What About The Body!

 

The final installment in the Your Heart, Your Head and Your Backside series.

Obviously, your body is always in the present.  It is easily your anchor to your here and now.  We’ve talked at length about bringing your mind and heart to the place where your body abides.  That is where we find JOY! 

While it is true that joy can be had wherever the body finds itself, ie:  Joseph of Egypt, Viktor Frankl, and Uncle Tom, to name a few.  (Okay, so Uncle Tom is a fictitious character.  Still he is one of the fine examples of the concept we are discussing.  Harriet Beecher Stowe was spot on with the concept and, fiction or not, great lessons can be learned from her portrayal of a difficult life and of the choice to find joy in it, or not.  I think I’ll do a whole post on Uncle Tom, one day.)  And, while it is true that we often don’t have much control on where our body finds itself, ie:  military draftees, prisoners, folks hanging onto a career to keep a pension, people who are handicapped in confining ways, etc.  It still, may be, that our body is in the wrong place and something can be done about it.  In other words, while joy can be had wherever the body finds itself, it is possible and often desirable to relocate the body to a different realm of here and now.

Let me use my own current moment for an example.  Right now, I’m sitting on the sofa, computer in my lap.  That is my present moment.  I can choose to have similar moments all day long if I like.  If I were confined to the couch, I could find ways to keep my heart and mind present and find joy in that all day long.  But, my heart and mind have other plans and though my body is reluctant to go out in the zero degree weather, in a few minutes my heart and mind will have me out there on my morning walk.  My body will ache a bit, it will shiver a lot, it will resist leaving the fireside, but for the sake of joy, my heart and mind will insist on getting me out there.  That’s were my heart and mind want to spend those coming moments and they have learned to make my body comply. Why?  My heart and mind have awareness that is of no immediate concern to my body.

Our bodies have awareness.  They are aware of pain and pleasure.  They recognize hunger and satisfaction.  Our bodies realize weariness and energy.  Our bodies, though, do not calculate consequences, anticipate needs, take precautions or consider ethics.  Those are the tasks of the mind and the heart.  We can let the body rule the roost, but it will fail in so many ways under it’s own regime.

In order to experience sustained joy, we each need to learn to give the reins to the mind and heart and let our bodies follow where they lead.  This is not to say that the body is entirely the subject of the mind and heart.  When I’m out for my walk, my body is going to feed me with much of what I require for joy.  It is going to feel the frost as it sifts on to my face.  It is going to see the flocked trees and show me the beauty that is there.  It is going to feel the exhilaration of the exercise produced endorphins and in its own way, my body is going to thank my heart and mind to caring for it, so it will sustain the union far into the future. 

Subjecting the body to the mind and heart is critical to joy.  Including the body in the joy is vital to the body’s health and vitality.  Here are a few ways to bring the body to joy.

1. Give it exercise
2. Take it to bed early and get it out of bed early
3. Let it fast for 24 hours once a month.
4. Get it doing what it is good at.
5. Teach it to juggle or help it develop some other skill.
6. Use it to create something.
7. Feed it well and regularly.
8. Give it what it enjoys, in moderate, moral, measured ways.
9. Give it variety.
10. Keep it clean.
11. Use it to make appropriate contact with others.  Hug.
12. Use it to give your mind and heart the experience they crave.
13. Utilize it, put it to work!

Your mind and heart must be responsible for your body, because your body is not responsible.  Help it fulfill it’s intended purpose and it will serve you long and well.

Take Action:  Think about your body.  Are you caring for it?  Choose one of the twelve suggestions and spend a week giving that gift to your body.