A deceptively simple practice with incredible benefits. We are born freely inhabiting our bodies; but somehow we forget this as we grow up and begin inhibiting ourselves.
I owe the inspiration for writing this post to a dear client who accidentally mistyped “inhibit” as “inhabit”; or was it a so called “Freudian slip” on her part; or perhaps a Jungian “synchronicity” ? Anyway the exploration that followed between us made it clearer for her that an area that she really needed to work on was to inhabit her body more often.
This is actually a significant issue for the majority of us. Most of the time we are so heavily caught up in our heads that we forget inhabiting our bodies; this leads to inhibiting ourselves from being our best in any given moment. Our thinking hijacks us, it consumes all of our life force energy and makes us not-present. It’s like when the servant takes over the control of the whole house including the master. Our thinking faculty is a capacity which should be at our service when we need it, not to take us over! No wonder most people are so stressed out looking for all sorts of solutions for some relief; unfortunately most such solutions are unsuccessful or at best temporary.
How to inhabit your body
There are few ways to learn to inhabit our bodies, but the sensing practice is quite simple and accessible; as it does not need any special equipment or going to a class etc. The practice is very simple and the benefits are incredible; but it could be very challenging at the beginning for most people. Fortunately it becomes easier with practice until it actually feels natural again (“again” because we are born freely inhabiting our bodies; but somehow we forget this as we grow up and begin inhibiting ourselves).
The practice is about sensing your body from the inside and directing your awareness to various parts of your body by breathing consciously.
I have a guided sensing practice audio that I offer my clients but I’d be happy to offer it to you should you be serious about learning to inhabit your body. Please contact me if you are interested.
Also I came across this video by Eckhart Tolle which should be a good start to get an idea of the issue and a simple practice to begin with.
http://youtu.be/sRtMIu4Aa_o
