In the evenings, when chores are complete, and we have eaten dinner, I typically recline next to my husband and we watch a movie or series before we turn in for the night. I make sure to sit up or I will fall asleep! I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself clueless about whatever we were watching as I slept through part or all of it. As of late it seems that my eyes work a lot like the eyes of the dolls I had as a child. Upright, eyes open. Laying down, or reclining, they tend to close. Having a snack or getting up occasionally and stretching helps prevent this.
One particular evening, as I lay next to my husband, I noticed that my feet hurt. ‘I have been on them all day,’ I told myself, ‘of course, they hurt’. As I walked to the kitchen to grab a snack, I noticed my bare feet clinging to the floor. It’s almost like they were grasping the earth as if I might suddenly float away! I observed tension in my toes, my calves, my hamstrings, and up into my lower back that I hadn’t noticed before. There was a story there. There was a tale my body wanted to tell me about choices and decisions I had made that were not correct for me and made me feel as if I needed to ‘hold on’ to the ground.
Our bodies communicate with us constantly. They speak to us about what is good for us, what isn’t good for us, what is aligned for us, and what isn’t. Unfortunately, most of us are not listening. It’s not that we are intentionally ignoring what our bodies are trying to tell us. It’s that we don’t remember how to interpret the language of the body and are conditioned to believe that there is almost always something ‘out there’ hurting or disturbing us. Yet much of the time our tension, pain, or discomfort is our body's attempt to communicate with us that something isn’t correct for us and needs to be addressed.
Our body’s awareness resides below our consciousness and is non-verbal. It is always on, paying attention, and keeping a record of our responses, and reactions, to our environment and whatever, or whoever, is in it. It always tells the truth, because it cannot lie, unlike the ego mind, and to reiterate, cannot use words. It speaks symbolically using different parts of our bodies as a mode of communication.
I have been a body-worker and worked in alternative healthcare in various capacities for over 23 years. I am semi-retired currently, only seeing a small, exclusive clientele. Some of my clients are quiet while others are quite talkative. But whether they verbalize, or not, their bodies are always speaking.
A big part of my job has been to pay close attention to subtle clues, and sometimes not-so-subtle ones their bodies give me so that I can address, as specifically as possible, that which is problematic. And I can tell you that what ails most people is rarely something external to them. The way we walk, hold ourselves, or do any activity is flavored by our internal landscape. There is no way around that. Where there is tension there is little flow or life force, and that area will be dysfunctional, and in time become painful. Where there is ease there is flow, relaxation, and life force. Most of the time, barring an accident, what is occurring within us is mirrored in our physical vehicle and involves a long, overdue conversation that our body would like to have with us.
My practice is Yin Yoga. I am working through my own trauma and stress patterns using inquiry when I meet resistance and it has been very enlightening and healing. It’s one thing to know something but another thing to actively use it in your own life, consistently. I had shelved my practice for a few years after my hospitalization. I wasn’t ready to ‘go there’, but I am glad to say that I am back at it and it’s been a wonderful journey.
It doesn’t matter what embodiment practice one uses. Find one that works for you. The idea is to build a bridge from the mind to body awareness and then look to that awareness to lead you.
In Human Design (I am also a Human Design Specialist) it is understood that the mind is not intended to be one’s authority. One’s authority resides in the body. The body has an intelligence that mankind seems to have forgotten but it is there nonetheless. Small children understand this but are rarely encouraged to cultivate this awareness. The mind is to be the body’s passenger, rather that it’s driver, and that requires reacquainting oneself with the language of the body and submitting to its wise intelligence and direction.
We are living in a time where it has become increasingly difficult to trust what is ‘out there’. What is external to us, so called experts, mainly, are proving to be unreliable. Everything you need, whether that is direction or healing, is already within you and you can trust it when you become skilled at listening to it.
You are your authority, and your authority is embodied.
Blessings!
April
Thanx for this great reminder ...