Learning to live in my body

[mysticalchick]

Hi everyone,

I am working with a wonderful coach in preparation to become a spiritual coach. We've identified a big issue - I don't live in my body! (I know, DUH for a lot of us, eh?) The question she encourages me to explore is how do I learn how to do that in order to assist others who might come to me with that same issue. I am having lots of AH-HA moments (which, she says, shows that I am integrating the lessons I'm getting) and am seeking ways to do the following:

1. restore my energetic boundaries - I'm an empath who can (and does) merge seamlessly with others (whether asked to or not). It's what I know. However, it causes me to blur the line on what is mine to work with and what is someone else's. My coach has given me some suggestions on how to do this and I thought I'd ask here for some others. Anyone had this issue and learned to move beyond it? Anyone struggling with it as well?

2. I've been asked to check in with my body from time to time and when I do, I don't get *anything* - like it doesn't even exist. (For me, energetically, it doesn't.) I have no concept what it means to live in my body (vs. my mind where I am happy and active). Any thoughts on this?

I'd welcome thoughts, comments, suggestions etc. from this wonderful community. PM me if you don't want to put it out there for all to see.

Peace *and* thanks!

[Celebration]

1. How about guided meditation?

It seems to me that a lot of guided meditation CDs have you turn your attention to various parts of the body--as in progressive relaxation. I love that, when they tell me to direct my attention to each part of the body and tell it to relax. There is a little bit of that at the end of a yoga videotape that I do sometimes.

If you get acupuncture, you will feel sensations all over your body. Getting acupuncture has helped me "learn" to direct energy to a certain part of my body for purposes of healing it. Believe it or not, I do that with the roots of my teeth all the time.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. GMTA

I do the same thing with my teeth!

[HOLOS]

2. Eckhart Tolle writes of the importance of noticing our own

animating energy...starting by holding up your hand and asking:"is this hand alive"...do you feel a tingling of the energy within it? Then feel your in and out breath...this is not only our animating life energy...but the Divine Presence... we have just physically contacted GOD/DESS...ALL THAT IS...THE I AM THAT IAM...finally out of our head...we have FELT THE DIVINE.

The book by Tolle is: "Practicing The Power of Now"...his second smaller tome after his worldwide blockbuster "The Power of Now". This little book contains his essential teachings, meditations, and exercises.

Tolle says that the more we practice this all important FEELING=key word...i.e The Presence Within, we go beyond thought into a far vaster consciousness, and more will be revealed. To me this is his most important teaching, and he says it on page 1, chapter 1. Soon one feels The Presence in everyone and everything without limit...The One Energy...Unified Field...Zero Point...AND...it is increasingly Joyous. Truly The Power of Now....

So glad you asked:)

[mysticalchick]

3. Thanks for the suggestions!

I have been listening to the Tolle podcasts (well, one called Living with Tolle) and it's been very interesting. I have the latest Tolle book but not the earlier one - thinking I will go back and get that one and start there.

And yes, probably a guided meditation that explores the parts of the body would be helpful. Almost everything I've been into has NOT been about the body (I truly couldn't care less, isn't that sad? And now I know why I haven't cared. Didn't want to spend time there so why read about it?) so I am trying to do a bit more focusing on that.

Got to hold twin baby girls today - that's always a nice way to be in a "mama body" for a bit (something I didn't get to experience in this lifetime. Borrowing them, though, works fine for me!)

Anyway, thanks for the ideas. If you have others, please feel free to add on. I'm open to all suggestions!

[eilen]

4. here are some suggestions and thoughts.

Hi MC, I too, am an empath and I work as a nurse which would often leave me drained as all get out. I just naturally "hook in" and honestly, it is a part of my communication with my patients, to look at them and "look" in them and listen. Sometimes it is the family member or care giver that I focus on instead--it's their energy that requires attention for some reason or another.

I now visualize the energy coming in through the top of my head from the universe and going out through my heart (or hands if I am using touch). I no longer draw from my own well and that seems to work for me unless I become emotionally invested (basically allow my ego in there for some reason); then I get stressed out-- I even feel it in my solar plexus and my second chakra-- then I know I am working from the wrong place.

The body-- basically that requires you to be physical and present with your physicality. I suggest yoga, stretches, pilates, weight training, tai chi-- any activity that forces you to focus on the muscle and parts of the body working/checking form etc. Also, try turning on the Right side of your brain, where your creativity lives and the nonverbal, feeling focused information is communicated by those cells-- they tell you when something does not feel right with your body (stress, food) it is very visceral and non-analytical, this is also where euphoric, being in the present sensation lives.

I hope this helps.

[Shallah Kali]

5. oh boy......

