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.
My favorite page of the book was a big fold-out section that showed Eloise completely messing with the elevator operator as she would hit the UP button and then run up the stairs ride the elevator up and then run down the stairs, hit the DOWN button and then run up the stairs 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 and her room like she was supposed to, it would have been a much different … and frankly, 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.
Read more