and up high, as far as we can reach.

Explore All The Floors is a practice that is both physical and highly practical no matter what you do with your body. Moving low, middle and high can increase your strength, your cardiovascular fitness, and your youthfulness simply by moving your body up and down in relationship to the floor.

Moving your body in relationship to gravity offers a natural, dynamic approach to creating functional physical fitness. By moving your body up and down along the vertical line, you create more strength (especially in the base and the heart) and – super cool bonus! — more youthfulness! This approach takes no special skills or equipment, is one of the most powerful things we can do for our health and even so, it is often neglected, even by experienced movers.

As adults, we are trained to stay in the middle plane: moving from bed to standing to chair (and car) and back again. Somehow, it’s not dignified to get down low or reach up high. When people peek into my classes (in the Before Time when we were in public spaces), one of the comments I often heard was, “Why do you get on the floor?” My answer is always, “Because getting up and down off the floor is one of the best things you can do for your body.” (Cue eyebrow waggling and skeptical face-making from class-peeker.) But it’s true: moving your physical center — your hara (located two inches below your navel) — up and down even a little has tremendous health benefits for bones, muscles, spine, and heart.

Imagine your hara is like Eloise in the Plaza. The more up and down she goes, the more fun the story and better for your body. So when you drop your towel on the floor, drop your center down to pick it up. If your child or your pet wants to play, go down to the floor with them rather than putting them on the couch with you. If you need something off the top shelf, see if you can reach it instead of asking a taller person to get it for you. Even small variations in where your body travels in relationship to gravity can have a huge positive impact.

Please don’t take my word for it: do it yourself. Set a timer for 30 seconds and get down and up off the floor (or stand up and sit down from a chair without using your hands) as many times as you can and see what your heart rate does! In Nourishing Movement, experiment with taking your hara (not your head but your center point) up and down in relationship with the floor…see how you feel!

This week, the mindful movement practice I’ve posted on Insight Timer is all about moving in relationship to gravity. It’s a Developmental Movement practice (inspired by Nia’s 5 Stages of Self-Healing) that goes from floating to creeping to crawling to squatting and finally to standing and walking. You can find the practice here. I hope it inspires and support you to Explore All The Floors.

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