Feeling the inner body by slowing down
I was feeling a bit frustrated in class recently when I was trying to learn about “pathways of weight” in our arm to shoulder to collarbone. I could not feel it in our internal exploration, where I close my eyes and tune in to my body and feel whatever is going on. I have some “issues” in my right arm and shoulder area and things were feeling like there is some congestion and blocks. I shared my experience with my teacher and classmates telling them all that I don’t feel it and it seems my muscles are getting in the way. I realized last night that information was just as valuable as understanding things clearly. It made me think about how useful that information could be if I really sat with it. In fact my teacher said last week in class after I shared my feelings, that it is the information and asking a new question that is great. I heard what she said but it did not really sink in or make complete sense to me at the time. The more I am willing to sit in the question and continue to explore the more I start to understand. I think for me I use to live in my body without much thought to how it works or what I am doing with it. I tend to be a person who likes to work hard and muscle my way through things. I feel like now I want to go slower and be gentler in my approach to anything physical. The more I stop and slow down enough to feel and see how things want to be rather than pushing too hard or beyond limits, the better things feel. I tend to overcomplicate things, so to just stop, slow down, and tune in for me is a great start. I am trying to slow down enough to really feel my body and what’s going on.
Pathways of weight- I had never really heard the concept “pathways of weight” but we have these built in natural pathways that the weight of one’s body travels. I am hugely oversimplifying and am just learning about it myself, but it has been an interesting exploration of understanding and feeling. Our bodies are so smart and unbelievably complicated, but I personally think I have overcomplicated things by one, trying to muscle my way through things and not allowing for the natural things to happen. Here’s to slowing down and tuning in.