As I offer in my book, River to Ocean: Living in the Flow of Wakefulness, “If the river is your human journey, flowing toward the vastness of the ocean, then your body is the vessel that gets you there”. The opportunity here is to use our body as a way to practice embodied wakefulness, shifting from thinking of our body as a means of survival to having an active, loving relationship to it. And perhaps most importantly, preventing the consequences of facing serious or life-threatening illness that could have been avoided by listening to and trusting one’s body.
A great starting place is to make sure you are actually living in your body, rather than moving through life living mostly in your head. Mindfulness and engaging in body practices, such as yoga, breath work or massage, can go a long way toward the sense of living in our own skin. For others of us, having a loving relationship to our body is to transcend perfectionism and leave behind criticism, no small feat with all of the messages we get around what are body should look like or how well it ought to perform. And where perfectionism has resulted in actual self harm, including practices of neglect, overindulgence or anything else that injures our physical self, the road may include getting help to stop those behaviors. Finally, being disconnected from our bodies means that we are disconnected from our emotions since emotions live in the body. And since emotions offer not only the richness of being human but also clarity around what we need and want, our bodies serve as a conduit to inner wisdom, guiding choices that protect our personal and relational health.
So, where ever you are in your relationship to your body, I encourage you to take it to the next level, and invite you to do a little experiment right now. Ask yourself….”When my body is talking to me, do I listen? And what is my body trying to say?” If you are interested in diving into this aspect of wakefulness, check out my book, River to Ocean, Aspect Four: Cherishing Your Body. If you don’t already have a copy, click here to obtain a print copy, here, the audiobook or you can visit my website to purchase a signed copy.
I just completed a workshop on undoing racism that I highly recommend. It is offered by the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond (click here for more information), an organization that has over 40 years of experience with trainers who skillfully and thoughtfully guide participants into the waters of systemic racism.
Lastly, for those of you that enjoy podcasts, check out a few additional ones that I have had the honor to participate in and now have the pleasure of introducing to you. You can go directly to the interviews from the links provided here or visit my website for these and others.
- Choosing Hope Podcast, a powerful conversation with Munira Premji , author of One Woman, Three Cancers (click here)
- Heart, Soul, Wisdom Podcast, a wonderful dialogue with Moira Sutton (click here)
- A third conversation with Dick Goldberg on Embracing Death from Insights with Dick Goldberg (click here)
So today, may you celebrate your own body by listening and responding with love…..
Warmly,
Katherine