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I hope you’ve been enjoying the last few warm weeks. I’ve just returned from a trip and am letting all the delicious experiences I had continue to sink into my soul and body.
Basking in the yumminess of exploration and adventure, I also had a chance to tune into my body and remember that there is truly so much there— that our bodies aren’t just vehicles for our minds but have their own being, awareness, and deep knowledge… whether or not we choose to listen.
We are so much more than “just” flesh and blood— in fact containing all the substance and wisdom of the universe. As Lorin Roche writes in The Radiance Sutras, an interpretation of the Hindu text called the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra:
This body is made of earth and gold, sky and stars, rivers and oceans, masquerading as muscle and bone.
Below, you’ll find some different takes on tuning in. Hoping they help you connect to and appreciate your own boundless somatic wisdom.
Guided Meditation: Blessing of the Body
I have done this blessing in person many times, and perhaps you have gotten to do it in community at ALTAR. I wanted to adapt it as a guided meditation for solo practice, which any of us can do any time we want to attune to, and honor, our holiest of holies. You can download and save the Audio File below:
Book Excerpt: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
These wise words are from Anne Lamott’s book of advice about writing and life, and this excerpt comes from the chapter on perfectionism. I love the reminder that sometimes it’s great not to take your body so seriously, and definitely not to let your feelings about how you look stop you from following your yearnings in the short or long term.
“Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written, or you didn't go swimming in those warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going be to break your heart. Don't let this happen.”
The body is a celebration. It’s our direct line to Mother Earth. It’s the source and playground of the “big juicy creative life” that Anne Lamott wants us to live. No matter how much mental baggage we may find ourselves carrying as we age, the body lets us hold on to the joy and wonder we felt in our child-bodies. Our power is literally in our hands and in our veins.
Poem: “This Body is Mine, This Body is Beautiful” by Arielle Estoria
In this poem, Arielle Estoria claims her body, all of it, and encourages us to do the same. She reminds us that we never need to apologize for our bodies, but sometimes we do need to apologize to them for the undeserved pressure, criticism, or alienation we’ve heaped upon them.
She explains, "This is my anthem: that as a girl who was timid and squirmed uncomfortably in her own body, I would grow to be a woman who would stand a little taller, a lot more confidently, and help remind others of their own beauty and value."
Writer and activist Alice Wong calls herself a “disabled cyborg” and “disabled oracle," and as founder of the Disability Visibility Project, focuses her work on amplifying the voices of disabled people and disability culture. Through this work, including her own fierce efforts to maintain her independence and community connections, Alice's work helps us rethink what our bodies can do, how we move through the world, and how our unique experiences bring us insight.
You can read her memoir Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life here.
This playlist, curated just for ALTAR, is an invitation to be in your body, to move it, to love it, and to let it be inspired and inspiring. I hope you’ll take a listen, skip around as it feels right to you, and move your amazing, galactic, resilient, wise body along, whatever that looks like for you.
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