Connecting to your miraculous body – A practical guide
Written by Margo Helman, MSW
It’s been a tough time lately for our bodies. On a breathtakingly international level, we’ve been struck by COVID-19. Perhaps you’ve been ill. You’ve most likely been stuck indoors. More than ever, no matter what your body is going through or what physical challenges you live with, it’s important to remember that your body is miraculous. Think about all the wonders your body performs. Each and every day our bodies remake themselves as literally billions of cells are being regenerated. Our metabolism of air and food connects us to the planet as we transform them into energy to fuel our existence and actions.
Our physical senses too are an ongoing experiential relationship to the world around us. Seeing, hearing, and body sensations all take place constantly, giving us vital information and pleasure. Taste and smell contribute gently to this sensual tapestry. A crucial body sense often left out of the list of five senses that we were taught as children is the inner sense of touch, or interoception. Touch is a rich and varied sense, often thought of as the special ability of the fingertips but including the entire outer layer of the skin. We feel the air, hot or cool, on our arms, the softness of clothing against our bellies, the pressure of the chair on our backside and thighs. But touch is also the glide of the inner eyelid against the smooth, moist ball of the eye. Even more internally, we may sense that our stomach muscles are tight, that there is warmth or heaviness in the throat, that something is creating a squiggly sensation just under the ribs. These are interoception.
Through interoception we experience emotions in the body. Emotions are a complex interweaving of mind and body. Perhaps it’s no accident that extrasensory perception, or ESP, is called the sixth sense. There is wisdom in the body. Nonverbal, unconscious wisdom. The brain is the processing and command center for all this activity. But the split we imagine between the body and the brain, as if our intelligence lives in the brain and our bodies are dumb as toast, is not reflective of the sources of inner knowledge. The nervous system, of which the brain is a central part, lives everywhere in the body, throughout the spine and over the whole body. The body-mind is one intertwining.
An entire approach to therapy has been created based on the connection between body and emotion. With Somatic Experiencing, a powerful approach to trauma therapy, the client is guided to sense difficult emotions in the body rather than necessarily telling the traumatic story. SE also works to build up body awareness of positive inner resources which the client can use to return to calmness.
Whether or not we’ve experienced trauma, we
seem to be wired to pay attention to what’s not going well and it’s no different with the body. Physical pain gets our attention. We focus on abilities that we lack. But when we take the time to intentionally notice the wonder of the body, we can experience more joy, peacefulness, and wisdom. Sensing the body and noticing physical sensations that relate to emotion is part of deeply knowing ourselves and fully developing our innate wisdom so as to be able to choose and live well. This is a life project to embark upon while trusting your own pace.
Here are some ways to begin:
1. The next time you feel an intense emotion, direct some gentle curiosity to the body. Notice where you sense this feeling and see if you can name the sensations. We tend to sense emotion in the trunk, throat and face areas. Anxiety? Maybe you feel a fluttering in the belly or and heaviness in the chest. Anger? Perhaps a clenching in the jaw or the throat. For advanced work, see if you can notice this also for pleasant emotions. You may sense contentment as a warmth in the upper arms and chest. Hope may be a tingle behind the eyes. It’s a testament to our habit of noticing the difficult that most of us are much more able to locate unpleasant emotions in the body than the emotions we tend to desire.
2. Take a breath. Feel the caress of the air against your nostrils or your tongue. Feel the rise of your chest and belly. Now imagine that the oxygen is reaching down your legs into the tips of your toes, as it actually is. Imagine following the breath as it nourishes the muscles and skin of your arms, hands, and fingers. Don’t forget your neck, face, and head. With each inbreath, sense your entire body filling with vital sustenance. With each outbreath, give back air to the earth where it will nourish the plants that will in turn create more oxygen for us to breathe.
3. Do a six senses meditation. Notice what you hear, letting the sounds ebb and flow without the usual filters. Notice what you see – colors, shapes, shadows, and light. Notice taste. Notice smell. In many moments there isn’t much to
taste or smell, but because of this, attending to these two senses can be particularly focusing. Notice touch on your skin. Then notice interoception: scan your body from your face, head, neck, shoulders. Stream your attention down your arms. Now your underarms, ribs, hips, and streaming attention down your legs. Flow back up to your buttocks, genitals, stomach and lower back, ribs and midback, chest and upper back, opening your awareness to any sensations that are present in each part of the body.
4. Here’s a way to connect lovingly to the awe of the body that comes straight from Jewish ritual. Judaism teaches that the body is a central part of our spiritual practice. Our two main prayers share names with a sense (Sh’ma) and a posture (Amida). Tehillim and daily prayers are filled with poetry of the body singing, crying out to and being seen by God. We’re told that what we do – mitzvot that we use our bodies to perform – is at least as significant as what we believe. We connect to God through our bodily actions.
The Asher Yatzar is one of the blessings we recite most, though it marks the seemingly lowly function of releasing waste from the body. No body function is deemed separate from holiness. The words of this blessing tell us that God created and formed every last pore and cell and sees and knows every tiny, hidden bit of our bodies. The last two words of the blessing “U’mafli laasot”, encapsulate the miracle of the body: God heals all flesh and performs wonders. Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the Rema, teaches that the wonder is the human intertwining of body and soul, animal and spirit. This outwardly profane act can remind us of the miracle of our female bodies, especially the physical junction of sexuality and birth.
Connect to this powerful message of wonder and self-acceptance by saying Asher Yatzar mindfully, paying attention to each word as you say it.
May we all be inscribed in the book of health and happiness and may we appreciate the many miracles in our day-to-day lives.
When we take the time to
intentionally notice the wonder
of the body, we can experience
more joy, peacefulness, and
wisdom.
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