Reconnecting with your body

Some years ago I read the book, The Wild Woman's Way by Michaela Boehm. She outlined how many women live in our heads. We squeeze up all of our energy from our core and into our head and shoulders.

When I read this, my attention was instantly brought to how tense I was holding my stomach and how hunched up I felt in my shoulders.

I knew I was in my head more than my body, my brain constantly racing.

Paying attention to my body and experiencing my body has been a personal revolution I've been on since.

Today I sat with my Spiritual Director. I told her, 'I almost didn't come today, I feel too vulnerable.' So she led me through the most gentle meditation of placing my hands in different ways.

It was beautiful, and meaningful and ended with me crying into my hands.

I had been in my head for so many weeks lately. I had been on autopilot to move from one thing to the next - loosely holding all the tension I was feeling at arm's length.

She had me grab it and pull it close to me and honour it by feeling it and sitting with it.

I noticed the emotions, which were hard and tense, seemed to melt into something more tender and soft.

We are told to ignore our bodies

We live in a culture that tells us to override what our body is telling us and what it needs. Sleep less, drink more coffee, be more productive, live off meal replacements, do more, and look good doing it.

As science has been pointing out, this can have detrimental effects on our health. We see more and more links between our emotions and stress causing health ailments. (This field is called psychoneuroimmunology)

This is a topic many counsellors will work in, specifically those who note they work with somatics. You may notice a somatic counsellor or therapist may ask you, “Where do you feel that in your body?”

This is because our emotions are IN our bodies.

And our emotions are there to tell us something. Emotions are indicators prompting us to take action and we experience emotions in our bodies.

So tuning out our bodies means we also tune out the information of our emotions, telling us what we need more of or less of.

For so many reasons, it can be hard to notice our bodies.

But it is important and necessary to moving through our experiences.

Being in our bodies can also be an enjoyable thing too. We can create a sanctuary in our bodies.

We can enjoy the way warm water feels.

We can enjoy a smell we love.

We can enjoy the sound of something that makes us smile.

We can enjoy hugging someone we feel safe with.

We can enjoy a kitchen dance party.

So this week, I encourage you to let your awareness move to your body.

. . . Take all the energy and tension in your brain and let it melt downward.

Take a moment and feel your body. . .

• stretching and breathing into areas where there is tension

• deep belly breaths

• body scan (noticing how your body feels, from top to bottom)

• gentle hip sway or rocking

• walk outside (or a walking meditation)