Bliss in the body

Like a hollow bamboo
rest at ease with your own body.
Tilopa

Our bodily intelligence and natural instinct and intuition exists independently from the cognitive intellect.

The language of the body isn’t linear and is experientially discovered and recovered through movement, touch, sensing, expressing, playing and being silent.

Each body’s unique way of communication originates from wholeness and is oriented on guiding to its embodied place of homeness.

I just “gotta move.” For me movement is life, love, joy, aliveness and a language of connecting to my environment and myself. I grew up moving. I played in the hills, danced in the bush, ran with the animals on our farm, sprinted on the athletic track and became an Australian Sprinting Champion and “Danced my way to God.”

The eventful day where I discovered Bliss in the Body was in Primary School, where we were warming up and stretching in preparation to run around the hill behind the school. The usual stretching suddenly became a door to bliss. As I leaned into the side stretch there was a sense of disappearing in an inner space and a peaceful explosion of ecstasy and inner joy, I remained in what seemed a timeless space. When my awareness returned from this experience, something new happened. I could sense the outer environment and the other kids around me and at the same time I was sensing myself – there was no separation. I felt calm and at ease. I had a clear perspective of where I was and also a new sense of being at home in my body. I had consciously begun a journey that became my embodied spiritual practice.

Through the body there is a door to consciousness, also named the being or the watcher. There are many names for meditation, just as there are many paths to the same source.

Embodied Meditation is a conscious awareness of my body and the variety of qualities of its inner space from quietness, beautifully silent and peaceful to be being joyful, vital, ecstatic and blissful. It can be felt as full of overflowing love and is a connection to innocence, wisdom and bodily intelligence.

Somatic navigation tools are the map and your actual experience is the journey. Simply enjoying the gift of being in the body is experienced and recovered through somatic movement, natural dance, experiential anatomy, from conception to crawling movement developmental patterns, touching, sensing, sahaja yoga stretching, expressing, stillness and embryology.

You may already have found this or are about to discover for yourself endless and unfolding mysteries within. It is important to practice staying connected while being in the outer world.

Meditation is not about separating the inner and outer space. It is moving from inside to the outside and the body supports your orientation of being here and now.

Here are a few Daily Tips and Practices:

“When you take care of the body, the soul loves to live in it.”

Invite playfulness, not put pressure on or make more effort….

Remember, “Easy is right.”

Taking care of the body

Become conscious of the body as a friend, to take care of. Explore what your body needs.

Thank the body that it is always taking care of you. It is always here and is always alert. Just imagine that you would need to remain conscious of being responsible to breathe in and out all the time. Instead, notice that the breath is breathing you because it loves to.

The heart beats, pumps and dances the rhythm of life whether you are awake or asleep.

Remember your health potency

Bringing consciousness into the body empowers its life source within.

Remember the orientation on health. Health pervades. Underneath all flows the source of health. No matter what is happening, the body mind system is orientated on health and wholeness. It is miraculous the way this body can heal itself. Medically it can of course be helped, and it is actually the body that heals itself. Thanking the body empowers the health potency and is giving it supportive fuel and love.

Body watch

Take little stops during the day to check in and anchor in the moment. You might like to write a sentence or have a picture to help you to “remember the body” somewhere where you can see it e.g. beside your computer or on the fridge. The body is always here in this moment. Every time you check in you are strengthening and taking care of your ability to remain present.

Scanning through the whole body is a way of checking in…. Where do I feel comfortable in the body? Are all parts in the body working in harmony with each other? Do I have contact with my body? How is the breath? The movement of my diaphragm? Where are my feet contacting the earth? Are there any places in the body that need some support? Noticing your contact with your life source centre (in Japanese hara and in Chinese dantien).

Where and how you place your attention affects what you perceive

Notice how you bring attention into the body and sense what is needed. It is a way of responding to the moment and it could be gentle touching, stretching, moving, sounding, breathing or even a good laugh that will help ease any effort or tension you may be gathering. As you practice this regularly it will be recognized easier. Your language of perception unfolds and what is needed to support and take care of the body becomes clear. In the beginning it may take a little time before that happens. Please be patient while you become alert to the body’s signals and ways of communicating.

Moving with awareness

Be conscious with practicing movement exercises, especially when you have not had much contact with your body for a long time. You may even think you have had contact because you have been “doing” your exercise. For sure it’s good to have regular exercises; however there may be just a little misunderstanding with this. Instead of doing the exercises, “be“ with the body while practicing, watching yourself moving.

Notice what feels comfortable

Notice what feels good ?

Actual contact and connection with the needs of your body comes from a place of being present and listening. Of being receptive to it. The other way around what often happens is people “do things” to the body such as exercises, massage and diets. Actually the body knows what it needs. It whispers, it does not shout.

Patience is useful while the language and the communicating with your body comes to you. You can’t demand or expect, just because you tell it “Now I am listening to you…. You should talk to me!” It could take a little time and practice until you are able to understand it. The body may have only previously been treated for image, conquering and result-oriented reasons. For e.g. it may have been more about that the body looks good and the image how other people see you rather than feeling what is really good for it. Or you want it to function well so you can function and use it so you can stay busy.

The art of communicating and being with your body is about receptivity… the body has a wisdom all of its own. Learn how to listen to its language. The signals it communicates are bringing the orientation back “home”. Becoming conscious of the body is re-inhabiting it and its inherent life source of health and well-being. The word in-habit describes what happens… you make it a habit to be in yourself rather than the old habit of being out of yourself and eternally focused. This outward focus is what actually creates tension and feeling separate from yourself and possibly having a sense something is missing.

Flood your body from the tip of the toes to the top of your head with consciousness. Awakening every little cell. Remembering the natural intelligence and guidance from your body which connects your home inside…

“When the pieces are together, there is peace.”

A sannyasin since Pune 1 days, Australian-born Navanita has always been a very active person, from being a sprinting champion to teaching somatic movement, dance, stretching classes, and ‘Divine Dancing Drunkards’ meditation among several others. After being severely injured in a bus accident in India in 1994, she took her ‘Talking to the Body’ practices and embarked on her own healing journey which ultimately led her to the present work she teaches – healing on a cellular level. www.navanita.net