We live in a world that encourages backwards thinking. Trained to use our rational minds and to look outside ourselves for direction, we ignore the guidance of our body.
The sun streamed through the kitchen window this morning. The warm inviting tendrils wrapped themselves around me like a lost lover. The relief I felt, the fullness of my appreciation for what I had been missing was palpable. s was the cavernous desire to take in as much of this magnificent energy as I could. It was not dissimilar to the way I felt when my boys returned home from their first weekend camping trip, or my husband from a long business trip when engulfed in their arms I felt filled with love.
I am increasingly aware of the vast array of sensory healing opportunities available to us every day. The subtle, often missed pleasures that are there to feed us, body, mind and spirit.
A DIFFERENT HEALING MODEL
Sadly, we are not guided in their direction. Instead, we live in a culture that focuses on illness and pathology more often than on sustenance and healing. Instead, we live with a well-entrenched healing model that focuses on what is wrong with us rather than the amazing power to heal that exists ready, willing and able to help us.
This is especially true when it comes to our mental and emotional difficulties. The tide has turned in our life time, but our generation lived largely in an environment that did not assist us as we faced challenges. Instead, we learned to ignore the signals our body was quietly sending us. We ignored our fatigue, our knotted stomach, our clenched teeth and toughed it out instead.
FOLLOWING INNER DIRECTION
In the simple example of the sun shining after three days of rain I was reminded of a couple of things. My body told me loud and clear that it needs warmth, sun, and the loving sustenance of nature. It needs these things as much as it needs water and food. If I had not been home, in the quiet, facing the sun when it came out, but had instead been in a cubicle facing a computer screen, a very real need would have gone unmet. In time, my awareness of this need would grow dull.
I remember sitting in many a classroom longing to be outside. Overriding these impulses, I forced myself to go to work in an office day after day because that was the thing I was supposed to value, not the needs of my body, mind and spirit longing for a more natural environment. I told myself that cleaning my house and making money was more important than the signals that came to me in the form of tension, irritability and depression.
WE HAVE IT BACKWARDS
We have it backwards. I had it backwards. I have since learned that when we work in cooperation with our body we do not become the unhealthy sloths we think we will become. Quite the opposite. We find renewed energy, renewed health, renewed focus and activity. When we follow our instincts, our intuition, our yearnings and desires, we give ourselves what we need and our energy flows and builds.
My child self knew the truth. Fortunately. Finding my way back to this truth has been a joyous life-affirming experience I would like to see everyone have the opportunity to experience.
As we learn to fill ourselves with what we actually need rather than with things will never nurture or sustain us is a process made up of tiny, daily choices. We all experience hurdles and bumps along the way and drift away from the things that sustain us. It is therefore incredibly helpful to build in small practices that bring us back to ourselves. As we live more moments connected to our authentic self, we find it easier to return there again and again.
INNER GUIDANCE IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE
The path I took may not be for everyone. We each have our own unique sensibilities, but we all do have an inner self that will speak to us when we tune in and listen. Our inner guide will lead us on our path of healing. It will lead us to exactly what it is we need and take us to a place where the sun heals our hurts and fires up our energy and sense of well-being. An abundance of life and love lives within each of us regardless of circumstances. It is our birthright. It is our gift.
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If that is a photo of your kitchen, I love, love, love it! Even it it isn’t I still love its charm. We had 5 days of cloudy weather in Florida (unusual for the Sunshine State), but then the sun came out and it’s still shining. I make it a point to get out and enjoy the weather after my writing chair seat gets too warm – like now.
Uplifting post – thank you!
I read that 30 minutes of walking every day can counteract the effects of sitting. Doesn’t sound like enough, but if it is, it gives me hope for the future for the millions of young people (like my sons) working at computers all day (and writers!).
Reblogged this on Aging Abundantly | Women Over Fifty | Empty Nesters | Caregivers | Aging Gracefully.
Dorothy, I’ve heard that we need to walk, 10,000 steps a day to keep ourselves fit. When I walk for 30 or 35 minutes in the morning I go between 5 and 6 thousand steps, depending on how fast I’m walking. I think you’re correct to think that 30 minutes of walking a day isn’t enough.
Here’s to Sunshine in the dark of winter!
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!….
🙂
Ah, Dorothy. You and I must be sisters. We see life in much the same way. I loved this post and I love the term, “backwards thinking”. That’s exactly what I’ve been fighting to get away from all my life. It’s good to be letting that go now. It’s obvious you feel the same way.
Yes, I’ve noticed that you and I think very much alike, Lucinda! The world pulls at us to ignore or inner voice, our intuition, our spiritual selves – and I don’t know about you, but as a child it was not understood by my family or recognized. The fact that we’re finding a way to put things in order now is perhaps exactly as it should be. All is well.
“We were taught to ignore the very signals our bodies naturally gives us to guide us through these challenges.” These words ring true for me, whether the issues are physical or mental, and that is so sad, isn’t it? If only we were encouraged to navigate our own bodies and minds the way we were taught to conform to “what’s expected,” the world would be a happier and more peaceful place. Thank you for articulating this in such a beautiful way, Dorothy.