One of the best things about practicing parkour is how our worldview changes over a period of time. As children we would have had this habit of seeing ourselves do things in the real world. that was our primary way of interacting with the world around us before we actually got moving and started doing actions that affect our environment. If you try and think about it you may have memories of times where you would have stared at a tree or a building and then imagined yourself doing actions like climbing and jumping and rolling and constructing a story around all the actions that you could possibly do in the building or a tree. For me a lot of times it was the actions that led to a story and then imagination took over to a point of absolute chaos. It was a fun way of interacting with what was around me at that point of time and I was not restricted by my physical capacities or any kind of social stigma. I could just stare at the space around me while my brain was concocting the most fantastic activities.
As we grow older we get more and more into our heads and thoughts and emotions than actually looking out at the world and interacting with the various structures and people in it. Parkour breaks this limitation that we place upon ourselves due to various experiences and concepts of how we should behave and think and act within certain boundaries of propriety and social confirmation.
In parkour training the first step is to look at the environment with an open mind and see what is first available. You look at the people, look at the railings, you look at the ramps, the surfaces, path the pathways that are available in front of you, the various patterns that emerge from the constructions and the people interacting together.
As we keep looking slowly we start seeing spaces and places where we can move around. Even before actually moving, we picture ourselves trying to climb a wall or vault over a railing or balancing on the same railing or squeezing through a small gap or dropping down and rolling or just generally running through. It is these possibilities of movement that make a space look inviting , exciting and parkour friendly.
As parkour practitioners it is important for us not to fall into the trap of searching for a space where we can practice our moves and instead look actually at a space and think about all the different ways in which we can explore the space using our physical and mental capacities. It is not about whether I can do a monkey vault over a wall but whether I can try a 100 different ways of crossing that wall which( might be the wall or the what lies next to the wall ) is unique to this particular space.
It is this simplicity in parkour which makes it extremely inclusive of all people regardless of age, physical capacities, sex or athletic backgrounds. It is the process of thought creating movement and movement creating ideas and ideas enriching our thoughts which make parkour a fantastic practice in our everyday lives.