August 11--Body Sense

Stay, stay at home, my heart and rest

Home-keeping hearts are the happiest

For those that wander they know not where

Are full of trouble and full of care

To stay home is the best.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    Well, "to stay home" is what I do the most, but, as the pandemic clearly showed us, there is also a need to wander away from home now and then. So I would vote for a suitable balance of home-away, maybe 80%-20% for me. 

    Let's talk about our body home. We all have one in order to exist here on Playground Earth. Often as a MELT/yoga teacher, students come to me after years of ignoring their bodies and thus becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the body's performance. I speak a lot about "body sense" being a very useful skill we develop over time.
    Here is some body-soul wisdom from Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue:

    Your mind can deceive you and put all kinds of barriers between you and your nature; but your body does not lie. Your body tells you, if you attend to it, how your life is and whether you are living from your soul or from the labyrinths of your negativity... The human body is the most complex, refined, and harmonious totality...
    Your body is, in essence, a crowd of different members who work in harmony to make your belonging in the world possible... The soul is not simply within the body, hidden somewhere within its recesses. The truth is rather the converse. Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely.

    Try this--smile at yourself in the mirror today. 

        Leta

Family fun, joy for the body and soul!