Body Talk

Body Talk

O, glorious health! O, vibrant life! O, flowing energy!

Chick-a-boom, chick-a-boom, don’t we just love it! Living in our bodies is always an adventure.

When they are working, we tend not to think about them. We rely on them to do stuff for us, to feel good, to give us rejuvenating sleep. But when they aren’t working so well, it’s kind of a kick in the teeth. Or a pain in the neck. Or like no one has our back. Or we haven’t a leg to stand on.

What the heck? Those are all body metaphors. And sometimes our neck is sore, or our back, or our leg gets weird, and is hard to stand on. Coincidence?

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of chatting with a recent college graduate who will be doing a job that involves cutting DNA strands with enzymes. Really. I had to think about that for a while, to get a picture in my head. She said that she imagines it like tiny little scissors.

My point is that the world is beyond our imagination. Real reality is beyond our imagination. That means I have way more freedom to imagine reality that I can imagine.

So I like to think about this: My body isn’t stupid. The same way that bugs and birds and mammals all have ways of communicating that don’t involve words, so does my body. And it is desperately trying to communicate with me in the only way it has, sensation.

The big pain in my toe vanished when I decided to “toe the line.”

The sore throat got better when I said what I was angry about, instead of choking back the words.

The GI upset eased when I figured out what was scaring me, uh, sh*tless.

When I have a thing, I think about what my body wants to tell me about what I’m doing. I look for metaphor for that body part that speaks to me, so to speak, and do something about what it’s saying.

Because our bodies want to be healthy. Our bodies want an unobstructed connection to the fountain of permanent health. Our healing starts from inside.

Granted, this flies in the face of western conventional thought, and many people find it crazy, or objectionable, or just plain wrong. That’s okay. You have to commit to what you believe in, and follow those rules.

Me, I love the idea that my body wants to talk to me, the same way I look for communication from my kitties and my snails. The same way I want to make our communication crystal clear and meaningful.

I love the idea that my body knows what I am doing, and has ideas about what I need to work on. I love that it uses specific sensations in specific places to say what’s up. All I need is the Lonely Planet Guide to Pam’s Body, the phrase book. And, as I practice, I am getting better and better at it.

How have I changed from believing I’m doomed to pain and sickness to acting on my body’s messages?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 06102013