Your body loves to feel good – it is constantly striving to feel its best. Through its eloquent language of sensation, it is communicating with you in every moment, letting you know about pain, tension, pleasure, need. By paying attention, you can begin to respond and support the body to feel the best that it can today. To tune in and respond to your body, try this:

• Sitting in a comfortable, supported position, close your eyes. Allow your body to relax completely. Release any tension in your face and throat. Let your belly soften and your limbs be heavy. Take a moment to let this unfold.
• Become aware of any sensations you are having in your body. Can you feel the backs of your legs on the chair? Can you feel the points of pressure where your back is against the chair? Become aware of the feel of your clothes on your skin.
• Keep tuning into the subtleties of the sensations you are having in this moment. Begin to scan more specifically. Are you feeling pain, tension, pleasure, relaxation, freedom, constrictions? Are there certain areas of your body you are more aware of than others?
• Now that you are tuned in, can you feel what you might wish for your body? “My wish for my body is that it: breathes easy; has relaxed shoulders; is free of tension, feels healthy . . .” You get the idea — whatever it is that might help the body to feel good, create a wish. How many wishes can you fulfill in any given moment?

Write some of these wishes down, play with them throughout the day and the week. See what kind of difference it makes to create and fulfill your body’s wishes.

I attended a workshop last week on Therapeutic Applications for the Pelvis using Gyrotonic. The instructor, Paul Horvath, asked a really great question, “What is health?”  Here is what I took away from this very rich discussion: Health is when every part of the human system functions as a synchronized and synergistic whole; that is, everything is in balance. It is when your internal processes meet your external needs – a dynamic and ongoing exchange that happens every second.

Symptoms, then, are an indicator that something is out of balance, and that ‘something’ affects the entire system.  The way to rebalance is to provide information and direction – verbal, physical, conceptual – to the whole being; to awaken health from the inside out so that the body can reestablish equilibrium, restore the system and heal the symptom.

We normally do just the opposite – just manage the symptom and ignore the system. Losing weight is a good example: If we focus only on losing weight, the opportunity for true healing is diminished as only the symptom (weight) is being addressed and not the fundamental imbalance. If, instead we address the body as a whole, feed it relevant and caring information, guide it into its healing capacity, then it has the opportunity to reorganize itself and regenerate health. At this point, with the strength of a balanced system to support it, the extra weight can come off in a way that is natural, conscious respectful and intelligent.