Do You Feel at Home in Your Body?

Do you feel safe in your own body?  Do you feel at home? 
 
Embodied spirituality is spirituality with skin on.  After all, any kind of experience we have, spiritual or otherwise, is because we exist within these bodies of ours!  
 
An authentic spirituality is one in which we tend to both the inner and outer world.  Our body is tended to as part of the whole where spirituality and physicality are intertwined. 
 
We see this gift and mystery of incarnation in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Several thousand years before these words were penned, the Hebrew Bible spoke of the “nephesh” or “soul.”   Rather than the Platonic idea of something that is separate from the body, "soul" in the Hebrew language indicated a unified, living, breathing physical being (so “soul” is not something we have, but something we are!).
 
Viewed this way, our thoughts about and tending to our bodies can (and need to) be part of our spiritual practice. 
 
Our bodies can also tend to us by offering wisdom and guidance. 

As I participated in the spontaneity of Authentic Movement one day, my right hand effortlessly went to my heart while my left hand went to my back.  I stood there for a moment, wondering what was being communicated to me.  It took a few minutes for my rational mind to catch the meaning and make it conscious: “Support your heart” was my body’s message to me. 
 
This led me to purposely engage some heart-opening stretches and heart-grounding exercises.  The message still stayed with me until I realized that it was another season in my life that I needed to pursue a therapist, one who could help me with some painful relationships and the release of stress and grief related to those relationships.  

Tears came to my eyes with this moment of recognition.  My body felt like a caring friend.

I often do not treat it as such.  Especially when I get caught up in judgement and critique, then I'm apt to be harsh toward or ignore my body.  

As Father Richard Rohr has said, "How we see anything is how we see everything!"  

If I'm evaluating, judging, and critiquing my body, I'm more apt to be evaluating, judging, and critiquing everything (& everyone) else!  

And the opposite is true, as I welcome and listen for Wisdom through my body, I'm more apt to welcome and listen for Wisdom in everything (& everyone) else! 

In listening and tending, I become a safer, more hospitable place--and not just for myself.

This is no selfish pursuit...for when we feel at home in our own bodies, we can help others feel at home in their bodies, too.  If you do not feel at home in your body, you are not alone.  There are many reasons why we may not feel safe in our own bodies.  There are stories of wounds behind our reluctance to listen to, or even believe, our bodies hold Wisdom. 

Maybe, it's time to schedule a session with a Spiritual Director or a therapist!  

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