A Reminder from the Great Mother of us All.

 

“You and your body are a precious treasure- worthy of appreciation, care, respect and tenderness.”

 

Just for a moment, see if you can appreciate how, complex, beautiful and miraculous your body truly is. It’s not just a handy vehicle for your head or a means to an end.

 

It is a one of a kind, Sacred sanctuary for the mystery of Life expressing as YOU.  

 

It is a storehouse for all you’ve witnessed, lived through and become in this life. It holds a unique and extraordinary wisdom. It is your vehicle, your personalized expression and your source of pleasure in all its forms: beauty, sensuality, exhilaration, tenderness, satiation, arousal, and ecstasy.

 

But to open to that pleasure you must fully bring your presence, your Being down into your body like gently setting your foot down into the soft, receptive earth. I find it to be a deeply feminine practice you can repeat, experiment with and spend your whole life enjoying.

 

As I practice coming fully into my own body and slowing down to experience the sensations of life within me it often feels like slipping into a warm and welcoming bath, which envelopes my Being and fills me with a gentle effervescent aliveness. After decades of actively avoiding living in my body it feels so delicious to finally come home.

 

All the emotional clearing and release of old habits of bodily neglect, disconnect and brutalization have been well worth it. It has taken me years to unwind the physiological defenses and unlearn the religious and cultural training of disowning and disconnecting from my body. But ultimately, what enabled my joyful and pleasurable embodiment was opening to a more nurturing feminine approach. The result is having access to a vibrant and nourishing home base, a place of pleasure and well-being.  Chronic anxiety has decreased and a new sense of empowerment has taken its place.

 

I highly recommend it! All it takes is willingness to practice being kinder, more in tune and responsive to your body. As well as to shift old habits that keep you disconnected from your body and your Self. Do you know what your favorite ways of cutting off from your body are? Perhaps you chronically hold your breath; or ignore your needs for nourishment and rest; or overwork yourself; or live in your head?

 

Here are some ways to create a feminine embodiment practice:

 

1. Listen to your body and what it needs. Let yourself yawn, nap, rest or slow down when you’re tired. Get up and move when your energy feels stagnant. If you are having physical symptoms get support to address them. Eat when you are hungry. Drink plenty of water when you’re thirsty. And go to the bathroom when you need to!

2. Breath consciously. A favorite I recommend is the Egg Laying Breath: Inhale slowly downward into your pelvis and through your perineum as if you were chicken laying an egg with your breath. Exhale with a releasing sigh.

3. When you look at your body see it through the loving and affirming eyes of the Great Mother.

4. When you’re showering or putting on lotion use the tender touch and care you reserve for someone you treasure.

5. Move your body often throughout the day in ways that support your vitality and feel good to you!

6. Get a bodyworker. There are so many amazing practitioners and modalities to support you feeling good in your body. Some of my favorites teach Cranial Sacral work, Feldenkrais and Network Chiropractic.

7. Go outside and walk on the earth regularly. Go barefoot when you can.

8. When you wake up in the morning look out at the natural world before picking up your device. Breathe slowly and deeply and notice the sky, the trees and the beauty around you.

9. Make contact with others. Embrace, snuggle or stroke a loved one whether they have two legs or four.

10. Observe, play with and learn from the little ones and four-leggeds how to inhabit, luxuriate and delight in the body. For them life is a full body experience.

 

While honoring, caring for, and inhabiting your body is essential to your well-being I don’t recommend it because it’s good for you. I encourage it because it’s deeply pleasurable. And if you’re like most of us you don’t have enough pleasure in your life. There isn’t time, it’s “selfish” and “indulgent”, you don’t think you’re worth it.

 

The Great Mother reminds us, “You deserve pleasure in your life.”

 

You’re worth pursuing what brings you fully alive and into you body. When you do it opens you to the Sacred mystery of Life deep within you and expands you beyond yourself to touch the immediacy we are all one.

 

You can start to change your experience of your body almost immediately with small steps.

 

Ease and pleasure are possible for you.

 

How will you begin inhabiting your body today?

Joni