Our every bone has history, our every muscle can be patterned in a unique way, our every breath is like a wind generated from our thoughts and emotions – at once distinct and emblematic. Our bodies hold an individuated interior that records and stores our time on Earth, no two are the same, and yet we have much in common.
The body is the house from which our story is created and carried out from birth to death. Our identity is not only composed and gathered within it, but actually shapes it, often eccentrically, sometimes painfully, and much of the time done with no awareness at all that we have a choice in how it’s being manipulated like raw material.
Our body feels everything. Every thought, every emotion, every conversation — even the ones we don’t recall. By listening to our body we can hear the story of our life thus far, and get to know our mind, heart more fully from it.
Our body can also painfully store and stash away all unresolved memories and experiences. Working somatically and psychologically is one of the best ways to release what is no longer needed or serving us – in other words, what causes stress, discomfort and suffering. By attending to tissue, matter and the matter – lessness of pure consciousness we have the ability to change, let go, re-arrange, soothe, re-pattern our neuro-pathways and the body’s emotional contents.
With inner awareness we can traverse the landscapes within, and allow those pathways fraught with holes and tangles of brush to be avoided or even cleared away. In other words we add skilful, healthy habits that can override the unhealthy and harmful – at least enough to give us breathing room and a more open view.
This breathing room is like opening windows and doors – letting in fresh breezes and clearing out the stale corners of collected dust and debris. In this way, the story that our body holds can be continually updated, amended and re-written to great degrees. Imagination, intention and repetition become our way of re-writing and our spiritual path of intention, kindness and resilience, our new choice of tale.
Join Jill at triyoga from 22-23 June for her workshop: Inner Awareness + Somatic Exploration. Jill also has a workshop for teachers on 24 June on Mindfulness in Motion. Click here to find out more on both upcoming workshops + book.
