The Body is the Way

Every Winter season I’m inspired to talk about the body: the sacred temple of matter that we’re residing in on this Earth-plane.

Our bodies are our own element of Earth (the element associated with Winter) which I explored a bit in the last newsletter.

So it is in Winter where we have a chance to really tend these vessels that our are own Earth.

Well, we do all the time, in all seasons, of course. But here in Winter, when we’re invited to build our structures, gather our strength, and stabilize our foundation, the body is very much indicated.

The material body is the vessel in which we fill our spirit. It is the vessel through which we live our purpose. It is the container that allows us to anchor divine love to this Earth. It is that which provides channel between cosmic and earth energies. It is through this body that we are cosmic creators.

I’ve never been excited about the word “ascension,” which is very popular in new age worlds, as if we’re trying to ascend higher than this Earth and Body plane.

If anything, I believe we’re meant to descend here, to anchor into our bodies, to help Universal Love root itself on earth.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) lately (The Otherside Podcast is a good one.) What’s fascinating to me about these is the commonalities in what many NDE experiencers “learn” or “download” while they’re technically dead.

Many people share that the purpose of humanity to live through love. To learn to be kind, gentle, and loving to themselves and others. The key here, I’ve heard over and over, is that these survivors of NDEs really understood that it is just as important, if not more so, to be loving to the self.

Can you really love yourself? Can you really forgive yourself? Can you really offer yourself compassion for your struggles, your shortcomings, and harm you may have caused others?

Everything changes when we start to love ourselves.

We organically begin to treat others with more understanding and compassion, because we’ve offered it to ourselves.

We organically choose what’s healing for ourselves and therefore the entire earth. We can be more present for others and all their emotions and experiences because we have a wider lens of compassion.

It’s interesting how sneaky self-hatred can be.

About 10 years ago I would have said that I loved myself for the most part. And then one day, sitting in a full moon circle where we were connecting to the brightest light we could conceive of, I caught a momentary flash from within me that said/felt that I didn’t deserve to receive this big of light.

But just as quickly as this belief flashed itself, it disappeared back to the realm of the shadow. I caught it’s tail however, and I’ve spent the past 10 years following that thread back to reclaim this lost part of me that believed I was ultimately bad, unworthy, and not deserving of love.

I can truly say now that I deeply love myself. My go-to response to myself is compassion, not judgement or derision. And because of this, I have much more capacity for compassion, understanding, and love for others.

So what does this have to do with the body?

Well everything. Because all of our beliefs live in our tissue. We can know something in our mind, but until we seek to meet our felt sense, emotional state, and layers of physical and physiological patterning that accompany these beliefs, we will not reclaim our wholeness. We will not meet and see ourselves in the place we need to be met and seen in order for true healing to happen.

The body is the way through.

The body guides us down and in. The body helps us descend into the heart of our soul. It is here where the magic lives. The magic that unlocks the realm of love once again, here, on this earth plane.

In my younger years, my spiritual seeking used to be about leaving the body, merging with divine, or ascending to “higher” consciousness. But for the past 10 years or so, I’ve realized it’s not about finding it elsewhere. It’s not about leaving these bodies to merge with love outside of ourselves.

This love has lived inside each of us all along. We just have to be brave enough to go in. To go down. To feel. And through the feeling we get to touch upon and embody love, and a sense of freedom from within.

(This is a big part of the intention of the first half of the Golden Stone Wisdom School'​s 6 month immersion program, through our work with embodiment and self-awareness.)

So, my dear, how lovingly can you tend your body and heart this winter season?

Perhaps take a moment right now, hand on heart, deep breath in and out, and say hello.

Ask yourself how you’re doing, and if there’s anything you need.

Then listen.

Simply be present with yourself with conscious awareness.

And let yourself be surprised by what you may hear or uncover.

For more deep self-love and care this winter season, book yourself a bodywork session.