The Body, A Living Wonder

Category: Personal Development for Adults

Be courageous, be curious, explore, and learn to create with intention.

Do you ever reflect on your hand, your stride, your breath, your cheek, or any function or part of your body, not only when something unusual or painful arises?

What is fascinating is that we often live under the illusion that we truly know ourselves.

How well do you truly know your body? Do you even roughly know how many bones it contains; 3, 20, 573, 2000? Do you know which hormones are secreted by which glands, when they are released, and why they are released at all? Do you know how a thought becomes movement? You wish to walk backward and the body moves backward. You wish to do a somersault on the balance beam, yet the body will not comply. Why does it obey at one time and not at another? Who is the owner here? Who governs the body?

What does it take for the body to listen? We need to awaken bodily awareness, to practice, and to establish new connections between the nervous system and the muscular system.

Imagine this marvel: a fetus developing in the mother’s womb. Do you have any idea how much calcium, potassium, vitamins, and other substances are required for that development? And how intelligently your body must respond at each moment in order to support the life and growth of the fetus?

Do you grasp how intelligent and extraordinary the body is? It is a phenomenal living database that constantly responds to new conditions and adapts. We are not the ones doing this. The body does it on its own. This is the intelligence of nature. Consider how often you think about breathing. You move through your day handling countless tasks, and the body breathes on its own. The body self regulates.

When we cut ourselves, the wound heals on its own. We can only help the recovery unfold more quickly or more slowly.

Who are we then if we do not regulate our own bodies? Where are we while all of this is taking place? Nature regulates the body while we go about our duties. It is intriguing. What then is our role if something else regulates our functions?

Now take the thought further. If we do not regulate the workings of our own body, or do so only partially, how much do we truly regulate and understand our feelings, our thoughts, our inner states?

What is needed to take the helm of ourselves and of our lives? Awareness... the practice of awareness... a desire to learn the laws of nature... learning...

We need to bring awareness to ourselves piece by piece in order to gradually transform each part. Only then can we truly steer our lives. To choose, to decide, and to act with awareness.

The body has a remarkable capacity to renew. For it to work effectively it needs the right conditions. It is up to us to learn the laws of nature and the principles by which the body functions so that we can provide ideal conditions.

We have an extraordinary capacity to gain mastery over many bodily functions, emotions, and thoughts, and only when we choose to cultivate awareness do we take life into our own hands.

When we become aware of our habits, the automatic behaviors and reactions that we picked up along the way, and transform them into conscious thinking and action, we slowly become the creators of our own lives.

Be courageous, be curious, explore, and learn to create with intention.