One of the things that I have found most illuminating, meaningful and profound throughout practicing yoga and massage has been the ways in which I have come to know my body. When I began practicing, I saw my body as a tool to be used, something that needed to obey my decisions. Now I would say that I see my body more as a companion and a friend, which will almost always do what I ask as long as I am caring, informed and compassionate.
No matter what your current relationship with your body is, here are some questions you can ask to help deepen and cement it:
1) How much sleep is ideal for me?
Enough sleep is without a doubt one of the top 5 things we can give ourselves to foster good health. Sleep deprivation has serious effects on your health:
For some of us, when we get “enough sleep” we feel overtired. I say, stick with it. See if you can schedule a few days in a row where you sleep as much as you want, as much as you can. The first day you may feel logy and sluggish. But by the third day or so, notice the amount of energy you have. Notice the amount of patience you have. Notice how your state of mind and heart feel. For me I find when I do this that I feel much more capable of making sound decisions and that my perspective shifts from one of constant running to one of calm and contentment, but with vitality!
Once you get into this place, then it’s time to see how much sleep works for you. Go to bed at a reasonable hour so that you won’t need an alarm clock to wake up. (For those with children, I realize that the “alarm clock” will happen no matter what you do. But try going to bed earlier.) See how many hours seems to be the magic number. For me the ideal amount is about 8 1/2 hours.
2) What do I need to eat and how often?
I have recently increased my level of physical activity significantly. I find myself in a place where I don’t know how to eat to support my body most appropriately. So I am experimenting with the frequency and content of my food. Studies indicate that when we crave sweets, our bodies are sometimes demanding protein and/or other vitamins and nutrients. So I am working on increasing my protein intake, climbing back on the vitamin wagon, and building time in to my schedule for meals, a new thing for me.
The relationship with food can be so multi-layered. Feelings of shame and deprivation and award systems and addiction are often built into our relationship with eating. Through the practice of yoga over the last 15 years or so, my relationship with food has changed. I eat now based on how foods make me feel rather than just blindly reaching out to satisfy a craving or push something else away or because I feel sad or worthless. But I couldn’t have come to this relationship if I didn’t have other things in place to make me feel good like doing yoga, spending time with people I love, going to see a movie if I feel like it, etc.
There is no mountain so big that it cannot be climbed one step at a time. If your relationship with food is a troubled one, start by just noticing how what you eat make you feel, physically. Then you can notice the emotional and psychological aspects of it and reach for things that make you feel on the better side compared to the worse side. What makes your stomach feel happy? What do you digest most easily? What gives you long-lasting steady energy?
3) What is my ideal fitness regimen?
Getting and staying physically fit has been a struggle for me in the past. I have a tendency to get obsessive about a kind of activity and then drop it. Yoga has been the only consistent for of physical activity that has lasted me for the long haul thusfar, and even that has its ebb and flow.
Try a lot of different things. Dancing, running, walking, weight-lifting, Zumba, martial arts, CrossFit, swimming, kickboxing, step aerobics, basketball, pole dancing, soccer, yoga, gymnastics, Acro-yoga, aerial silks, the sky is the limit. There is a style of fitness out there for everyone. When taking a class on pranayama with Dr. Vasant Lad, he instructed us in various breathing exercises that were so intense physically that for at least one of them he told us that just breathing in that manner was akin to running a mile. And it felt like it too!
The process of all of this can seem Sisyphean at times. But if you consider that idea that living in this body is a constant unfolding of knowledge and experience, the attainment of physical fitness becomes less of a far-off goal and more of a process of getting to know yourself. It can be truly enjoyable.
Feel free to email or comment. I can be reached at connect@mantrassage.com
