Your Body is a Field of Infinite Wisdom
Your body is an exquisite creation. It is a field of infinite wisdom. It began as one cell that was so small you could not even see it with the naked eye. And it developed into 70 trillion cells, working together, so that it runs itself without a single thought from you. Think about it…when was the last time you had to digest your food, or regulate your hormones, your temperature, or your pH?
When you were young, you lived inside your body and you knew joy. You were embodied, or as I like to say, “in-body” with joyful spirit. You loved to play all day, swing, do cartwheels, and roll in the grass. Your young body was a field of energy and everything flowed. Then, if you are like most people, you grew up and got scared out of yourself. You learned to hold onto your body, tighten your breath, and run away to your head. Now, most of the time, you live in your head and your body is just a vehicle to get you places.
There are two core reasons why we don’t live in our bodies. One is that the dualistic mind took over and cut us off from our bodies. It has made the body “less than” and “dirty”. If you think about it, most of our “swear words” are about the body and they are mean or vulgar…fuck, shit, dick, asshole. The other reason is that we have been taught that particular kinds of bodies are good bodies and that other body types are bad. Our bodies have become the object of our minds rather than the subject of our hearts. The unconscious mind tells us that if we only looked a certain way, we would be okay. It is mindboggling when you consider how much money is spent trying to make our bodies what we think they should be. Just consider the advertising dollars spent by the vitamin industry, the cosmetics industry, and plastic surgeons, all trying to help us look and feel okay.
There is a wonderful book called Bodies and Souls: The Century Project by Frank Cordelle. It is an inspiring display of approximately 100 nude photographs of women of all ages and sizes, accompanied by personal statements about their bodies. It includes a woman in a wheelchair, a woman with one breast, and an obese woman who absolutely loves her body. It is one of the most powerful books I have ever experienced in my life. When you view the photographs and read the statements, you begin to see that there is no one perfect body; rather, each body is unique and perfect exactly as it is.
I invite you to give yourself this one gift every day to get to know your exquisite body. Before you jump out of bed, notice three different sensations in your body. For example, my left foot is cold, my right foot is warm, I have an itch on my leg, I have moisture on my skin, my tummy is growling, my jaw is tight. Describe the sensation and then say “I See You”. Pay attention to the voice of your body. You are training yourself to be attentive to what is going on in your body, yet not trying to change anything. You can begin to bring this body awareness into your awakening process. Then, when you experience a knot in your belly when your boss is disrespectful or a lump in your throat when you nearly hit a pedestrian while driving, you can learn to give it your attention rather than going straight to your mind. This is the beginning of the alchemy process of transforming the holding on or tightening of your body so you can get back in touch with the joy you experienced when you were young. When you are in your body, you are not guarding against life and the energy flows freely. And don’t forget to show gratitude to your body for all the things it has done for you in your life.