017 Putting your body back in charge

Hello friends,

This week I have another powerful, simple practice for stress and pain reduction – perfect for the ups and downs of the holiday season.

Last week’s practice was a somatic journaling exercise. It’s quick, simple and extremely effective at decluttering your mind. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly suggest it.

This week we’re exploring a concept I call Body-first, a process where we allow our bodies to guide our physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual healing.

The Small Self

Most of you understand that our thoughts tend to misrepresent reality. The whole reason we’re drawn to spirituality and healing is because we understand there’s a bigger, wiser way to experience life than our ego mind suggests.

It’s not that our ego creates a false reality. Rather, it creates a limited reality, an existence where most of life has been filtered out.

And here’s the thing. The ego doesn’t just limit our experience of life, it limits us. It creates a Small Self.

I love this term because it captures a subtle truth: Our present concept of ourselves isn’t wrong, it’s just severely limited. We are what our mind says, but also much much more. I call this more complete person the Full Self.

What does that mean? Who are we beyond our minds?

The answer is…...well there isn’t an answer, exactly. At least not in words. What we’re talking about – the Full Self, the fullness of reality – is something you have to experience in order to know. Sure, we can talk about it but words can never capture the whole truth.

So, instead of writing, I’m going to help you experience it.

The Body Leads (a guided meditation)

In this short meditation, we’re letting our bodies lead. We’re setting aside our preconceived ideas of 1) what we want to change in our life and 2) what’s required to change it.

In other words, we’re loosening our grip and giving control to our bodies. We’re letting our bodies determine what needs attention, and the nature of that attention.

Rather than “doing” anything, we are going to bear witness to the process of our bodies.

Why?

Because the body is the gateway to the Full Self. When we allow our bodies to lead, we gain access to the wisdom and intelligence of our Full Selves – aspects which contain and vastly exceed the wisdom and intelligence of our minds.

But also, because this meditation feels good. Try it out and you’ll see what I mean. Enjoy!