Knowledge is only a rumor until it’s in the muscle.
New Guinea proverb
I've been writing about the stories we tell ourselves,
and how these stories can lull us into the Trance
of Scarcity and take us out of the Circle – that magical place where life
flows, and we are inspired, purposeful, creative, enjoying a pervading sense of
what Victoria Castle refers to as “glad assurance.”
Delving further into her book, I learned that those stories don’t
just live in our thoughts, they inhabit our muscles, our nervous system, our
very cells - we literally embody their messages.
Think about it for a minute. Picture yourself walking down
the street slumped over, eyes down cast, forehead scrunched, your footsteps
shuffling. Your breathing is tight and shallow, your jaw is clenched. Not exactly the stance that is going
to enable you to go out there and change the world, right?
Now imagine yourself walking with a spring in your step.
Your shoulders are back, your chest is open. Your breathing is deep and
comfortable. You are wide-eyed and alert to what is around you. Now that
is telling a very different kind of story. You are ready to step into your
life. Life is good. Life is full of
opportunities. I can do this!
But change, it turns out, is not just a matter of thinking
new thoughts. That’s probably why just layering affirmations over a negative
mindset is not usually very effective, at least in my experience.
The change has to happen on a physical, body level. And it seems that in this culture, we have
lost touch with our own bodies in a very profound sense, trapped in our heads
and trying to exert control of mind over matter by sheer willpower.
It. Just. Doesn’t. Work.
“The Greek word Soma
refers to the living body in its wholeness – mind, body and spirit as one”,
explains Castle. The path to regaining our wholeness and inhabiting our bodies,
and hence our aliveness, our connection to all of life, it turns out, lies in
becoming aware of our bodies’ messages. Without awareness, we are numb. We are
cut off. Estranged from our own life force.
So, step one. Be aware. Just observe what is going on in
your body from your head down to your toes. What is constricted, what is
relaxed? Where is it contracted? Where is it open? What feels numb? What feels
more alive?
I’ve perfected the look of shoulder earrings over the
years. So now I am learning to be aware
of when my shoulders are creeping up to my ears. And I can tell by how high my
shoulders are how my day is going to go – the higher they go, the more I see
life as stressful and fraught with challenges. So I just observe. And then I
allow them to let go. I relax and take a deep breath. And now life looks
brighter, challenges become opportunities. I have stepped back into the Circle
and left behind the Trance of Scarcity.
Is it a once and for all exercise, this body awareness and letting
go? Not at all, in fact I might have to practice it dozens of times a day,
especially some days. But as they say, practice makes perfect, and as Castle
reminds us, we literally become what we practice.
So my dear… take a few minutes and tune into your body. Just
observe. No judgment. Be curious. It’s amazing what the simple act of awareness
can do.
