Does the Body Lie?

I don’t think the body ever lies. 

However, what it’s communicating to us is usually left up to our interpretation, and we are masters of self-deception.

The body is always present, which is why it’s such a powerful tool to cradle the mind into the present too. Much of what the body communicates, though, are stored messages from the past.

Practicing being with the body sounds so simple, yet we’re often so quick to rush to suppress, resist, avoid, or react from what the body is communicating. We’re often so quick to try to think our way out of emotional challenges.

Tuning into the body gives those old, scared, and determined parts of ourselves an opportunity to be seen and heard in healing ways. Especially in a culture that prioritizes the thinking mind as much as we do, though, it can be quite challenging to simply be with and listen to what the body is communicating. I’m such an amateur at this! 

One access that I find incredibly helpful is to engage the body in compassionate and interested conversation.

Yesterday morning during my meditation, I had a pressure pushing against the right side of my body from my head down to my hips. My thinking mind interpreted it as something wrong, but I gently asked that thinking mind to step aside for a few moments while I engaged with the feeling. Though the feeling dissipated immensely after being with it intentionally for about 10 minutes, it was still there a bit at the end. By being with it intentionally and compassionately, though, by the end it wasn’t a large wave trying to knock me over and instead was a gentle wave I could relax with.

I spoke to it. I'm sorry for resisting you. I'm sorry for wishing you would go away. I'm sorry for being scared of you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the gift you are even though I don't see it yet.

And I asked it questions. Is there anything you'd like to show me or tell me? Is there anything you’d like me to know? Is there anything you want to know from me? And I'd listen for the answers. Sometimes it would speak. Sometimes it wouldn't.

The body doesn’t lie, and what it’s communicating is often a message from the past. Compassion isn’t doing what the body says to do. Compassion is hearing what it’s communicating from a space of gentle gratitude, interest, and unconditional acceptance.

Our emotions are never the problem. The problem is how we relate to our emotions. 

Much Love. ❤️

(As always, human-written.)

Slipping on the Faculty Room Floor

Years ago, I stepped into the faculty room at school and didn’t see the spilled coffee on the floor. I slipped and fell flat on my back. A quick look around to make sure nobody saw it happen, then I stood back up.

Someone made a mess and didn’t clean it up. I nearly walked out of there - annoyed and a bit sore from the fall.

After a moment of frustration, though, I cleaned up the mess.If the person who made the mess had cleaned it up, I wouldn't have slipped. And though it wasn’t my fault, and though I had good reasons not to, because I cleaned it up, no one after me would slip.

Life is better for us and those who come after us when we take generous and responsible action now.

Much Love. ❤️

Present to the Abundance That Is You

Have you heard this before?

If you want more love, be more loving. (The more you love, the more you get to love.)

If you want more gratitude, be more grateful. (The more you create gratitude, the more grateful you are.)

If you want more kindness, be more kind. (The more kind you are, the more kindness you experience.)

A client recently experienced an incredible opening 30 minutes into our conversation. She said, “I feel like a whole different human expression. It’s profound working with you, Mick.”

Then we continued talking, and she fell more deeply in love with her experience of her humanity.

Those are my words. How she expressed it was this: I’m present to the abundance that is me. 

That could be read as self-centered, vain, or egotistical self-flattery. But that’s not what it was. In her experience, and mine too, it was an acknowledgment of the divine gift it is to be human.

It was a recognition of the inherent beauty in being human, a recognition of these multiple powerful mechanisms within us of defense, of security-promising, of certainty-seeking, and of the self-love of fear expressing itself in challenging ways.

Even with eyes closed, we are witnesses to so many gifts from the universe. The gift to feel. The gift to hear. The gift to breathe. The gift to move. The gift to be. Getting present to those gifts is a prayer of gratitude and love, and it’s a gentle step toward living life in harmony with all that is. 

Have you heard this before? If you want more abundance, notice the abundance you’re already swimming in.

“By grace I live, by grace I am released. By grace I give, by grace I will release.” (Lesson 169, A Course in Miracles).

Much Love ❤️.