Body
Reflect on your intention: what do you want to gain from your self-development practices, and how does your relationship with your physical body contribute to or hinder your ability to get there?
Principles for Choosing Practices
Be Aware of Dissociation
Think about how you relate to your physical body. Reflect on the purpose of your exercise and healthy eating routine and on whether they connect you to your body mindfully or further dissociated you from it.
Attune to your Physical Needs
Attunement is your ability to sense yourself in the world around you and feel part of a greater whole. Reflect about how connected you feel to your physical needs and how aligned are they with the context of your life experience.
Make use of your Natural Sentience
Sentience is a binary instinct. It moves us towards pleasure and safety and away from pain and danger. Do you train your body to cope with stress? Or do you listen and include mindful indulgence to balance hostility with a bit of joy?
A bit of Inspiration
Look at embodied activities aimed to bring back a sense of attunement with ourselves and the world around us. It is also good to include a bit of mindful indulgence to your physical practice, if you wish to, and monitor your mind reactions to it and how your body respond to pleasure when it is not constantly forced to fight unexisting danger. Whatever activity you choose, be it hardcore physical exercise or something gentler or contemplative, remember that it needs to be sustainable, and it better brings you joy. Whatever the choice, ensure that the activities are fun and meaningful and bring a smile to your face. If you must drag your feet to your physical practice, is it really good for you?
Practices: exercise routines that reconnect with nature, like running or walking practised mindfully; exercises focused on breath awareness, like swimming, yoga, tai chi or chi gong; mindful eating; dance, bodywork.
Moments in the Garden
Connecting moments with my favourite green space. Images with a glimpse of the beauty that awaits us, just around the corner from routine.
