Dearest Friends,

It was delightful to be in your gracious company in our most recent gathering!

In our last session, we continued our explorations of how the body can be a support for meeting stress and anxiety, focusing specifically on the contemporary factors that hinder embodiment. As I shared in my brief reflections, the following are some of the reasons why it can be challenging for modern practitioners to remain in and be attuned to the body:

• Contemporary Standards of Bodily Perfection: Many modern societies fetishize particular kinds of bodies and many people grow up being shamed, ridiculed or othered for having bodies that deviate from the “ideal” (e.g., bodies that have the wrong color, wrong shape, wrong size, etc.). For this reason, many people actively dislike their bodies and don’t consider the body as something to acknowledge, celebrate or honor.
• The Contemporary Preoccupation with Youth, Vitality and Longevity: Many modern societies are obsessed with prolonging youth, vitality and longevity—and modern technologies have been coopted in service of this obsession. Hence, bodily processes such as aging, illness and dying are treated as phenomena to defy, resist and vanquish rather than as the natural outcomes of embodiment.
• The Contemporary Shift to an Information-Based Economy and Society: Much of the labor in the modern world is cognitive in nature with the mind being the primary engine of productivity. In this world, the body merely serves as a mode of transport for the mind. In addition, much of modern social life is digitally mediated: many of our interactions with others occur in virtual rather than physical spaces, adding even further to the sense of disembodiment.
• The Contemporary Prevalence of Trauma: Trauma complicates embodiment because the body stores memories of pain, neglect and abuse—which then make it feel unsafe or overwhelming to inhabit. In a world where violence, injustice and other forms of harm are widespread, many people cope by disconnecting from the body altogether.

For all of the above reasons, being embodied is a practice that has to be consciously fostered in our contemporary era—one that takes intention, attention and repetition. The dharma can support us in the work of reclaiming the body as a field of presence, a doorway to insight…and a vehicle for awakening.

SUGGESTED PRACTICE:

Sit quietly and attend to your breath with your gaze lowered or your eyes closed. Then gently scan the body, shifting the attention from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. As you attend to the different regions of the body, reflect on what you can be appreciative of, contented with or grateful for where a particular area of the body is concerned. You can start with simple yet often overlooked blessings—e.g., the absence of pain—and move on to other gifts that a given region of the body has offered. Before you end the meditation, rest in a felt sense of gratitude for this body that’s served you humbly, patiently and quietly for all these years.

RECOMMENDED POEM:

Jan Richardson’s Blessing the Body

REFLECTION PROMPTS: 

1. What are the biggest obstacles you’ve faced in staying in and attuning to your body in the course of your life?
2. How have the teachings and the practices of the dharma supported you in coming home to the body?
3. In what other ways might life be inviting you to even deeper or fuller embodiment?