Awareness Practice & Body Journey (Healthy Living DIY)

Over the course of this week, if you've been following along, we've laid out the basics of a health-promoting awareness practice. If you're ready to take your health to the next level, you might want to consider creating a space for an awareness practice in your regular schedule.

One of the simplest things you can do is take a body journey. Fasten your seatbelt and let's go!

1. Find a few minutes when you can relax and be quiet.

Let's spend a moment working with this step. If you're going to follow through, it will be because you've chosen to make this a priority. Most people, when faced with a direction that says "find a few minuts when you can relax and be quiet" will have an automatic little voice that pops up and says "I don't have time" or "never" or "that's impossible."

There's only one thing that makes this type of process "impossible" and that's the illusion that you only have time after you've finished everything else -- because there's nothing else left in your life to do. That's what's impossible. So if you want to do the process, then identify a few minutes when you can relax and be quiet. Even if the dishes are still in the sink and there's a dust bunny under the couch.

2. Focus on your breathing for a few minutes. In and out. Nice and regular.

3. Allow any tension to drain out of your body. A nice image for this is that your body is a stick of butter that melts in the sun. Allow the tension to seep out of your body and into the earth (it can take it - imagine that the earth has the power to neutralize that tension) just like a stick of butter would melt into a sandy beach.

4. Pretend you are an explorer. Take along any tools of the trade that appeal to you - magnifying glass, map, compass, or whatever. Make yourself really, really small. In your imagination, pretend that you're able to enter your own body through your mouth. Mosey on in and have a look around. Follow all the way through your digestive system, your internal organs, your muscles and bones, or anything else that interests you. Get a feel for how things are inside.

5. When you're ready, come back out & slowly move your body around until you experience yourself back in your normal place in the room. Jot some notes about the experience in your notebook.

6. Repeat every so often, as it seems appropriate to you.

Here's a review of the health awareness questions we explored this week:

"What's the most important thing to do next?"
"Where in my life have I slipped into a rut?"
"What truth can I open my mind to right now?"
"What actions, reactions, or choices contribute to this perplexing situation that I'm striving to change?"
"As I explore my body, is there any part that draws my attention or need care?"

Ok, enjoy!

Elizabeth Eckert can help you explore how simple everyday choices create health — or undermine even the best of intentions. With a background that ranges from energy medicine to structural bodywork to developmental psychology, this "Stick-To-It Coach" has the experience to support you in creating the healthiest possible expression of — you!

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