Our bodies are incredible despite the self-talk that desperately and unconsciously tries to deny how amazing they are. So often in my thought of the week I focus on moving beyond the boundaries of the physical to see if we can dis-identify ourselves from how we look and what we can or cannot physically do in order to tap into the deeper essence of who we are. Yet without this physical body how would our souls experience the multitude of lessons it's exposed to within a lifetime?
You may have heard the saying, "Are we physical beings having a spiritual experience, or are we spiritual beings having a physical experience?" The tradition of yoga would lean toward the latter, that our evolving souls come into a physical manifestation in order to continue learning what we need to know. It's taken me years to wrap my head around this thought and part of being a seeker is to question what this means.
In the beginning my physical was all there seemed to be. I was an active child, curious, adventurous and fearless, often resulting in my body having stubbed toes, banged up elbows and dirt on my neck. Everything I connected to was in a strong physical experience through play, athletics and competition. As I became identified with being a "good athlete", the connection to the body became even more important, so much so, that an injury would send me literally tumbling into wondering who I was if I wasn't a gymnast or a dancer or a softball player or a soccer goalie or a tennis player or a track and field athlete?
For reasons that I'm still exploring, at some point along the way, I began to look beyond my body and to the other lessons I was learning about who I was. Part of this questioning blew into my world when my father passed away when I was 19 years old. That tailspin of grief took me out of my body to facing the world with other questions of "what's the purpose of life?" and prompted me to act quickly as you just never knew when your time would come. And now some 30 years later, it has begun to make more sense that no divide exists between all of it...body, mind, spirit.
I now see that the many layers of who we are exist like a huge cable made of our different threads weaving together our unique complexity: our body, how we act, what we think and how it reaches out and affects everything else. If one of these threads is denied or under/over utilized, we are thrown out of balance. We are not alone or separate in our own selves just as we are not alone and separate from all else in the world and beyond. Our amazing bodies aren't simply bio-machines that need only food, water, air, safety and sleep but, indeed, house all of the experiences from the moment of conception to our last breath.
We travel the often magical and bumpy road of life to embody our own life and what it means. When my Dad passed away, I embodied the feeling of grief and clung to its darkness for 24 years before it moved into a form that no longer sent me over the edge. Falling in love for the first time and then breaking up sent a physical and sobbing pain into my actual heart, but taught me how to feel my emotions. Finding my beloved Ed has taught me what it means to be deeply committed to and supported by another person. The many injuries suffered over the years taught me how to understand other people's pain and how to be in our body even when it's not 100% well.
Being in this amazing body has taught me gratitude for ALL that I can experience. As I become more mindful I slow down, connect with breath, surrender and share these ancient teachings and my own embodiment deepens. I thank this body that is not only my temple, but my lab, my teacher and mine for this lifetime.
So I conclude with two questions: What has your embodiment taught you? Have you thanked your body today?
No comments:
Post a Comment