Balance and Being Separated From Our Body

One thing that's been on my mind lately is this idea of the give and take of everything.

I just finished listening to, which has become one of my favorite books, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

In it, she discusses lots of her upbringing through an Indigenous Lens, while living in America. The ability to see all things as living beings with respect and autonomy (from stones and rivers, to animals and plants). The ability to learn from plants, to take only what is needed, and that the key with everything in nature is reciprocation.
The ability to give gratitude for all the gifts the world so freely gives is our gift and our duty.

But we have taken too much - consumed by greed, by never being satisfied and slowly, but undoubtably destroying the only world we have.

As much as I loved her storytelling, at the core of the book is an underlying sadness.
There is also a responsibility that we have neglected for far too long.
With that said, I couldn't help but notice the similarities of mindsets, not only to the larger scale of the Earth, but also, of us individuals and our eating, drinking, and activity patterns.

I know, I know…for most people, they see food as one of two things - pleasure or fuel.

In essence, it's both.

But I've always seen it as more than that. Yes, food definitely gives pleasure and fuel, but depending on the food, it can give you too much of an "invasive species," or it can rob "the land," while getting you "addicted."

Sugar for instance tends to rob vitamins and minerals to stabilize your blood sugar when consumed. It overuses magnesium (which most people are deficient in to begin with), uses B-Vitamins at higher rates, over-stimulates Dopamine, which can make it harder to enjoy "regular food" going forward.

In other words, there is a cost to the pleasure.

On the other extreme, high fatty foods, can give pleasure to be sure, but they can also cause their own issues, giving you a surplus of calories that needs to be balanced with activity.

So yes, we have become separated from nature, but there are so many parallels about also having become separated from the one thing that is most intimately tied to us - our own bodies.

How Far Removed Are You From Your Own Body?

​To be sure, there have been marketing campaigns to help you lose weight, culture that helps dictate what the ideal is, parents and teachings of what to eat, how much to eat, and why.

For many parts of your early life, food probably wasn't in your direct control.
Having people to guide you, to help you listen to the wisdom of your body, has far too often, been lost.

Then there is alcohol and drugs. Nearly everyone I know the first time they sipped alcohol didn't like it. Most don't like it now, but the fact remains it is ubiquitous in our society.

Pleasure, "they say," comes from these chemicals. Fuck your lived experience. "Look, everyone else is doing it."

And slowly, but inevitably, we are strangers to our own body.

Ignore your desire for sleep. That fatigue just means you have to push harder. Don't you know all the "success stories" of early risers…of burning the midnight oil.

Watch this thing for relaxation (TV and your phone), although it will mess with your sleep.

Forget the patterns of seasons - Winters should be shorter days, with less energy. Summers should be spent moving more and doing more.

But with our air conditioners and our heat (trust me, modern conveniences I wouldn't want to live without), we are again removed, another step away from our body.

That fear - don't show it. Instead, anger. Yeah, show that.

That elation, that super excited feeling - no one wants to see that. Calm it down!

That sadness - "God, who wants to see that" - shut it down. Shut down the natural wisdom of your body.

And challenges - things that used to be worthwhile, that showed your value - not to others, but to the inherent nature of pushing your body to its limit and seeing what you are capable of - well that's only for athletes. I'm no athlete. Why would I want to do that?

We have lost the balance of what our bodies yearn for. For what feeds our emotions, for what allows us to commune with our Spirit - our Body.

And then we wonder why society is so fractured (and trust me there are very powerful people - aka, people with money - pushing towards keeping those fractures to serve their monetary ends).

We are not even comfortable in our own body.

We've forgotten how to listen to the wisdom of the thing that is with us from before we're born and will be with us to the day we die. The most intimate parts of ourself.
Cut off from the full pleasure. Too often Numb; slightly disjointed from our body.
And for what? So we can "make a living."

The irony of those words - "make a living" while ignoring the very thing that keeps you alive.

We are too often numb or seeking the highest pleasure from our body - But at what cost?

If we are not one with our own body - if we don't know the tweaks here and there that would make it better, that could make it whole, that would allow you to live and move, and breathe more easily, on a more consistent basis, where you seek harmony with your body, the push and pull of what you need from it, with the rest and relaxation of being able to recover, then what the fuck are we doing?

What's it all for?

This is just some musings, asking you very simply:

What is your body asking for?
Maybe it's in a quiet whisper?
Not because you "should" workout, but because you might want to move?
Does it need to stretch?
Do you want to sustain it with premium fuel or some highly processed food for that inevitable high?

No judgment, seriously…but when's the last time you've felt at harmony with your body?

That you knew what it needed…and gave it that?

When you balanced an over-indulgence, with some walking?

When you balanced a hard, strenuous workout, with extra stretching and sleep?
When you balanced tons of sitting in front of the computer with lots of playing with people in person?

No one thing is wrong - But one thing too often, can throw off that balance, that harmony.

So what might you need to get back into harmony with the thing most intimate to you - your body?