“Get into your body. Be in your body. Get out of your head.”
Has your yoga teacher ever said that? Your trainer?
In the world of health I’ve heard those words so often they become white noise, just like “don’t forget to breathe!”
If I’m working out I must be in your body, right?
If I’m getting a massage how could I not be in my body?
Well. You’d be surprised at the number of people who go through their whole hour of massage thinking about work. (Ok, I don’t know what they’re thinking about. But I do know their breathing is shallow and their fists are clenched.)
Do you trudge along on the treadmill at the gym, watching TV, reading a magazine?
More and more we live in our heads. We live in our heads and we don’t even know we are trapped there in the attic circling around in the dust and rafters.
We forget the rest of the house down below all open, fresh, breezy…with cozy couches for napping and the kitchen simmering with a home-cooked meal.
Caught up there by social media and email, it can be hard to go downstairs and “waste” some time snoozing or making soup from scratch. I catch myself needing to “be amazed by what happens next” forty times in a day, caught in a Facebook trance, clicking away at Upworthy videos.
Does that ever happen to you?
Even inspiring stories about men with no legs playing soccer fall short when I’d wanted to chop fresh veggies into a hearty stew but then ran out of time. On the other hand, a busy Tuesday morning can feel like a luxurious Sunday, if I take each moment aside and give it a smile.
The same goes for getting a massage. We can smile at each moment. Take deep breaths and follow them into the lungs. See where they go. Feel how they soften the knots and loosen the belly. Our bodies are full of twists and corners that we rarely explore. If we bring our minds down to see the awesomeness of the body, what happens next can be amazing.
If you’re still reading, able to focus for more than 10 seconds, you might just have a chance!
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