Waking up to who you are begins with shifting out of identification with thoughts, beliefs, roles, emotions, conditioning, and more. Your actions change, as do your relationships with everything and everyone. You are rewriting your reality, but it doesn't stop there. Once you're well into this integration, you realize what a massive physical transformation happens in your body. When you work closely and in harmony with your body to give it the most beneficial support, your bodily relationship becomes more clear and joyful, which enhances your whole human experience, and the whole of creation. It's all connected.
In this article, I'll go into detail on supporting the physical transformation, but keep one thing in mind. Your body has its own consciousness. There is you (pure essence), a mental self construct (ego), and a body/mind. The clear mind has logic and reasoning, but it's the identity part, with the fears, phobias, and control issues that create the conflict in your body/mind. The body knows how to rebuild, repair, rewire, realign every particle into optimal health for you. You must be willing to let go of what you think you know - what you've learned and been taught, and let the body guide you. You have the ability to work harmoniously and patiently with the body, with unconditional love and acceptance, and support it's brilliant transformation.
Your light, or you could say radiance, vibrancy, spaciousness, expansiveness... even your JOY... well, it literally merges back through the body into places and spaces that were compressed. In presence, your natural knowingness, trust, certainty, fearlessness, and connectedness melds through the body. It's where you're no longer thinking about, or trying to figure out how to act like these qualities. You embody them. You ARE them. Genuine exression flows through you. Your natural way of being was just squeezed out of the body in the moments you decided to embody energies created of fear & judgment. This created division from your true nature and now you are remembering what it's like to be you.
Embodied density causes stiffness, tightness, tension, pain, and other ailments. Your body is giving you constant feedback as an opportunity for you to recognize what's happening and come back into alignment with you. *Disclaimer: At times your body will be releasing old ailments because you're clearing old patterns. They'll come to the surface just to leave. What feels like an illness may be what's termed a "healing crisis". People have been writing about symptoms of awakening for decades, and yes, this happens, but your discernment is key. Are you releasing old ailments, or is your body telling you something? Determine what type of support the body is asking for by connecting with it, and with your own knowingness rather than what's been taught. Have you noticed how confusing it is to seek answers from the outside world, even the medical world? Every scientific study seems to directly contradict another study. Rather than going to the mind for solutions, go direct. The body knows exactly what it's doing and what it needs. This isn't to say you don't go to the doctor. Whatever route you take to support the body, stay connected to your own knowing. It is here to help guide your decisions every step of the way. As the saying goes, go with your gut & trust your inner knowing. Go beyond judgment and belief into what IS most beneficial for you individually. You can only access WHAT IS beyond belief, bias & duality, so getting into a clear state of consciousness (neutrality & acceptance) is the starting point for all genuine action.
When you release emotions, beliefs & identities, the body will go through emotional and physical releases. You're learning to feel again, to feel it all without judgment, to be the awareness of life and to let life flow through your awareness without resistance. You are not just feeling the emotions, but you're becoming intimately connected to the body again. You feel all these bodily sensations! You're feeling your way through life now, rather than just thinking your way through it. You're choosing what feels loving, supportive, expansive - not what you think you should do - or others think you should do.
You can feel the directions of your heart like energy calling to you with lightness, sweetness and vibrancy. You can feel the old patterns pulling on you from a heavy, magnetic overlay of emotional, old energy. This is where your knowingness grows and grows. Every moment you spend feeling rather than thinking, your presence is melding & you're embodying more of your natural state.
When you're comfortable feeling again, you let the body release what it's worked so hard to hold onto. Fear contracts, love expands. Fear is heavy, love is light. You will feel such heaviness releasing from the body. It may feel like cement or exhaustion, but the exhaustion is leaving. At times, the body may shake or spasm to release fear. You'll surely feel strange in your body, as you were once anchored into all these identities and beleifs like solid (rigid) ground under your feet, and now you'll be free wheeling and flowing without bounds, agendas, tunnel visions, or a solidified sense of a human character. Your character is not taken seriously & it's allowed to transform constantly. The key is getting your body on board with this constant transformation!
All the tight muscles, fascia, and stiff joints resulting from density have restricted blood and energy flow. Your life force has been squelched, affecting cellular regeneration, homeostasis, strength, agility, energy, mobility, fluidity, connectedness, and more. Most notably, people live in a constant state of fight or flight and don't even realize it, which causes tremendous wear & tear on your body & unrest in your mind. Itt takes tremendous courage to feel again and to trust that all the weird sensations in your body are safe and natural as it goes through this metamorphosis.
