Do you rush through the day without checking in with your experience of life, your experience within? Do the days lead to weeks and years of being out of touch with your own needs and feelings? Are dissatisfaction, burnout and health being sacrificed as you continue to "push through"?
Constant movement, change, focus and drive can challenge your ability to be grounded, embodied and fully present to your needs. If you are living on autopilot, this will have a dramatic impact on your health, comfort and nourishment, as well as your relationships. What really suffers is your relationship with your true Self, and most certainly your creativity and life force energy. Fortunately you can unwind the numbness and choose to step into embodiment with very little effort. I use a simple technique to help bring presence to what is occurring within at any given moment. It's beyond listening to the breath and deep breathing (though this can certainly be valuable for the nervous system). I use a "three level check-in" process to immediately name the experiences arriving within. In this embodiment practice, you human experience is divided into four levels: mental body, emotional body and physical body. The fourth level includes the spiritual body. The spiritual body upholds the other three bodies. The Vedic koshas correlate to these "four bodies" and Ayurveda corroborates, since it also speaks to these four "bodies" as well. We can also use this tracking process in conjunction with Jyotish. As you track your inner landscape, you are literally tracking the effects of the planets on your physiology. There are multiple reasons why a Four Level Check-in is valuable for health and well being as well as for deepening one's ability to increase resiliency and thriving. First, let's take it for a spin and experience the mechanics of it. 1) Whatever you are doing right now, hit the pause button and bring your attention inward. It may help to close your eyes, but this isn't necessary. You may be sitting, standing or walking, but bring your attention to the now regardless of what is happening around you. 2) Notice the physical body. What is coming to you? What is the physical body sharing with you? Be present to images, colors, words, expressions and shapes that arise. 3) Notice the emotional body. What is coming to you? What is the emotional body sharing with you? Be present to images, colors, words, expressions and shapes that arise. 4) Notice the mental body. What is coming to you? What is the mental body sharing with you? Be present to images, colors, words, expressions and shapes that arise. 5) Notice the spiritual body. What is coming to you? What is the spiritual body sharing with you? Be present to images, colors, words, expressions and shapes that arise. This level of awareness is the most nuanced. Sometimes it's available, other times it is not. Create a space for listening nonetheless. Use this check-in practice at least once a day to do an "audit" of your inner landscape. As you track your physical body, you are tracking the Sun and Saturn and often Mars- which give awareness of sensation in the body. As you track the emotional body, you are tracking the Moon and often Venus. Tracking the mental body arrives through Mercury. The spiritual body is connected to the Sun as well as Jupiter. Mars and Venus support these bodies in subtle ways, while Rahu and Ketu intensify the experiences arriving. Your four level check-in findings can be written down and used at another time. You can take these findings into a creative process by moving your words, creating a poem from them, drawing an image, or turning them into a song etc. This keeps your bodies alive, potent and moving. It can also help you deepen the identification process- which is so vital for creating life change. Use your inner experiences and harvest from them further; move them, transform them, change them through an intentional art making process. But if nothing else, create space for these feelings, allow them to be with you and be present to the experience of your inner landscape. This presence alone can be immensely valuable. Far too often people gloss over feelings, physical body sensations and the potency of the inner landscape- cutting and pasting over these vital messages. Everyone wears numerous masks just to get through each day, week, year. But when you take time to stop what you are doing and notice how you are unconsciously being, you have the opportunity to arrive into the now. The potency of life is in the moments of now. Here you can listen intently to your feelings and inner experiences. Here you gain an opportunity for more depth and awareness within your life. It is through pausing and listening that you can more clearly and courageously attend to your own needs, use healthy boundaries, and create a life that is more in harmony with joy, nourishment, thriving and satisfaction. This is the power of the present moment and being in the now, being embodied. Never miss a Creative Ritual, sign up for my weekly newsletter. Want more Creative Rituals? See my current virtual workshop offerings here.
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