The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. I am so grateful to have the circles of mindfulness to come to every Sunday.  It’s truly a gift to be among caring others who have the courage and generosity of spirt to come together.  We are living through such turmoil.   We can turn to embodied mindfulness practices as a way of getting grounded.  We can find a place of inner peace to rest our minds and connect with our deepest truths.

Today we explored our relationship to our bodies in a variety of ways:

Contemplating the body  – exploring its nature
Developing a sense of wonder and appreciation for the body – considering the body’s many gifts
Examining our relationship to the body – how we care for it, how we listen to it, how we understand it
Befriending the body – accepting whatever we can without judgment
Learning how to meet discomfort and pain with balance and patience – finding a place that doesn’t hurt – a place we can return to when feeling overwhelmed

We have the inner resources that we can nurture and grow to help calm and heal ourselves.

We drew on the work of Oren Jay Sofer.  Oren teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication.  You can find “Resources for Hard Times” on his web-site along with many excellent articles, audio and video teachings.  Oren’s brings his personal experience and professional training in Somatic Experiencing to helping students on their healing journey.

Relaxed Reflection

As you settle down into the earth relax and let go of whatever you can . . . Really take in the pleasure of feeling and moving . . . savoring the experience as your body begins relax and let go  . . . 

In describing our embodiment, Oren Jay Sofer says:

This body is the portal through which we experience the world.  Is there anything in life that you have ever known, touch, seen, heard or tasted that has not passed through this mind and body?  . .  The body can become a doorway of reclaiming our sense of belonging to the world, of being intimately connected and reclaiming a sense of being at home.  Our true home is awareness: the capacity we have for presence and that includes the body.   . . .

In coming home to our bodies, we come back to our senses.  We know and feel our bodies in awareness.  In awareness, we begin deepening our relationship with our body . . . We draw on the its inner resources so we can rest our minds . . . so we can feel our emotions so we can learn what the body has to teach us . . . We open to what is revealed with curiosity and care.   

I invite you contemplate the wonder of your body . . . The atoms of each of your cells have been here since the begining of the universe.  Each one of our senses is a miracle through which we take in the world.

We can befriend our bodies in bringing a sense of kindness in caring for it in the simplist of ways . . . bathing . . . going for a walk . . . resting when we need to . . . eating nourishing foods.  Just as we are stewards of the earth we are also caregivers of ourselves and one another.  We can bring awareness and presence to these fundamental motions of living.  

Our bodies are always doing the best they can to keep us alive.  We can learn how to work with discomfort and pain, with what is unpleasant in the body.  Oren reflects on what the body holds:

Our body remembers . . . the issues are in the tissues.  Our bodies carry memories and emotions of our history – sometimes intergenerationally.  The potential [for healing] here is not just the pain that’s carried its also the joy and the resilience.  

We can create the conditions for healing by giving it the time and space in which to unfold.  We begin by building our capacity to rest our attention somewhere pleasant or neutral.  We can find the place to rest our attention that doesn’t hurt.  We let it be our place of equanimity where we can establish some balance.  A place we can return to when feeling overwhelmed.  Can you find a place like that right now?  Nothing to force . . . finding a place that feels o.k. . . . . and when you’re ready kindly, warmly opening to what might be coming up for healing . . . This is a place we can come to in the midst of life’s turbulence – an inner space of calm we can access through our embodied awareness.  

We become embodied by entering the field of sensations directly . . . when you are breathing you are feeling breathing . . . when you are sitting you are feeling sitting . . . when you are moving you are feeling moving. . . Embodied mindfulness is bringing awareness, feeling, sensation together right now.  This body is our way  to aliveness and joy – it’s where we meet our lives, each other and the planet.  

Here is a quote, The Human Body at Peace with Itself,  from the 14th century Tibetan Lama Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa sect of Buddhism:

The human body at peace with itself is more precious than the rarest gem.  Cherish your body it is yours this one time only.  The human form is won with great difficulty it’s easy to lose.  All worldly things are brief like lightning in the sky This life you must know as the tiny splash of a rain drop a thing of beauty that disappears even as it comes into being.  Therefore set your goal to make use of every day and night to achieve it.