Re-Connecting with Your Body

A recent Facebook posting by friend and colleague Gary Diggins reminded me, once again, about the importance of honouring one’s body. It is easy to forget in the daily hubbub that our body is what carries us, supports us and houses our spirit. Some would say that the body is a temple. And like any temple, the grounds need tending and the inside requires regular cleaning.

In my training as a physiotherapist, I became very aware of the body, its mechanics, the physics of bones and muscles as they work our arms, lags and other bodily parts. I studied physiology and anatomy understanding the many systems that run the engine, allowing us to glide through all our daily responsibilities. And in learning those systems, I grew to understand the relationship between all the physical parts. In my later years and in working with patients and clients, I also gained an understanding of the body-mind-heart-spirit connection.

Disembodied

It has also come to my attention through the many years of people observing that many folks are disembodied. What does that mean? They have no real relationship with their body. It looks and feels like they live outside their physical form, either unaware of it or simply ignoring it, sometimes their spirit like an aura around their body. I know this sounds a bit farfetched. Bare with me. Stop, breathe, a deep breath, check in with yourself. Ask if you are really ‘in your body’. Listen. Where do you feel yourself living. If you are mostly in your head, you are not in your body. Living in your body means residing deeper down, in the base of your pelvis, in your solar plexus, in your heart, in your arms and legs, hands and feet.

Re-Connecting

There is no judgment in feeling disembodied. I believe it to be a symptom of our lives: trauma, worry, preoccupation with world events, upheaval, technology…the list goes on. The risk in continuing in this state is illness. A body-mind-spirit disconnection is the cause of dis-ease, misalignment. Each of us have moments of misalignment and moments of great connection. The question is, what strategies can you employ to stay connected. Here are a few:

1. Breath
Breath, inspiration and expiration, expansion and release, filling and emptying, the process feeding oxygen to our bodies and releasing carbon dioxide. Breath is the connection between our inner and outer world. You do it naturally of course but do you do it consciously? Find a quiet corner, sit, relax, empty your head, breathe. Closing your eyes focus on your breath. Feel your body taking in air and expelling it. Notice the sensations at the tip of your nose, in your throat, in your lungs. Now pull the breath deeply into your body, allowing your abdomen to relax and the breath. Fill your lungs completely, hold the breath for a moment then slowly and consciously release it. Repeat this several times. Allow your shoulders and neck to relax. Breathe. Drop into your body completely and simply BE there for a few moments. Notice the sensations that emerge. Honour your body by thanking it for housing your spirit.

2. Meditation
Building on this breath technique is the opportunity of connecting with your body through meditation. I know this sounds like learning something new and trying to figure out how to hold your concentration without your mind wandering in a hundred different directions. It is for this reason that I recommend guided meditation, a method whereby someone guides you through imagery, sounds and words. There are many meditations available through YouTube for body awareness. A couple I suggest are:

Mindful Moment: Whole Body Awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyRl9it4K5E
and

10-Minute Body Scan Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtIqCKjkuc

You can also meditate as you walk by deliberately slowing down, concentrating on placing each foot heel to toe, and saying to yourself “I am here, I am here”. Notice the feeling as your foot strikes the ground, how your ankles, knees and hips respond, what happens in your torso and your arm swing. Become consciously aware of the many different movements your body makes as you take each step. Walking is a symphony of movement that we rarely tune into.

3. Being in Nature
There is nothing like nature to help you connect with your body. It helps to find a location outdoors, among trees, in a garden or by the water where you can here the sounds of Mother Earth around you, where other than these sounds it is quiet, where you can touch the earth or lean into a tree. Part of this experience is envisioning yourself as part of this entire system, another cog in the universal wheel of life.

Sitting or standing feel the earth pulse through your feet, up through your legs, into your hips and pelvic region, through your torso and into your heart, into your shoulders and down your arms, up through your neck and out the top of your head. Now you are fully in your body and present. You are one with nature.

4. Journalling
After reading my friend Gary’s posting about hands, I felt compelled to journal. I wrote the following:

These hands have held a toothbrush to brush my teeth and splashed water on my face, held tightly onto the bars of my bike, have dug deeply into the earth, albeit only a flower box, have pushed paint across a canvas and held a paint brush for random strokes, have chopped vegetables and stirred pots, and swung by my side on a brisk morning walk. And this is only one day in the life of a hand. They have been my antennae into the world, the tools of my trade as a physiotherapist and the conductor of my symphony of life. They have been used and abused and my crooked fingers show all the evidence of a life well lived.

I realized that I could do the same exercise for my feet, my heart, my back, and so on, recognizing how each body part has in its own way carried me through life.

5. Exercise
Of course any form of physical exercise engages your body. There are some exercise programs that engage the body parts through conscious awareness such as yoga, tai chi or even Pilates.

Breathe is an important element of all of these programs.

Final Word:

Making a commitment to yourself and your body, tuning in to the miracle of your physical being, is an opportunity to improve your health, recognize stress and release it, and to feel whole. It takes little time to do so and is well worth the investment. I encourage you to love your body, express gratitude for everything it does for you, honour and respect it with some of the techniques shared here.

Until next time,
Betty Healey, MEd, BScPT