Reclaiming our Body
In our culture, the body is seen as tainted, sinful, our weakness, and our lower animal self. Ignoring our physical needs and the body is built right into the fabric of our lives. In order to heal ourselves, we need to care for the body, live within it and in accordance with its needs. When we listen to the small, still, wise, intuitive voice within us, the voice of our own body, healing can occur. We reclaim body wisdom first by understanding the influence society has on how we think about and care for our bodies. Our culture gives us messages that our body is our adversary. We are taught to ignore fatigue, hunger, discomfort and the need for care and nurturing. We learn to look outside ourselves for answers and we become afraid of our natural body processes and emotions, learning to suppress our emotions early on.
Our emotions and thoughts are physically linked to our bodies via the immune, endocrine, and the central nervous system. All parts of us think and feel and the mind exists in every cell of our bodies. Our inner guidance comes to us through feelings and body wisdom first. Our beliefs, heavily influenced by our culture, are unconscious and do not come from the intellect. They come from the part that became lodged and buried in cell tissue in the past. In order to heal, we have to re-enter our bodies and experience them. Understanding comes after you have allowed yourself to experience what you are feeling. We need to learn to trust our emotions. In our culture, we are taught that there is something wrong with pain. We are brought up to fear, deny, and judge our negative emotions and feelings as bad. Sadness and pain are natural parts of life and great teachers. We have an innate ability to deal with pain and the body knows how to do this. When we allow a full emotional release, we feel cleansed and free and insight comes after we feel our emotions. If we are encouraged to stay with what we are feeling, to go into it, make the sounds we need to make, yell and cry as long as necessary, the body will innately heal. Only our connection with our inner guidance and emotions are reliable in the end. Recovery from our culture requires living fully from the inside out.