Body as Vehicle for Awakening
Body as Vehicle for Awakening
October 25, 2012
Creating my 7-month mastery course called Embodying Soul has stirred up many connections. I remember one of my favorite lines from Rainer Maria Rilke: “The future must enter into you long before it happens.” I chose the word “Embodying” consciously. I wanted everyone to know this course was an opportunity to return to their body as the vehicle for awakening wisdom.
Re-awakening to my body happened during a month-long artist retreat last July. Squidge Davis, my pottery teacher, (www.starflowerfarmstudios.com) observed me for a day and believed that my intuition had overshadowed my instincts. She ordered me to wear a blindfold so that I would experience that my body was the home of sensations, instincts, feelings, and creativity.
For two and one half weeks, I wore a wide red blindfold for several hours of the day. As a result of not seeing, I became more aware of texture, sensation, and the feeling of the clay, and less engaged with trying to figure out how to make or force a shape. I was stunned that the pots I pinched and coiled blindfolded appeared more symmetrical and attractive than the ones I created with my eyes open!
Like many of my generation, my mother believed every word that Doctor Spock wrote. Feeding a baby only at scheduled times was one of his commandments. My grandmother and mother often told me the story of how I screamed and screamed so loud that they closed the bedroom door and used earplugs. I was hungry and they were trained to feed me only on schedule. My instincts were frustrated and I made a decision not to trust them.
My ongoing story of reclaiming my instincts and listening to my body’s messages continues with a strenuous Pilates class where my teacher Valerie Kitchen reminds me I have a flexible body and that it is important to gain stability and strength to add to my flexibility. In my Qi Gong class, I am guided to soften my body and my eyes and to track my sensations and energy. Once again I honor that it is my body that is the vehicle for my awakening.
“Of course!” I say to myself, remembering that on some level I have known this elementary truth for decades. I smile because when I teach intuition classes, I remind people to be aware of their unique body signals and to track which ones register truth and which body sensations alert them to a non-truth. I tell people they do not need to buy a pendulum because their body is a trustworthy pendulum. Relating to my body as both a vehicle for wisdom as well as a reliable smut detector makes me happy.
As I write this blog, I remember to soften my breath and sink more deeply into my body. Then the echoes of a song erupt from my heart: “I am an old woman, I am a new woman, I am the same woman, deeper than before.” Many times I have heard the saying, “We teach best what we are learning.” I agree. Embodying Soul is my present and my future.