By Wayne
We live in an age when inauthenticity has been deeply ingrained and conditioned in our society and relationships, including the relationship that we have with ourselves. We seek pleasure, but settle for distraction. We hunger for life’s sweetness and nourishment, but settle for the supermarket lies of processed food. We long for passionate engagement in life, and settle instead for a job offering security.
If you are like the old version of me, you rate yourself on how well adjusted and good at coping you are with an enduring lack of fulfillment. You pride yourself on how you don’t lash out at others and how you seek God and character attainments to find your way through life sanely. Or maybe, unlike the old me, (but arguably, a step healthier,) you are angry and pissed, and you don’t try to hide it, but, on the downside, remain stuck there in a frustrated loop of settling.
This managing of our desires instead of embracing them for the lifesaving signposts that they are is at root of so much agony in our lives and society. Where did it come from? How did we get here? What brought us to this mutual buy in on such a wide scale as to call this suppressed state normal? Why do we reward those most well adapted to this strategy?
A bit more of a mental answer is that both science and religion came to an agreement, (underneath all their appearances of being at odds with each other) and that agreement is that the body cannot be trusted; that your body is bad.
Religion’s alarm is that your body ‘fell from grace’ sadly through no choice of your own, but held against you none-the-less, and eternally at that. The alarming message is that the untrustworthiness and evil of your own body, (though originally created by God), now fallen, is that you must not rely on it in any way. The message is that the body’s desires are tainted, sinful, and will only lead to more pain and punishment.
Science presents us with a strangely similar message. For all of its’ vast knowledge of the human body, science tells us that matter is all there is; no higher purpose; no higher design. None. Not within or without, beyond the mechanics of that body. Only cause and effect. In other words, the body itself possesses no innate loving and guiding wisdom of its’ own. Again, the message is that the body’s desires are not connected to anything loving. Instead, the body’s selfish desires are to be will-powered over and disciplined into submission, lest they leave you deprived of all health.
In other words, the message has been that the world of spirit and matter are two separate worlds. Purposeless and despairing, both science and religion have stripped us of our noble and lofty sovereign state of feeling the blessing of our own bodies.
A more feeling and less mental answer to the question of how did we get here, would be to simply open your heart and look at any body part of yours.
Try your hand, for example. Really look at it, feel it, study it, listen to it. Yes, it has a voice and it can talk to you. Give your hand the gift of your full undivided attention for a few moments. It can tell you what it likes and what it doesn’t. Ask it if it feels like matter and spirit are in fact separate, like it is just a blob, a machine, with no innate wisdom or guidance, or purpose.
What if it is a lie that matter and spirit are not the same? And what if it is this lie that is at the root of both past wounding and present lack of fulfillment in your life? What if it is at root of your inauthentic expression in your life?
Soulfullheart begins with a feeling knowledge of divine goodness of your body and your emotions. And, not off sometime in the future after you’ve resolved a few pressing issues, but now, you can turn to your body’s innate wisdom for guidance on where to go next.
Coming back to loving and honoring our body is a huge step towards seeing more of your authentic self, or what we call your soulfullheart self, express into all the areas of our lives.
Be good to yourself though. You are biting off a big piece, and one thing will lead to another.
This writing was inspired by the thoughtful words and spacious energy of Charles Eisenstein’s The Yoga of Eating: Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self.
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