April 6, 2008

• Body Wisdom

  Often our bodies give us all the information we need to be healthy, happy, and sane. 

  When I have eaten enough for my needs, my body tells me it is satisfied.  If I eat beyond that point my body is uncomfortable. 

  When I'm in situations that cause me stress my body reacts with surges of hormones, muscle spasms, headaches, and a host of other signals telling me to get out, slow down, and protect myself.  If I ignore these symtoms I'm at risk to develop any number of health issues from heart disease and diabetes to lines and wrinkles from my perpetual frown.

  The message of the last several chapters of Eckhart Tolle's book has been to listen to your body.  Listen to what's happening.  Understand that you are not your circumstances.  You don't have to choose pain.  The fact that certain thoughts and actions provoke pain in us is not an invitation to dwell there and bemoan our fate, it is a signal to get out of that cycle of negative thinking.  Move on.  Forgive others as we wish to be forgiven. 

  It's such a pwerful thought it kind of makes me wonder why no one has suggested it before ...

  For me, saying, "I need a rest" is a difficult and courageous thing to do.  I fear being seen as lazy or irresponsible.  I fear judgment.  And I know precisely where this fear comes from.  I have been conditioned through a series of life events to think this way.

  So I barrel on through, most of the time.  I tough it out.  I make sure everyone else is cared for first. 

  Two incidents this week called to my attention just how out of balance I am in this regard.  On Wednesday night the boys and I had dinner with friends.  Our hostess made dinner and served it.  Afterward, our host cleaned the dishes while she and I discussed our writing projects.  It was everything I could do not to hop up and help with the clean up.  It just felt so wrong for someone else to be doing that chore, even in their own house, that it was a major distraction from the point and purpose of the evening. 

  The second incident was this morning.  My best friend came over in time to share breakfast with me and the boys.  So I made the pancakes, made the bacon and then because Tucker is a bacon FREAK I had a second or third (I kind of lost count) pan of bacon cooking while everyone else was eating.  Finally, my friend said, "Will you just eat your breakfast?  I'll watch the bacon."  I did but enjoying my food while someone else was working in my kitchen was almost impossible.

  Only almost impossible because I was pretty hungry by that time so I managed to stay in my seat.  My body was telling me that I was hungry and keeping in mind that by this point everyone else had eaten and enjoyed seconds, my mind was still telling me to ignore my feeling of hunger and keep working in the kitchen because that's what good girls do.

  I'm realizing that I can either please my mind and be "good" by some warped standard that I'm not sure anyone else would recognize as "good."  Or I can listen to my body, give it rest, take my turn, relax a little, and be a lot healthier.

  Come to think of it, my body and my inner child both seem to want similar things.

  *******

  The workshop this afternoon was fantastic.  The presenter was Sci-Fi author Laura Mixon.  We were joined in the last hour by her husband, Steve Gould, author of Jumpers which a few weeks ago was the number one film at the box office.   

  Instruction on craft was excellent, and the discussion was lively.  At times we ranged a little off topic to include such things as the philosophy of the American Criminal Justice system and whether or not it's necessary for a story to always and overtly be about the battle between good and evil, but for the most part it was nuts and bolts craft talk. 

  I love the Albuquerque creative community.  What a cool place to live and be.  What a cool opportunity for me. 

  *******

  While I was at the writing workshop, Michael and Tucker were at the Active Imagination gaming emporium.  They apparently had an awesome time and can't wait for me to have another workshop. 

   

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