My work with inner alchemy focuses on the health of the body, and learning how to communicate with your body better than you already do. I’m always in search of additional techniques and skills that can facilitate this process, because I find that, in general, most people have a hard time connecting with their bodies. Right now, I’m reading Pain Free by Pete Egoscue (affiliate link), which is a fascinating book that explores the structure of the body and how the body uses pain to communicate that something is wrong with the structure.
For example, when you feel pain in your foot or your hips or back, its not simply a matter of feeling pain there, but also an indication that the way your body is moving may not be quite right and that you may have muscles compensating for other muscles that aren’t being worked properly. Egoscue’s solution is elegant in that he doesn’t just provide some exercises, but really explores the underlying principles that inform how the body moves and how its intended to carry a person through the day.
I’ve recently started doing the foot exercises and also paying close attention to how I walk and I’ve noticed an almost immediate improvement, which highlights why its so important to not just listen to your body, but also actively discover what the message means. Living with chronic pain is not a fun experience, as I can attest to. One of the reasons I’ve spent so much time learning to work with my body is because I’ve had my own chronic pain issues to deal with. The qigong exercises I’ve learned have gone a long way toward alleviating that pain as has a regular regime of swimming and weightlifting, which has helped me strengthen my muscles. But reading Pain Free and starting to implement some of the exercises the author has mentioned has also demonstrated why its so important to continually develop your understanding of the body and how it is intended to move.
We take our bodies for granted because we live in them each day. The chronic pain some of us feels can become all too easy to ignore, because its just part of the background signal, but we should not only pay attention to that background signal but also discover what it’s masking, because many times we’re missing out on key information the body could provide, if the pain wasn’t in the way. By continually learning to improve my communication with my body, what I’ve discovered is what a miracle my body is, as well as deeper sensations and experiences it has to offer. You can’t easily have those experiences when pain overrides everything else.
Implementing the techniques from Pain Free is helping me deepen my connection with my body. I’m discovering how I can better take care of this vessel and in turn how it can better take care of me. I’m improving my communication with my body and the pay off, both in terms of less pain and higher quality of life is worth it.
What I keep discovering is that a holistic approach to one’s body is best. Learning various moving meditations and stretches keeps me limber and allows me to work with muscle clusters , while exercising allows me to strengthen my overall body and breathing meditation allows me to connect with the more subtle sensations of the body. Everything you do to and with your body has a role in you health and realizing that can help you change your relationship with your body, as well as your quality of life.