So, how can you best support your body? Here's a list of 10 things you can do to make this transformation more fun, quick and easy.
1. Conscious breath is more than conscious connection to your essence: It feeds the body what it needs to make physical changes. Inhale new energy, exhale old energy. Did you know that the body loses weight through breath? It's clearly more than an esoteric tool. It's a physical powerhouse: "84 percent of the fat that is lost turns into carbon dioxide and leaves the body through the lungs, whereas the remaining 16 percent becomes water, according to the study published today (Dec. 16) in a special Christmas issue of the medical journal BMJ.". The list of health benefits would be longer than this whole post. If you could use some inspiration in this area, here's a book I recommend: Breath by James Nestor: https://a.co/d/fMTn2zz
2. Vibration - sound or movement: Sing, hum, tone, bounce, talk, shake, dance, move, hop, skip, whistle, get in a hot tub and crank the jets up, hop on a rebounder: You don't need a singing bowl or special frequency music! Welcome whatever you would like to create (for example, "My heart feels heavy, I welcome the perfect frequencies through my body to help move this energy"). Now, relax, OPEN UP, enjoy and let the body vibrate. Your body/higher frequencies will do the rest.
3. Move, Move, MOVE! Yes, just move: Get out of your head and stay in your body. Here are some ideas: Sway or skip as you walk, fidget, wiggle your toes, change positions often, take calls via audio vs. video so you can walk instead of sit. Watch TV on the floor and roll around, adjust, stretch, twist. Listen to music as you do things. Take many breaks from sitting - take every opportunity to walk up the stairs, park far from the store, stretch your shoulders or arms or hands when you're in line at checkout. You get the idea? Just move your body in any way. Old energy is stagnant. Your body has become stagnant. Every new movement affects your brain and increases neuroplasticity, so keep moving in new and creative ways.
4. Rest, Sleep, Rest, SLEEP: This may sound contrary to 3. (MOVE) but it's not. Deep rest and vibrant movement is natural. When you feel called to rest, do it fully, without regret! Celebrate your lazy time and you will experience unexplained energy boosts. Listen to your body (connect, ask, get clear). If you're feeling overwhelmed or burned out, definitely give yourself a rest, perhaps a stay-cation day, or do-nothing day. Most importantly, never judge yourself or what you're doing. That alone will drain you.
5. If movement (or relaxation) is hard for you: Start slow, move slow, try new things that bring you pleasure, and notice how you feel during & afterwards. Do you feel better after? Are you glad you did it? Focus on the enjoyment part and keep going back for more. Make life an exploration. Make choices from your knowing, not from emotions, which may say "I don't feel like it".
Ideas: Take 5 min walks, Yin yoga (practically a nap on a mat), go to the park and sit on a bench, go for a drive, chair yoga class, art class, self massage class (many YouTube vids for free!), walk down new streets or into new shops. Pamper yourself - get a massage or pedicure, sit in a sauna or hot tub, float in a pool. Just get moving with something that feels good, nurturing, relaxing, and requires almost no effort. Start to rewire your brain that movement can be relaxing and enjoyable, and you will crave it more. And please, for God's sake, don't let money be an excuse when it comes to your body & health. If movement is hard for you, open your wallet and do something to help yourself out of the rut.
6. Lighten Up: Whatever it takes for you to feel carefree, relaxed, safe, open, playful, joyful, zero responsibility... do it with wisdom. This is sooooo important for your physical health. The body can't open up and realign itself if your butt cheeks are always clenched :o)
When I was younger, I did a lot of happy hours & I remember my confusion some mornings where I stayed out "too late". I recall thinking "I should feel bad, hungover, but I feel so relaxed today - ahhhh". I'm not advocating that anyone get wrecked. But letting loose, however you do it, with wisdom, can offer your body a chance to release the energy build up. Lighten up! Go on vacation, take a staycation, watch a favorite show, hang out with friends, laugh til your belly hurts, get out of your daily grind, go somewhere new, do something silly or out of character - whatever works for you personally!
As you aren't so identified with your old character, and you begin to trust your genuine expression more, you will let your expression run wild and free with no control, judgment or oversight. This is fun and joyful!
