Reverb - Body Integration

Today's Reverb10 Prompt: Body Integration.  This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?  (Author: Patrick Reynolds)

This prompt is actually so refreshing to me.  Most of the folks in "my world" do really great with spiritual stuff and mind matters.  Body, not so much.  But in the past 2 or 3 years I have really moved INTO my body.  In the spiritual realm, it is all about getting "out there" and to a higher state of vibration.  Yep, absolutely.  I strive for that daily.

BUT I have come to believe through a few teachers and my own inner digging, that we have to be IN OUR BODY to do this spiritual work. 

(I feel like I should explain "spiritual work", but the shortest way to do that is to say we are living in amazingly transformative times on the planet and if we are not doing our personal inner work and connecting to our soul and spiritual lives, life will get really really hard.)

God did not give us a BODY for no reason.  We have to nurture it and take care of it.  Think about it, THERE ARE NO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.  We are special.  To get really clear and connected to God, we have to be consciously connected within ourselves.  Our bodies are the vessel to get us "there."  (Even tho there is no "there", it's all HERE within! LOL)

A few years ago I got the nudges to start yoga.  And it changed my life.  My teacher rocks.  Of course, I haven't been to her class for over a year now.  Life got distracted.  But my BODY can feel it every Tuesday night when I should be there.  Yoga allowed me to move.  To stretch.  To feel connected to my body and to let the rest of the world disappear as I moved deeply into the present moment.  Keep in mind, I am a big girl.  I was terrified of walking into a typical yoga studio with size 2 blondes in $90 yoga pants.  So not me.  But my teacher is all about ALL bodies.  And she understands we all have our own timing and ability, as well as the spiritual (true) aspects of yoga.  There were times I thought I was going to pass out.  I would laugh a LOT when I couldn't get into a position. 

BUT ... I felt so much FREEDOM in realizing that I CAN move my body and I LOVE it.  One particular time she had us maneuver into the wall ropes and fold forward with just the ropes supporting us.  OMG.  Nope, cant' do it.  No way.  She gently talked me through it, reassuring me that it would hold and that I could do it.  So I laughed (even while my inner critic was screaming bloody murder), I leaned forward, and I DID IT.  I had never felt so freakin' empowered and alive in that moment.

Yoga rocks.

In the past year it's been a struggle to continue to eat healthy, to get to yoga class, or to just MOVE my body.  I CLAIM that I don't have TIME.  But now I do. I need to make time.  Hello, I bought a membership to a local rec center that has a great gym and walking track ... I have not been there ONCE.  My body is getting more sensitive all the time.  Sugar, salt, gluten, all not so great for my body.  Can't do some of my typical skin care products anymore (and I already have been using natural chemical free products for close to 20 years).  My physical body is starting to complain a little more.  So I am paying attention.  I address the emotional aspects of it all first, then dig in to clear whatever I need to clear.

2011 will be MY year.  In many ways.  I will honor and fully take care of my body.  I AM eating more healthy.  I AM going back to yoga.  I AM walking more often.  I AM using my gym membership.  I AM LOVING my body.