Back To Your Body

My teacher and mentor Matthew Sanford says, “your body is the best home your mind will ever have.”

This has taught me a lot about life and coming back to my body has become an important and regular practice. This doesn’t have to be a traditional yoga practice. Try doing little things during the day to pause and deliberately be in your body. Most of us fall into the thinking mind all day and forget about our sacred body. We read emails all day long but never pause to notice, sense and feel our breath or how our feet make contact with the floor.

We can use our body to calm our mind. Here are some ways to start:

• Pause in stillness to know you’re breathing and feel how it moves in your body

• Sit with a sandbag, bolster or pet on your lap or feet

• As you sit in a chair, lengthen your spine, balance your head over your neck and shoulders

  • Feel how your sit bones make contact with the chair and how your feet make contact with the floor

• With your lips together and teeth apart, soften your jaw and the inside of your mouth

• Feel the rhythm and how your feet hit the floor as you slowly walk to the bathroom

• Get outside and walk barefoot in the grass or the sand

• Do a few sun salutations

• Lay with your legs up the wall (a supported spine calms the mind)

Remember to thank your body for it is always moving towards living. We’re often not happy with our body; frustrated by what it can’t do, how it looks, what’s wrong with it. I encourage you to forgive yourself and spend time just simply being in your body as a practice to ground, sense and feel.

Come share a practice with me.

Tuesdays, 6:00-7:15pm

Sun Acupuncture, Minnetonka

Registration is encouraged as space is limited.