Welcome to my blog! After months of thinking about it, reading information on blogs, reading other blogs, wondering what my blog would look like or what I wanted to talk about, I have finally decided to just go ahead and write it.
Some kidding aside, I did get a bit stuck about what I would write about. After years of being in my own head, I kind of lost touch with what other people think about or what they think is important in their own lives. What, when you get right down to it, do I have to offer that is relevant to others? All I have is an increasingly circuitous personal journey of trying to connect my mind and body, a variety of one liners, and a million ideas that drive me crazy. Hmm.
So, I think I will start with my personal soap box...
The Mind-Body Connection - What’s the Big Idea?
The importance of the mind-body connection is a recent discovery of mine. Before 5 years ago, if you even said the phrase “mind-body connection” I would have given you a perplexed expression. My mind was how I figured everything out and my body was something I lugged around. My body got fed, rested and exercised, but was essentially on its own because there was nothing it could help me with. I was so detached from my body, if someone asked me how I felt, I would tell them what I thought.
So what’s so bad about that? I didn’t have to feel physical pain because there were plenty of pain killers around. If something did happen, there were plenty of tests that I could take to tell me what the problems were as well as if the treatments were working. Heck, there were so many screenings, tests and procedures available to see what was going on inside my body that I didn’t even have to think about what was going on in my body. All I had to do was make various appointments with different professionals and get the tests done. If the tests showed that I needed a particular type of treatment, medication or surgery, the system would go into gear and more appointments would be made, prescriptions written or surgeries and rehabilitation organized. I could exist without having to connect with my body at all. All I had to do was follow instructions.
So why wasn’t that enough? Why did I think that there was something missing? It wasn’t a clear cut thing or something that I could verbalize at the time. I didn’t wake up one day and announce, “This isn’t everything there is, I’m more than just a collection of thoughts or DNA.” It was more of a nagging feeling (there goes that body again) that I was missing something, something very big. And try as I might, I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was!
There started a journey of finding out what was really important. It took several years of working with my mind and body separately (the connection really didn’t start happening until fairly recently) that I started to realize something. That of all the big, important decisions I have made in my life, the one’s I made purely with my mind never made me happy or feel empowered. I made decisions based on logic, or what I was supposed to do as a good Catholic (even though I didn’t practice) and I could rationalize all of them, but they generally had nothing to do with what I truly wanted or needed for me as an individual. The ones I made listening to what my body had to say (see above nagging feeling) made me MUCH happier. It may not have been an immediate happier. In many cases I put myself in very challenging situations initially, but they all ended with me being in a much better place feeling WAY more empowered. I felt that I was really living my life rather than just existing, thinking that I am at the mercy of whatever happens to my body.
Just to go a bit existential for a moment, if your mind is pure thought and thoughts never die, were they ever really alive? And if you only identify with thought, are you really alive or are you merely existing? Something to ponder? (Or, as the case may be, not to ponder :)!
Now my body is my ally. It’s going to let me know when I’m not making the best choices for myself (put that Whoopee Pie down, Martha!) and when I am (rent that room at the Natural Wellness Clinic full time, Martha, even though you don’t have a client base, or any money!). It hasn’t steered me wrong yet.
So, what’s your body telling you? Are you listening?
Love it! Congratulations on the new blog.
ReplyDeleteThe question at the end is one I ponder relentlessly. The answer my body gives me and the one coming from my head are 180 degrees apart...
That's putting it out there. Good for you. I hear and feel what you are saying regarding mind-body connection. I am slowly, but at a faster pace, coming to peace with what my body is telling me. Thanks to our sharing, I've come to trust what my body is saying and following its lead. Thanks for the opportunities to look and listen inward.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! My mind and my body do still argue sometimes, and it can be really hard to allow my body to have equal weight to my mind in terms of decision making. Which is kind of strange, because my actual body weight is significantly more than the weight of my mind. Hmm. Maybe there's a correlation...
ReplyDeleteWelcome to blogland, Martha! Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading more of your insightful posts!
ReplyDeletehugs, Karen
Oh Martha THANK YOU! I got to your blog this morning at the most perfect time. I love it and more than that your words were exactly what I needed to read this AM. Instead of thinking my sleepless night and sore shoulder was stress over something I might not want or be ready for I am going with the butterflies in my stomach and giggle in my throat saying YES I am. Thank you! Nancy
ReplyDeleteJust to amplify on a few points, Martha (and thanks for making the effort
ReplyDeleteto start this blog):
The part of the mind you're referring to is the rational, logical or
(wrong!) left brain. The problem is as computer go it's a real
pantywaist! The average PC is much more capable. By the time you analyze
a situation, the tiger eats you.
So nature has given you a supercomputer which can act while dumbo is still
spinning through scenarios. It's the emotion-based lymphatic brain.
It's function is to integrate the sum total of your experience, find
patterns and come up with a decision before you become a meal.
You (all) might enjoy a book by Johan Lehrer called "How we Decide."
Isn't it interesting that even though most of us will never have to worry about the tiger eating us, still behave as if it will. The tiger is now all of our fears that have accumulated in our lives and our brain just seems to pander to them by taking some incident in our past and turn it into this huge drama in the present, and generally prevents us from going forward.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the whole getting into your body thing is really about trying to get the whole brain, and mind, to work together and not have one part of it hijack any one experience. Maybe this reprogramming of the brain is the next step in our evolutionary process.
Martha,
ReplyDeleteYou do make a difference in the lives of others, and how many of us can really say that? I often reflect on our conversations and "Marthaisms" that really make me ponder: "Find the divine in the mundane" , and "Your wound is your strength".
You really are a healer and I believe that we are all on the journey, some of us are simply a few steps ahead . . .like you.