In my experience most of us are unfamiliar with our body as a source of knowledge or wisdom. It may be because of an almost universal identification with the thinking mind.
I don’t know if we blame this on Descartes who said “I think, therefore I am” or on stress mechanisms that trigger a hypervigilance that’s commonly translated into living in the head and too much thinking. And it could just be that Descartes was one very stressed philosopher.
The Wisdom of the Body
My introduction to the body as a source of wisdom came through the practice of Focusing, which was developed at the University of Chicago in the sixties.
Essentially it was discovered that when we pay attention to bodily felt experience directly … to sensations, feelings, and just about any form of sensory based experience with a gentle, patient, non-judging style of attention … we become more resourceful emotionally, physically, cognitively, and creatively. We’re more whole and begin to heal.
Since learning about Focusing in the middle eighties I’ve studied a variety of other disciplines, from Mindfulness and Centering Prayer, to Neurofeedback and others, that operate under the same essential premise of using non-judgmental conscious attention to body felt experience to enhance brain function as well as support emotional and physical healing.
Your Connection with Energy
My personal take is that while sensations and feelings do have a neurological and biochemical aspect, they’re essentially our connection with a larger, mysterious field of energy. Feelings are our subjective experience of the ‘Field’, the meridian energy system, or chakra system, etc.
And the value of being connected to that ‘Field’ is that it activates our self healing and self-regulating capacity. This is how we turn on our very own factory installed biofeedback equipment.
You don’t need to invest in the hightech energy sensing technology that’s used by biophysicists when you have a body and the willingness to attend to your feelings and sensations. When we connect with ourselves in this way, rather than just thinking (which is easier said than done), the energy systems begin to spontaneously balance.
The impressive thing about your body and your connection to energy is that the energy is a form of intelligence that has the ability to carry you forward in meaningful and authentic ways that isn’t as likely to happen when you operate primarily from the thinking, rational side of the brain.
A Deeper Guiding Mystery
Last night, my wife Eileen and I attended the monthly meeting of the Center for Creative Studies in Lakeland, FL. The topic of the evening’s presentation, led by Dr. Trudy Rankin, had to do with how we can be guided to grow, change, and evolve by promptings from the heart or from some other inner place.
In the course of the evening I was reminded of Joseph Campbell, the noted mythologist and wise teacher who taught at Sarah Lawrence College for over forty years.
Campbell was an expert on ‘The Hero’s Journey’ in which the hero is capable of moving through all kinds of resistance, obstacles and hardship in pursuit of an inner calling.
One of Campbell’s suggestions to students was to follow their bliss … meaning to follow their passion and implied in that advice was the need to navigate the challenging path of the hero.
He also suggested that the purpose of the great myths was to teach us to ‘say yea to it all’ … to affirm all of life … the dark and shadowy as well as the the bright and sunny.
Mindfulness of the Body
I’ve found in my personal experience as well as working in my practice that the body and it’s terrain of felt experience allows us to say ‘yea’ to the truth of the moment while suspending, distancing from, or minimizing the judging and story making influence of the thinking mind. The mind tends to keep us stuck in more familiar and less heroic territory.
This process of embodied knowing triggers a natural balancing and self guiding influence. As we’re able to embrace the experience and the energy as it is … without the disruptive story making influence of the mind … the energy balances, our subjective experience eases, and the potential for authentic passion or bliss is more likely to emerge.
Steven Templin, D.O.M., Dipl. Ac. offers a comprehensive mind-body program for addressing the underlying inflammation, toxicities, and stress-induced causes of most pain and illness.
He places special emphasis on resolving the stress response and repairing adrenal gland and digestive system function to address the root causes of many common and often difficult to treat illnesses.
He translates emerging research in the fields of Epigenetics, Energy Psychology, and Functional Nutrition into effective practices that you can perform at home.
You can work with Dr. Templin online, or in his Lakeland, Florida office at the Natural Medicine Center. He can be reached at 863-838-2779. You can visit his website at www.stevetemplin.com and contact him via email at drtemplin@gmail.com.
Steve is a retired Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture Physician, and HeartMath Trauma-Sensitive Certified Practitioner with over 35 years of clinical experience in Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, and Biofeedback.