Our theme this month is The Body Miraculous. Whether you are of the belief that the body and its associated state of health or disease is a result of strictly biological processes or whether you believe in the body-mind-spirit approach, it is an understatement to call the body miraculous. Through its own innate, magical processes, the body sweats, circulates blood, digests, eliminates toxins, and so much more that we take for granted on a daily basis.
How the body innately knows to perform all of these operations every second is a mystery to all of us. And although we have extended centuries of wisdom and scientific exploration into each specific body function and part, the life force behind it all remains outside of our normal ability to succinctly describe. What is not a mystery, to me at least is that our miraculous bodies are designed to help us grow in more ways than one.
Much like our feature columnist this month, Dr. Kathleen Ireland Gregg, I believe that our very lives provide a multitude of growth opportunities as do each of our experiences. Will I approach this experience, this new circumstance with grace, with resistance, with acceptance? What is my current experience, my resulting feelings teaching me about myself and what I want to keep and what I want to let go? Are there nuances of learning to be gained that I’m overlooking?
When our bodies aren’t working correctly, especially when that shows up in the form of a disease, it can be very difficult to view that as a learning or growth opportunity. Often, we’re immediately plunged into a feeling of victimhood, questioning why things have changed, feeling like we’re no longer truly in control of our lives. How, or whether you’re able to move into the space of viewing the experience as an opportunity to look at things anew takes courage.
Whether you able to return to your previously enjoyed state of health or not, there is wisdom to be gained, as you’ll see in Dr. Gregg’s article. It takes courage and grace to be able to move through a change in health with that kind of reflection and openness, and it’s often fleeting, alternating with feelings of fear, trepidation, or worry.
Not all lessons in our lives originate as messages within the body. But if we’re willing to listen to the messages our bodies are sending, we can discern information that we previously overlooked. In each situation there are senses - physically, emotionally, spiritually, that can help guide you. What I know to be true for myself is that in addition, if I allow myself the time, space, and quiet to reflect and connect with myself, there are always larger lessons to be learned from my experiences.
As I shared last month, I’ve had some opportunities recently to connect with people in the Philippines. One of the things I discovered fairly quickly there was that in their media and in their culture there is a preference for light skin.
Actually, the preference for light skin is so prevalent that some individuals will take injections called glutathione to make their skin lighter. From the doctor I spoke with, I learned that the standard treatment is to take the injection twice a day for a month and then daily thereafter. If you stop taking the injections, your skin returns to its original, darker pigment.
I found this to be extremely interesting as I personally find Filipinos to be extraordinarily beautiful people with exquisite skin and wonderful features. Combined with what draws me to them most, the graciousness and kindness within their hearts, and I find them to be incredibly lovely people. So it was interesting to me that their skin tone, which I find so beautiful, they want to change and find flawed.
In their advertisements, you can see this cultural preference as well. Whereas in the United States, we routinely air brush wrinkles away or whiten our teeth. In the Philippines, the skin of the models in the advertising in many cases have clearly been lightened, possibly in real life and by the appearance, likely again for the print copy through the magic of Photoshop.
The knowledge of glutathione and the preference for light skin made me pause to reflect on the areas in my own life of which I’m not fully accepting. It also made me reflective on our human tendency to deny or devalue parts of who we really are in order to gain acceptance or feel better within our own skin.
It’s so interesting to me that we come into this world fully who we are, not judging ourselves, but rather just being who we are - a blank, clean slate of self knowledge and acceptance. Then as we move through our lives, live in our families and our cultures, have the experiences that shape our lives, we begin to look at those same parts of ourselves as not good enough or wrong or shameful.
Thank God we get as much time as we do during our lives to try to regain our own innate sense of self-acceptance and wisdom. Each moment, each sense, each interaction with ourselves and one another all provide opportunities.
I’m not an individual who believes that my body is autonomous and separate from my mind and my spirit. From my own life experiences, I know that what I create within my mind impacts how my body feels. How my body feels impacts my spirit and so on. The relationship, for me, is very much a triad and intertwined.
When I am angry or fearful, my body pumps different chemicals into my blood stream than it does when I feel love or joy. There are more studies every day that highlight the relationship between the body, mind, and spirit. For example, the numerous studies that investigate what happens in the body during deep meditation.
For a long time I’ve believed that if we were given more tools during childhood about how to better deal with our emotions, we could transform our world. What is it within us that enables us to replace our own opinion of ourselves with someone else’s? Whether we allow an individual or an entire society to tell us that something is wrong with us, what is it within us that allows us to adopt it?
As humans, we have social norms. We also have an inherent ability to pass judgment on others as a method of truly serving some need within ourselves. Those tendencies to pass or accept judgment, from others or ourselves, can impact our emotional well-being which can lead to other behaviors that cause further imbalance.
What a wonderful place it would be if were all to regain our sense of perfection within our own skin, if we regained our ability to merely be who we are at our core. In the interim, I hope for all of us that we continue to grow more conscious of the numerous senses that are available within the body so that we can grow more fully into understanding the messages it is sending each and every moment.
As we continue our path of exploration, both on an individual, personal level, and on a larger, more scientific and global level, I hope our reverence for and admiration of the miraculous existence and operations of the human body remain. Not only is it our form of transportation and existence while we’re here, but I believe it provides us with lessons for growth each and every day if we will listen.
