This Body Is A Gift

Once upon a time, there was a woman. Curious and excited about all that could be learned and discovered through her own experience. From a young age, she loved how it felt to inhabit her own body. Walking, riding a bike, smelling food, nature and other people, eating delicious food, dancing the night away, and later, yoga.

Then she took her first teacher training. There she learned that many traditional yoga philosophers, Patanjali in particular, spoke about how one must transcend the body in order to experience their soul and connect to the divine.

Hold up.
This was starting to sound like Christianity.

Our bodies were not to be trusted. We needed to adhere to strict disciplines of fasting, eating “sattvic” foods and spending hours deep in meditation, not being distracted by the senses.

Wait, what?

Aren’t these bodies a gift?
A temple that houses our spirits needing to be tended to with TLC?!
Weren’t the senses a way to connect us and remind us of the world around us?
A world that we are interconnected to?

Dogma didn’t fit into her idea of spirituality. It never had.

What fit was – everything.
Each of us are individuals – whose needs are similar but the requests or meeting of those needs may differ.

If we listen, truly listen – our bodies will tell us what they need – from sleep to diet to movement methods.
If we listen, truly listen – our spirits will share and show us the sparks.
If we’re all going to Rome, does it matter which path we take?

What may work for you may not work for me. Is that a problem? Not at all. That’s why there are many philosophies, many paths.
Choose the one that works for you.
And switch up paths, if/when it no longer works.

Just keep walking. And singing. And dancing. And crying. And celebrating. And grieving.
Just keep at it.

Te amo.
Clarita.