It's easy in our culture to get caught up in talk.
We think, and we talk; we analyse and we problem-solve. But this is not necessarily the best thing, or the first thing that we should do.
More and more these days I am reading about the close connections between mind/body. The body sends signals to the brain, the brain to the body. We make meaning of these signals and take action based on the that meaning. Changing any part of that loop has effects.
Here is a very simple example. This morning my partner and I had a difficult discussion about a practical matter. Because we saw things from different angles, it took us some time to come to a shared understanding. And because the conversation took place early in the day, I wasn't in top form for problem solving.
We did come to a solution- so that was good. And I ended up feeling quite exhausted.
There are times when that feeling of exhaustion and the thought 'I feel so tired' would bring along a strong sense of gloom and discouragement for me. But because of recent readings about awareness and being in the present moment, and the connection between mind/body, today I thought I'd try something different.
I started by describing the sensation of 'so tired'. What did it really mean to me? what did it feel like for me?
I wrote down what I noticed: heavy limbs, heavy eyelids, minimal energy, slow thinking. An image came up- that all my blood was pooled in the muscles of my bottom, as I sat typing. No blood was flowing, everything in my body, aside from the ends of my fingers, was still. And I felt like I was barely breathing. Even my lungs were motionless.
Having noticed this, I decided to take a couple of deeper breaths. I stretched my neck, and flapped my arms a bit. This seemed to work, so I arched my back, then stood and bent side to side. I flapped my arms a bit more and took a few more breaths. I bent forward at the waist and then backwards.
Amazingly, this little bit of physical activity lightened my mood. My thoughts got quicker, less sluggish, my eyes felt less heavy. I felt energized and less gloomy. The discouragement that had been gathering seemed to drift off like morning fog.
What I did was send a message from my body to my brain- 'time for sluggishness is over. There is cause for movement, cause for action, for interest.'
My brain, it seemed, took note. My deeper breaths are bringing more oxygen into my blood. And of course, my blood is actually moving now, delivering oxygen to my brain, to my limbs and lungs.
Suddenly, the argument of the morning falls into perspective. We'll still have to put our agreement into action, we'll still have to reconnect and take care of each other, but now I have the energy as well as the will.
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