The psychotherapist I go to started in on this with me first thing so I will try to remember how she got me started....

Even now every session ends with at least a quick grounding meditation even though I am no longer the space cadet I once was. I admit I don't take my own advice often enough but it really is good to do grounding meditations daily if possible. How can our bodies carry the high vibrations of spiritual work if we aren't in contact with the physical? We are *all* portals for spiritual energy to manifest in the physical. If our wiring isn't connected it is like trying to turn on a lamp without plugging it in!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. All the above are great suggestions! Here's another

There are elemental breaths that you may find helpful. They can be combined with walks. Two that I think you may find useful:

1. Earth. This helps ground you, making yourself more aware of being here, and gaining support for doing so--an important consideration. The breath: a 4/4 count, with concentration on the exhale. Visualize energy grounding you to the Mother via the soles of your feet. The color of the light is of the earth-an ocher color. If you do this as a walk, it's four steps per breath, concentrating again on the exhale (normal inhale). It helps me to look at the earth and to feel the energy go through my body and out the soles of my feet.

2. Water. This is a great breath for any kind of healer or empath who tends to get other people's energies "stuck" to them. Also good for getting cool and for easing pain from injuries. The breath: a 3/4 count, with concentration on the exhale AND the left side of the body. Visualize standing under a waterfall or a shower and feel the energy going through your body, cleansing and clearing. As a walk, again 3/4 time, which makes for a loose, flowing walk--feel your torso move and, if it is helpful, bring your arms down and to the left in a flowing motion, as if helping the energy flow along. At the end of the practice, you may wish to flick you hands, to let the last drips of energy flow out and away.

The other two are, obviously, fire and air. Fire is the opposite of Water--still 3/4, but emphasis on the inhale, up and to the right. The walk is more focused, "crisper" as it were. The breath is great for getting warm and for making people who usually don't listen to you listen to you. I've used it in this way with great success--taught a class of rowdy inner-city youth once, and used this breath so that, even without raising my voice, they would pay attention. Air is not a breath you need at the moment,I think, because it is used primarily for those who are very much in their bodies and need to get out of them. It is, as you may have guessed, Earth's opposite-4/4 time, emphasis on the inhale. The walk is very light footed, with a meandering path with turns and reverses. I find when I do this, I get so high I can't concentrate well, so I do it only when leading the Dances of Universal Peace. It is wise if you do this walk to not finish with it, but rather to go back to the Earth walk so you are grounded.

You do NOT have to do all four walks--as I said, in your case, I would recommend you doing only the first two.

[mysticalchick]

8. Great suggestions!

When you say 4/4 does that mean this: Inhale to a count (1 2 3 4) and then exhale to a count (1 2 3 4)?

Thanks much, you guys! I appreciate it all. Today I turned on my little sound machine in my room and ended up listening to the Heartbeat one which I usually avoid. (Sounds like a horror movie thing to me) This time, though, I really listened to it and was able to breathe out some yuck I was carrying. It also was very soothing to me and I ended up in a little fetal ball (but not in a bad way) listening to it. It was actually pretty profound.

One of the things my coach and I discussed was the idea of my (not consciously expressed fear) that if I don't do the feeling work for others, they will go away. I know, on a conscious level, that to do work for others may deprive them of their lessons (not to mention their free will) but it's been a part of who I am for so long that letting go of that is hard. I want to do it because I find that I push people away who may become friends for fear of having to carry their stuff and wearing myself out even more. Having boundaries is hard for this little empath! :-)

Thanks for the place to talk this out!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. Yes, the 4/4 is inbreath on count of four, outbreath on four

If you find yourself in a "yuck" situation, check where your breath is at. You will usually find it is irregular, to shallow, or that you are holding your breath! Going into earth breath can help you regain your equilibrium.

[Shallah Kali]

9. I am empathic and found being attuned to Reiki energy helped me get much more control of boundaries

It has improved to the point that only with someone really close to me like my Mom that I am leaky with unless I am really ill or during my Moon time. The attunement gave me constant access to a pure source of energy that helps me reinforce my aura's natural boundary and to help clear myself when I do pick up stuff.

If you already are attuned to reiki or know how to focus energy though another method to reinforce the aura's boundary you might like what i do. I simply put my hands out and imagine drawing in my aura as it if was volumunious skirts billowing all over the place until it is at least no further out than a yard. I run energy through my hands and *smooth* my aura's edge, even if I can't physically reach that area I reach as far as comfortable and imagine my hand energy reaching out and doing it. If I feel any lumpy, weak or holey spots I iron it out all the while letting the flow of energy infuse the aura. Finally I put my hands out in front to the edge of my aura and send energy with the intention that it reinforce my aura so only energies of high vibration may enter.