Knowing the the body is also "intelligent" in this sense helps me to feel justified in listening to what it tells me. While this is a very logical approach, it integrates very easily with many of the spiritual concepts that I have been reading about and pondering. Growing up in a culture that sees humans as entirely alienated from the world, I find it very comforting to know that I am deeply connected to everything around me, whether I proactively choose to be or not. The intense alienation that I grew up with is only one experience of this world, and not one that I am destined to have. The only thing constant is change, and that gives me great hope for the transformative power of mindfulness, and the possibility of deepening the connection to my body and soul.
In reading this post again 10 years later, I feel the awesome power that we have to change. Today, I am connected to my Self, my body, and the more-than-human world around me. I can track my experience and orient to it in real time. Not allll the time, of course, but the majority of the time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it’s amazing to see how much our understanding of the enteric nervous system has evolved over the past 10 years. Scientific understanding of the vagus nerve and Polyvagal theory has continued to affirm that this “second brain” is a scientific way of saying what spiritual traditions around the world have always known - the our body is as much Who We Are as our “head brains”, and that we are only consciously tracking a tiny portion of what is happening in and around us.