As I write this I find myself back in an old familiar place. A place of physical pain, with my lumbar spine and pelvis in complete spasm after a simple movement that normally wouldn’t have given me a second thought; a movement usually taken for granted.
This experience has made the question below even more poignant as I feel my body bracing against the pain.
How come we often manage to find ourselves in a permanent state of bracing against life, rather than opening up and allowing life to unfold?
When we find ourselves in a situation where something changes or challenges; where our perceived safety or comfort is threatened, our thoughts rise up and take over and we become entangled in our personal thinking and the feelings they produce. As one thought leads to another and another. It's like we are stuck in a snow globe that someone has just shaken, with each snowflake representing yet another thought.
Even when we try to breathe and be still, our fearful thoughts keep flooding to the surface.
The clutter in our mind diverts us from pausing to hear what our body is whispering from behind the loudness of our mind, stopping us from living an embodied life.
Right now as I innocently get caught up in my thoughts of
“This pain is so bad”,
“I’m letting all my patients down, having to cancel their appointments”,
“What if my disc is prolapsed”,
“Will I ever get back to normal?”
I notice my pain becomes worse as my fears snowball. My thoughts are creating my experience in this moment, as I innocently get caught up in my thoughts, choosing to believe them as my mind gains momentum, its chorus takes over, resulting in all-consuming thoughts of fear and anxiety.
But if I let these thoughts fall away and instead fall into the NOW, my pain reduces and my body starts to soften and let go. It's in this place that there really is no mind/body divide as I become conscious of the power of thought and the effect it has on my body.
If only we could listen to the wisdom of our body and know that each and every one of us has innate health and well-being inside of us. Perhaps then we might be able to shake loose some of our dis-ease.
I love this quote by Dicken Bettinger, “The more we allow our experience to flow through us, the calmer and more present we become to life.”
So when you see that you are getting caught up in your thinking, try to come fully into the present moment and reach within for the wisdom your body is offering you. Try not to escape, to numb, to distract, but instead go inward.
As you listen closely it will show you how to open to everything life has to offer.
Choose to let those thoughts float on by like clouds in the sky and at the same time place a hand on top of the bracing, wherever you feel tension in your body. Choose to soften instead of bracing. Breathing into the count of 4 and out to the count of 8. Go on, try it!
Allow your body to move in ways that will help your body release both the tension and the fear. Trust that the wisdom of your body will show you.
Put on some music if it helps as you begin to move and unwind.
It will take practice, but as you begin to move, the armor you have built around your heart and your body will begin to melt, stretch and let go.
We all wrestle with our thoughts every day but as we become conscious that they are just that, just “thoughts”, and that they are NOT true. We will be able to gradually break free, awakening a dormant seed of potential as we find our way to the present moment of stillness.
No victory is sweeter than connecting with our own body, after chipping free from the armor of our thoughts and thinking.
Allowing the light at the very centre of our being to shine through the cracks to reveal the truth of who we are.
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