The Wisdom of the Body

“The body will never misguide you, you can trust it, and you can trust it absolutely.” —Osho

I am excited to be offering a 4-week course on the Wisdom of the Body with my friend Punitama, starting next Wednesday, June 14. We will be sharing techniques from somatic experiencing and compassionate inquiry along with movement, meditation and breathwork to help us reconnect with our bodies in a natural, playful and healing way.

The purpose of the course is to experience how the body is deeply connected to our healing journeys and overall health and well being; and how connecting to the bodies’ innate wisdom can help us to be more present and less reactive. In our culture we are very mind oriented. From the beginning we are taught that our minds are our primary tool for navigating this world and we are encouraged to forget/ignore our body sensations, which are much more intelligent in terms of what we need to be healthy in mind, body and spirit then our conditioned minds which have lost connection. Connection to the earth, nature, existence, our authentic selves and connection to our own innate wisdom—including our hearts and naval centers.

In order to reconnect we need to actually be embodied. Healing from past trauma can only happen if we are able to be in our bodies and experience the feelings that we were unable to feel at the time of our distress with presence (one foot in the past and one foot here now). When we are children we experience pain, whether from abuse, abandonment, bullying, or even just being told to be a certain way and if we are unable to metabolize that pain fully it then is stored in our bodies and part of our life force energy is used to hold it there in abeyance.

For example, picture a child of 4-years old in your mind just now in a meadow running free with arms expanded to the sky, natural and free. This is our “normal” state of being, our birth right. Now imagine that child being told (by a well-meaning parent) to stop running, come here now, eat your lunch, put your shoes on, etc. She stymies her natural flow and follows these directions. She is in tears because she is not hungry, wants to remain barefoot, and still has so much energy to share with the sky and butterflies. She is told to stop crying and eat her lunch.  Her authentic being wants to rebel but her need to be attached to her caregiver overrides her finely tuned body and so she stops crying, eats though not hungry, puts her shoes on and sits on the blanket like a “good” girl. The tears that were not allowed to flow, the pain of her energy being curtailed, the sense that there is something wrong with her because what she wants is so different from what she is being told is “right” is all stored in her body. And because it is all stored in her body, the body is the key to healing this.

Let’s suppose that this scenario plays out again and again with this little girl. Sit still, eat, bed time all dictated from well-meaning forces outside of herself. Innately she learns that what she needs to navigate this world is dictated from the outside rather than her own eternal wisdom and her mind adapts to keep her safe and indeed many of these directives are to keep her safe and are acts of love and caring. However, the core belief that there is something wrong with her might develop as a result and her internal sense of self is then lost as she loses connection in order to fit in and follow direction. This is our human condition, we must “fit in” to survive but at some point this can also lead to an inability to thrive and then we must begin the long windy journey home to ourselves and the body is the key. 

Once a core belief like this is established in the body it has a life of its own. There will be triggering events from the outside and this belief that there is something wrong with her will be stirred and create a very muddy playing field because the triggering event will be heavily influenced by the unmetabolized pain – perceptions such as: there is something wrong with me, I am bad, I don’t fit in, etc. will all influence the ability of this once natural child to show up in the here now.  These perceptions are the conditioned mind’s record of past experience. The body also keeps a record with actual feelings– sadness, anger, fear that are underneath these perceptions. And until we actually FEEL these feelings our life force energy is used to keep them under cover and our core beliefs run rampant over our lives and relationships. This can cause havoc in our nervous systems, our overall health, including auto immune diseases, etc., because “our body keeps the score”.

So in order to heal this core belief and reconnect with our own selves we need to feel in the body what we couldn’t feel at the time to heal. This course is designed to help with this reconnection to our bodies, to allow healing from that space so our natural energy can flow freely and not be stymied.

The first step in Week 1 is just to become aware of our connection and disconnection to our bodies. Our intention is to be playful and allow space for what is in the body now. We will also explore the innate wisdom and power of our naval center and how reconnecting to this center and strengthening it can empower us on all levels, including our confidence, resilience, and personal power.

Somatic experiencing and compassionate inquiry are both healing modalities that start with the body connection and Punitama and I are excited to share this wisdom. I have been surprised and touched at the wisdom I have found in my body through CI, from core beliefs to perceptions that developed, to the feelings hidden beneath, to allowing the flow and release and then the healing and resulting presence felt. I have experienced talking about my childhood trauma to no avail in terms of healing and actually healing my childhood trauma experientially through the allowing of the feelings stored and it is my experience that once we learn to tap into the body – the healing happens real time and in manageable increments. Healing leads to authenticity which is what we are all really longing for – that freedom to know and trust ourselves with compassion. This self-compassion is requisite for compassion to share with others, including our loved ones and all beings.  

I hope you can join us as we begin this journey into our bodies’ wisdom- healing, healthy, whole. The journey is the destination and stepping stones to wholeness include what we will focus in the first week: moving from disconnection to connection within ourselves.

 “It is something very fundamental to understand, that the body is always ready to listen to you – you have never talked with it, you have never made any communication with it. You have been in it, you have used it, but you have never thanked it. It serves you, and serves you as intelligently as possible.“ ~Osho

I am also offering free 40-minute Compassionate Inquiry discovery sessions this June and July as a way of giving back – I have been deeply touched by my experience of CI and excited to share its healing power. You can schedule this on my web page here if you are curious.  I hope you can join us for this new course and or meet for a session.

With love,