The BodyMind Electric
It is almost considered obsolete to be thinking that the body and mind are separate entities housed within the same physical vessel. However, many of us still struggle with the idea that our thoughts, emotions and beliefs about wellness or disease don't influence health and healthy lifestyle. In the Get Centered practice, I have explored many themes with clients that reflect chronic feelings and beliefs stemming from false assumptions, typically created as a child. A common assumption made about oneself is that there is a lack within me, and if I could only fill that lack, then I would be complete or, at least enough to survive.
The feelings of lack often lead to overconsumption in other areas of life. After all, we have so many creative strategies to fill our empty cups through food, substances, work, over-dependency on relationships, depression and anxiety (both fueling the abundance of lack). Suffering is an abundance of lack. For example, when people say, "why all this suffering in the world?" Well, it's because on a global scale, we collectively feel that lack is the problem, so we create and manifest suffering, which is not a lack. There is never a lack of it, is there?
Whatever we fear, comes to us in abundance because we feed our vibrational energy with what we desire, which is fear. You can do the same in positivity and gratitude. Whatever one puts out to the universe, one will receive. It may be not want the conscious mind desires, but the subconscious mind floods the self with the truth as it sees it.
Underconsumption is the same idea. Because we believe we are not enough on many levels, we often fail to activate our internal genius. Each of us has within us a vital gem that supports our world in some fashion. It doesn't have to be an act of great art or beauty, but it is the manifestation of our individual beauty that allows everything to shine more brilliantly. By thinking we lack, we often spend our lives in needless comparisons between self and other; a task that proves futile and empty.
Within the integration of mind and body is a bridge. It's called your emotions. Emotions are the feeling states that allows us to discern our truth about how we feel about ourselves in countless situations, and circumstances throughout the day. We often exclude emotions as fleeting, or pointless and tend to want the run the conscious show by mind alone. This gets us into a bit of trouble, because the emotions often influence our subconscious mind, the mind that really is running all our significant programs. For instance, we discussed the universal and culture fear of scarcity, which is an emotional language that we download as an undesirable feeling about our place in the world, but also the wish to not have scarcity happen to us. The driving force many times is cultivated from this emotional stuck point. We may work hard, feel stressed, not take time for play or nourishment, because we are emotionally driven to only feel secure when we have kicked out a lot of effort. Most of this effort, sometimes, leaves us feeling drained because we pour our energy into a physical space that doesn't even feel good. Think about what you do for a living, or the physical, and environmental space where you may spend more than 8 hours a day....more on what you can do to highlight your work in a positive way. And kudos if you do what you love!
However, deep within the layers of the subconscious is also the gateway to our higher mind. Our higher mind really knows us, knows what we love, and don't love, what we truly desire, and our deeper spiritual passions, or creative pursuits. When we are in alignment with our truth (which resides within the body), then we can activate an inner strength that becomes unstoppable.
When we listen to our inner being (the higher mind cleared when there are no programs running), then we begin to understand how the inner self operates, and emotions that are fear based drop by the wayside. The inner you, and the emotional center of peace and harmony are also affected by emotions. One way to lean yourself toward what you really want, let's say your really want good health, then you always want to lean thoughts and feelings in the direction of what it feels like to feel good. You want to wash your body within the idea of the feeling state of optimal health. Remember a time when you felt this way, or imagine a time in the future when you see yourself doing a healthy activity feeling well. However you create the visualization, the important thing to remember is that you believe that your body is whole and healthy, not fragmented and sick. Illness of any kind picks up speed whenever we feed it ideas, and feelings that reflect deficiencies, weakness, or that your life is going downhill and there is nothing you can do.
What often makes this worse for some is to go to a doctor who then innocently mentions the downward spiral of a potential issue, that you may not have even manifested! In medical research it is known that a person's symptoms of illness actually worsen with a diagnosis, or immediately after an initial visit of less than desirable news. The point here is that fear creates more fear, and that when we focus on ourselves as already complete, we have less of a tendency to draw toward us manifestations of chronic worries, fears, and anxieties, or out of alignment thinking with our true nature.
The intuitive aspect of the mind and body, when collaborating, know that the less time you spend on what isn't desired, the greater what you desire is able to move through you and provide your body and mind with greater clarity, intent and purpose. Like attracts like.
I often see issues of the mind and emotions play out in the arena of anxiety or depression. When we misalign our emotions in to a direction of not feeling good, the first thing to ask is, "what is the benefit of feeling this way?" And do I like to feel terrible about myself? Let's say it's a situation in which someone is disappointed in you. Instead of just saying, "sometimes it seems others are disappointed in me," we make the situation painful and forecast a future of further disappointment by making general statements, like: "I'll never have a great friend. I'm flawed and unworthy." This is an extreme version of a consequence, you get the point. It's leaning in the direction of what doesn't feel good. If a person wants to explore this theme, well, then it's ok to do so. Some do this for decades, but the end result is the same. Not feeling good about feeling bad.
So, how do you get out of the mind body complex? First, it's easier if you meditate daily. Try 15 minutes of quiet especially in the morning. You are refreshed and more vulnerable and more attuned to you in the early morning. When we sit in quiet, we gain an understanding that we are bigger than we think. We are a part of something grander then the self. We expand in our bodies and boundaries beyond the body far reaching then the room we sit in. Settle in to this a bit.
Next, give gratitude for all that has come your way. No matter what, or who or the circumstances. Just thank it.
Now, feel yourself tuning in to who you truly are. Sense where your skin begins and ends. Notice the room you are in. Literally expand the boundaries of space. Notice how you feel as you progress with your day. Notice the sensations in your body. Where do you feel light, where are you holding tension. The key is to notice, just observe without judgment. This is the beauty. Let all that is, be all that is.
You don't have to be an agent of change, a force, or a controlling presence in the world. Just be...
When we allow ourselves to lean into the body, the sensations of emotions and the letting go of the logical, controlling mind, we begin to understand how this integration works. We learn to trust ourselves, to feel the body as it enters a space it doesn't like, and when it is around others it does like. Trust your body. Let it lead you for a day, or a week. Trust that you are in the right place,e with the right people at the right time. It's all perfect. It's all perfectly unfolding as it should. There is nothing you have to do about it today. Nothing.
This is the beginning process of understanding how it all works, and to enjoy your emotional range that rests within the body.
Love it, it's you!
