Whole body wisdom
Like millions of others, I became a dedicated ‘Yoga with Adriene’ follower during the first lockdown of 2020. Previously a ‘must try harder’ recipient of school PE reports, there was, for my older and more curious self, something about this movement and breathing that offered wisdom and insight. It would be some time before I came to know and understand a little of what I was sensing in this embodied space, which over time became increasingly valuable in navigating a tricky period.
We are all used to listening to and responding to our bodies. We tend to a headache with a cool glass of water, or a niggly back with some gentle stretching. You may be attuned to noticing and listening deeply to those with whom we think and work. We may intentionally use breathing techniques or movement to bring focus, coherence, or shift state. But how often do we listen really deeply to the wisdom offered by our incredible bodies, and how might this offer insight and be transformative?
In Sand and Foam, Kahlil Gibran writes, “When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” I think that here Gibran uses the word ‘should’ not in the sense of obligation or advice, but in the sense of probability, or even expectation. If so, living and working with an expectation that our bodies have valuable wisdom to offer becomes very exciting!
If we are whole human becomings who use the wisdom of the whole - body, mind and spirit - the relationship between our sensing, feeling and knowing surely becomes symbiotic, which, evolving creatively and organically, builds momentum into further sensing, feeling, and knowing explorations. Being closely attentive to our whole selves, noticing, for example, when, where and how we sense things enables us to dive more deeply into our intuition and wisdom for even greater clarity and fully aligned knowing. Our action is then an expression of our deepest selves, authentic, integrated, and motivated.
In The Prophet: On Talking Gibran writes, ‘For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.’ So I gift you these small thought-seeds for growing. May our breathing, sensing and moving fully inform our doing, that we may embrace life in all its fullness, and fly.
This blog post was originally by invitation for 3D Coaching in 2023. You can listen to more of their podcasts at The Coaching Inn.
