Do you have that feeling? A sense that you might have lost a part of yourself somewhere over the last 6 -8??? Weeks?
Along with the avalanche of big kids back to school, my nearly 3 year old started preschool. She’s delighted and it’s been a happy transition. However, on pick up last week she told me “I was sore in my tummy for you mummy.” Translation: I missed you today and that loss manifested as a physical pain in my belly.
I often remind my students that sensation is the language of the body. Your body doesn’t speak English, French or Japanese. It uses sensations like: mmmmmm, ugh!, ahhhhhhh, yuk and yum. But often we override these communications from our body. Firstly by not staying present to actually notice then. Or if they are there, ignoring them til they move from quiet murmurs to loud shouts. You know, when instead of resting, you think you can work through that little sniffle until it becomes full blown bronchitis which forces you to bed. Or that elbow that twinges and grizzles in the background until to be heard it screams at you with a stronger sharp pain so you spend up at the physio. Staying attuned to your body and its sensations is actually a really wise health insurance policy. And as a bonus it puts you in a meditative mindset.
This month I invite you to come back to yourself. Sensing into yourself. Open up the dialogue with your body. It happens in Pilates with that great sense of fire in the abs or a bit of healthy groaning glutes as they tone up beautifully. As you leave class strengthened and lengthened you feel nicely re-connected in with yourself. It happens during yoga by taking the time to sense into our body during the still part of the postures, the movements in and out of the postures and in the pauses between. It brings you back to the present moment and I promise you will feel the better for it.
– Christina