In addition to holding the organs, tissues and cells which enable us to live, the body is the physical home where our life force resides. As with everything there is a great debate as to what produces this life force, with convincing arguments from both science and religion. Though I find these discussions intriguing, I don’t want to get too distracted by what causes life force right now. What I want to focus on is the fact that our bodies–your body– is alive and it’s full of energy that is consumed automatically in a way that we are mostly unaware of. It merely happens behind the scenes as we go about our day. However, understanding how the body functions and how we can become more aware of the energy in our body and how to harness it –is essential to fostering inner peace, better health, and accessing higher states of consciousness.
So let’s start with the basics. Take a moment right now to notice that your body is alive. Turn off your phone and close your eyes for a minute and notice what sensations you feel throughout your body. (You can come back to these words in a moment.)
There is so much going on within our bodies all the time that we are mostly unaware of. So much energy is produced and consumed to support millions of functions. It’s important to pay greater attention to what’s happening inside our bodies and how we consume energy. Becoming familiar with our body in this way will help us find ways to optimize how we use energy, when to conserve it and how to increase it at will. As a general rule, we should strive to reduce energy flow that is harmful such as stress, bodily tension, and anxiety and increase energy flow that is beneficial such as exercise, meditative practices, and other creative pursuits which give us joy.
What did you notice about your body when you took a moment to check in with it?
Did you feel your heartbeat? Can you feel the pulse in your hands or somewhere else? How about your breath: Did you notice the rise and fall of air in your lungs? Was there any tension in your body? (I tend to hold tension in my shoulders a lot.) What other internal or external sensations (like air/wind on your skin) did you feel. Take another moment again to check in with your body. PAUSE and come back.
The body plays so many roles in our lives, too many to delve into here but it is a great source of pleasure and pain as human beings. Further, as we age, we begin to realize how much we’ve taken our body for granted. It’s been a loyal servant to us and perhaps we haven’t taken care of it as much as we should have. At peace4propserity.com we will research and share resources for how to explore and take better care of the body and how the body can be used to ground us in a hyper-distracted world. And we will focus a lot on how to keep the body in motion and how to prepare for rest.
I encourage you to check out our resources page for the many books, guest articles, and other media that have helped me on my journey of self-exploration in learning how to use my mind to create a more peaceful and prosperous life. Our exploration of the body is also intimately connected to our investigation of the mind and feeling, those other two fundamental aspects of the human being, which I research and write about on this blog. So check out those resources as well. Once you explore and become more familiar with these three basic facets of the human being we will talk about how to link them within oneself as the key to higher states of consciousness.
Good luck this week and keep me posted on your progress. You can reach me here.