7. Food, Part 1: Connect with your body if food is an issue. Ask it what it would like to eat. This is a big topic for many people. Food was a biggie for me, and it still can be. I am very conscious of my food choices today. I struggled with eating disorders when I was a teen and early 20's, which transformed into a very strict, ever evolving diet through my 20/30's for both weight and health reasons. In my 40's I woke up, tossed all control (realizing even the best natural and spiritually attuned diets were created of belief rather than my own body's wisdom). Most healthy diets are born of judgment of certain food groups or chemicals. When I decided to toss out judgment and belief, my new diet was simple: Eat everything and anything I craved and KNOW that beyond judgment the body can and will evolve perfectly. For quite some time, I had Ice cream for breakfast, pizza and chips, and a decent amount of Mc'D's fries. The body did great! It healed and thrived. I gained about 20 lbs, because I ate as much as I wanted, but it was well worth the freedom from all this food nonsense that we've been fed - hook, line & sinker. The beliefs about food will make your body sick. It can process and thrive on practically anything, an evolutionary miracle. Diets: Natural, unnatural, high fat, low fat, vegan, carnivore... I've played with it all, and my body has zero problem with any of the above, but only because I firmly choose to judge nothing, to believe nothing, to let the body do it's thing. Zero judgment = eat anything. Food: Judge nothing.
8. Food, Part 2: From the place of no judgment, you can listen to your body and give it what it wants to eat vs. emotional/belief based eating. Ten years after dropping all diets, I have been eating in a way that my body and my wisdom have put together for me specifically. I now rarely eat sugar or carbs, but this is unique to me, to help clear my old energy patterns. I've been doing this for over a year. I'm planning meals, cooking, and making conscious food choices by giving the body what it is asking from me, not what I crave. And yet, some days, the body suggests a break and eat whatever I want, no limits. It's all about doing everything with awareness. This current approach is a 180 degree turn from Food, part 1. As I said before, the first step is coming into neutrality. From this zero point, you can access the wisdom of what is most beneficial and follow that. As you evolve, everything changes. Your truth changes in every breath. There is no right way, no wrong way. Your consciousness is always evolving in form. It's all about knowing what works for you, right now. Tomorrow it may be totally different. We are moving from the rigidity of beliefs into the flexibility of creation, which is always taking on new form.
9. Physical Supports: Whatever brings you joy, opens your heart, compliments your everyday life, or just feels great, period. Nature, animals, salt baths, creating a supportive environment to live in, spending time in special places, cozy comforts (blankets, trustworthy friends, hot chocolate, favorite movies or books), long walks, laughter, physical creativity, sensory stimulation, art gallery, art class, park, zoo, store, writing, cooking, gardening, dressing your body, doing your hair, decorating your home, washing your car, organizing a closet, shopping, etc.
10. The Grand Finale - Physical Movement: The last thing I want to share here are some things that have been dramatically improving my physical embodiment experience. These things have helped me feel younger, healthier, stronger, and more excited to go out into the world. I've found many modalities helpful: tai chi, yoga, qi gong, fascia flossing, dancing, mobility exercises, gentle strength training with balance, lengthening and alignment, calisthenics, primal movement, Feldenkrais, Essentrics, somatic yoga, somatic movement, self fascia release, connective tissue workouts, swimming, and more. For many years, I moved very little and that was okay too. It's all about listening to the body, not pushing it.
Your body is trying to open up and refill with space, fluidity and free energy flow. Stretching, moving, lengthening, and relaxing are necessary to facilitate this. Many of the approaches I've listed allow the brain to rewrite the neural pathways into optimal movement and function on every level. This neuroplasticity is what allows us to constantly learn, transform, and evolve through life with ease. The improvement in health, balance, breath, flexibility and mobility are translated into improvements with emotional regulation, cognitive function, and overall well being.
I didn't talk much about presence, connecting with your heart, silence, or other things here besides physical approaches. My body experienced profound healing just laying in bed and listening to audios and videos, staying in presence and feeling my light, my connection to my true beingness. I did very little when the needed deep energetic and cellular rejuvenation. Letting yourself relax and rejuvenate inwardly can be very beneficial also, but at some point the rubber hits the road and your body needs to start rolling with the changes. I wanted this post to be more about you engaging, connecting, and moving with your body and your physical world. Once I tapped into the joy of going inward, I found that going into the world to connect and play added more ways to experience joy.
Embodiment is a physical transformation, so give yourself many gifts, taking the time and effort to support your body on this ride. Namaste!
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
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