"Dance first. Think Later. It's the natural order." Samuel Beckett
This past summer, when my overwhelm was about to meet my breaking point, I got this urge within me to seek out a psychic. I thought somehow, someway, a psychic would have the answers I needed, and luckily for me, she did.
A lot of big realizations and huge shifts in perspective came from my one little hour with her, but one of the best pieces of advice she gave me, that I can still hear her voice saying is,
"You gotta get out of your head! And to get out of your head, you need to get into your body."
She said, as she slapped the sides of her thighs to drive the point home further. "Does that make sense?"
"Uh huh," I muttered. But what I felt was this surge of understanding come over me, like I had an answer, a tangible way to move beyond my stress. And the solution was here with me all along- in my hands, in my feet, in my body.
Our minds are usually so wrapped up either dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, that we get stuck in our heads- playing out scenarios, obsessing over things, trying to sort out all our "to-dos". When all the while, our bodies are hanging out here in the present moment, waiting for us to pay a little attention to them, trying to fend off all the effects from the stress we're creating in our minds...
When we connect with our physical selves, it helps pull us out of our cycle of thoughts and brings us back into right here, right now.
When you're "in your body", so to speak, you'll notice that the have-tos and want-tos start to get awfully quiet. The shouldas and couldas seems to bite their tongues. And suddenly, all of your thoughts are about what you're doing and how you're feeling, in this moment.
As you stretch into crescent pose, or mix a new paint color for your piece, or go pluck vegetables out from your garden, that's all you're thinking about in those moments. Your mind and your body are on the same page, they're aligned.
And that alignment is like a reboot button for your whole system, so that once you turn your brain back "on", you might find its running a little more smoothly, things are clearer. Solutions that couldn't find their way through the clutter of your chattering brain, now have the space to present themselves.
So when your mind is running a mile a minute, you can't focus, or you're starting to play that tape inside your head that does its best to un-convince you of your awesomeness (you know the one), that's when it's time to move into your body.
Get up and stretch. Dance around. Go for a walk. Ride your bike. Do some yoga. Pet a cat. Throw the ball for the dog. Play an instrument. Do jumping jacks. Scrub the shower. Cut flowers from the garden. Raise your arms above your head and breathe in. Use your hands- build something, create something, touch something. Use your feet- jump, run, go.
Get out of your head. Get into your body. See what happens.
"There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it." Elizabeth A Behnke
She's talking about how to do a daily body-check in, and listen to what your body is telling you.
