Back        Home

Body/mind awareness is about reclaiming one's awareness to the direct experience of their interconnectedness. Most have little to no awareness of their body, and because they are unaware, they have no awareness of their minds. This can be easily remedied by putting attention on both. Most don't last more than 5-10 minutes with sitting quietly with their mind, and without awareness of your mind and how it distracts and keeps one in the head, there is little awareness of what is going on in the body.

The ramifications of this are disturbing as you begin to understand how the body is armored by muscle rigidity that effects one's breath, movement, body sensations, and hence consciousness. Muscle tension shuts down the flow of energy in the body; energy is synonymous with consciousness. Breath is also a regulator of the flow of energy and awareness as well. Research has shown that children shut down their breath in order to shut off feelings. Our culture is full of humans who avoid feelings and emotions. In order to not feel, one has to shut down their breath and armor the body against these energies from surfacing.

In general, gradations of rigidity within the body (armoring), arise from a rigid mind that has been trained to think in limited mechanical thinking that allows little to no interface with the body. The body from the mind's perspective then becomes an enemy that can betray one's feelings/emotions and authentic expression. This is why humans go unconscious to avoid having awareness of going against their authentic self. To be fully conscious and have to deny your authentic self is a painful process. When you're unconscious, you don't know that you don't know.

Forcing children to sit for hours on end at school, is one major example of torture, as all that energy has to be stifled or one is punished. Years of conditioning gradually suppresses the natural flow of energy and this is done by controlling and limiting the movements in the body to conform to the beliefs/rules. Repetition deadens awareness is an absolute truth. Consider how long many workers sit at their desks doing repetitive actions. You were trained just for this purpose; it's called domestication and yes, humans are animals too.

As Jesus was fond of saying, Until you become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom/Queendom. The adult world exits children out of their Divine Nature. Another article discusses the ramifications of the masks we wear.

Children are the model of how we adults are supposed to be. They have flexibility, agility, and full range and use of their body until they are trained to fit into the limitations of family, school, religion, and society. An authentic child is able to express joy, bliss, and ecstasy as an authentic expression of the divine. A child is free of shame, guilt, and fear; it should be noted that the only two fears we are born with are fear of loud noises and height. Children are also tuned into their divine spiritual nature that includes their instincts, intuition, and other abilities of knowing.  Michael J. Cohen outlines these 53 natural survival sense groups humans have in his article "The Multisensory Person."

The cultural conformity to obedience, repetitive work, and to deny the pleasures of the body, eventually sabotage one's body/mind awareness and ultimately their ability to be fully conscious. In essence, your awareness is stifled under all the layers of armor (tensions). This is where shame, guilt, and fear become the dysfunctions that imprison the expression of authentic self.

Thoughts/beliefs are the root of this rigidity. We learn to conform to all the various messages we are taught to comply with to get our needs met and to avoid further pain and suffering. Unfortunately the damage that is caused to the body from this sort of non-sense eventually wears down the body and one's health and wellness. The body can heal itself if the mind is functioning in harmony with soul and spirit, though it may take a lot of work in some cases.

The good news is you can re-learn to become aware of your body. I use body movement, breathwork, energetic healing, and focused attention to bring your awareness back into your body in the now. The process involves becoming aware of how your mind directs your attention away from essential awareness necessary for your authentic expression. One should realize how many years were spent shutting down body awareness/movement, but it takes far less time to set one's self free from those constraints with conscious intentions.

Jump right in, the waters fine, it's where the joy, bliss, and ecstasy reside! Each of us is naturally buoyant in our authenticity. When one becomes conscious, then they have the choice of continuing being miserable and limited or joyful and unlimited.

Back        Home

Update: 10/01/11