Your Body Is Your Home

Hello and welcome.

My name is Lisa Schlossberg,

And today I want to talk about your body.

Especially if you are struggling with food,

Eating,

Body image,

And things of that nature,

I think it can be very helpful to examine and explore your relationship with your body,

Your understanding of your body,

And more specifically,

Your understanding of your intention of your body,

The purpose of your body.

Why is it here?

What do we have a body for?

And I think sometimes,

I say very often,

Along this healing journey,

Along the journey of spiritual evolution and development,

I find that it is very often about remembering and forgetting.

As a spiritual being having a physical experience with an animal brain in a social context,

Very often,

We will forget.

We will have moments of forgetting.

And what I mean by that is we will forget that we are actually a spiritual being having a physical experience.

And in a moment of forgetting,

What that means is we've lost touch,

We've lost connection with our spiritual nature.

And so usually in my practice,

In my world,

I work with people who struggle with food and their bodies.

Very often a moment of forgetting will look like forgetting that we are spiritual,

Meaning we are looking in the mirror and understanding ourselves as just physical.

We see the body as ourselves,

As our identity and our worth related to our body,

How lovable we might be as related to our body,

Our weight,

Our shape,

Our size.

Especially because we've got a lot of these messages that we internalize from the culture.

And so in a moment of forgetting.

Maybe that looks like you're judging yourself because of what you look like,

Or you're being cruel or unkind to yourself because of what you weigh.

These are what I would call moments of forgetting.

They're very innocent.

They don't happen on purpose,

And they're not your fault.

Really,

They're a function of brain science,

And especially that animal brain existing in a social context.

We've taken in these messages and sometimes we forget about our true nature.

And in a moment of remembering,

Well,

Sometimes this looks like,

For me,

If I'm looking in the mirror and I'm objectifying myself or critiquing what I look like,

I will very often look for my eyes.

This is just a practice that you can take outside of here,

But I will look for my eyes.

I'll notice my eyes and I'll look into my eyes because that fosters a moment of remembering.

That reminds me to forget about,

Or not even just forget,

But put aside for a moment the way that I'm looking at myself as a body,

And then I'll have a moment of remembering when I look in my eyes that I'm so much more than that.

I'm the spiritual being that's residing inside of the body.

And so I'm offering this framework of remembering and forgetting partially because I really do find that that's how it works.

But I also felt inspired to create this video about your body.

And your understanding of your body so that you can use this as an opportunity to remember when you need the reminder.

Maybe you're all in your head about what you look like,

Or maybe you gained or lost some weight and your body's fluctuating and that feels uncomfortable and scary.

Whatever it is,

To have this resource as something that you can come back to when you need the reminder that you are a spiritual being.

So that is what the intention here is.

That's what I want to talk about.

A little bit more about.

And that's the intention of this video.

So save it,

Come back to it,

Share it when you need to be brought back to,

Again,

Yourself.

You're really your true self.

So let's talk about your body.

What is your body?

Why do you have a body?

What's going on here?

And so from the kind of beginning,

From the foundation,

I think it's very helpful to understand that you don't have a body.

Or sorry,

It's not that you are a body and you have a soul,

Okay?

The reality is that you are the soul.

You are a soul and you have a body.

So a lot of us come to see ourselves,

Whether it's because of what we were taught or what we experienced growing up.

We've come to see ourselves or believe that I am a body and I have a soul.

And that's not really the truth.

The truth is that I am the soul and I have a body.

And so when we understand it,

So that's just,

Again,

The foundation is when you need a reminder,

It's not that you are your body.

And if you need help figuring out what that means,

Just think a little bit about you have thoughts.

You have feelings.

You have opinions,

You have preferences,

You have desires,

You have dreams and goals and visions and all of these are uniquely yours.

No one else can mirror or mimic exactly your version of those things.

So you,

You are you.

And all of that is living in the body.

So when I needed to figure out or I need to remind myself that I'm more than my body,

Well,

What that means is there are so many parts of me that are not physical and that I can't see or touch or track or way or measure.

And so it can be tricky if you're anything like me and you grew up believing that everything real was tangible or physical.

That can be challenging to remember sometimes,

But that's what it means to say you are more than your body.

And when you want to remember that,

Think about all the parts of you that exist beyond just the physical dimension.

So now that we understand your body is where you live,

Which is to say your body is your home.

Now let's talk about the intention of it.

So when it comes to your home,

Think about where you live,

Your actual house,

Apartment,

Whatever it is where you reside.

And I think about my relationship with my home.

And when it comes to our bodies,

Sometimes I find that they can get a little bit imbalanced,

Where again,

If we look at the the result of an animal brain in a social context,

Taking in those messages about what we look like and what we weigh and how we appear.

Sometimes we've been taught,

Directly or indirectly,

That the purpose of our body is to look a certain way.

The purpose of our body is to be an ornament for other people to look at or to please other people.

This can also relate to our relationship with sexuality and sexualizing ourselves in addition to objectifying ourselves.

And so sometimes we think and we move through the world.

Believing,

Even if we're not conscious of it,

Embodying the belief.

That our body is here to look a certain way from the outside and also to look a certain way from the outside for other people.

And so if we have that belief or a relationship with our body rooted in that kind of conditioning,

Then it will inform.

Our relationship with our body.

And so we want to pay attention to that because in moments of forgetting.

That might be how we carry ourselves,

How we posture ourselves,

How we breathe in our body to look a certain way.

In a moment of remembering.

We can remember,

Well,

What exactly was our body for?

What exactly is our body for?

And sometimes we need to learn this from the very first time.

Sometimes this kind of conversation that I have with someone is the first time they've ever heard anything like this.

And so I want to offer to you,

If you're looking to replace that belief system,

With what is more true and something that will potentially serve you way better and feel more aligned,

The purpose of your body.

Is not for other people.

The purpose of your body is for you.

And the purpose of your body,

The intention of your body,

Is not to look a certain way.

The intention of your body is to be your home.

Your body is your home.

And I do think that we have to start here with this understanding because if you are believing,

Consciously or not,

That your body's purpose is to look a certain way,

Well,

Again,

Then that's going to inform how you're in relationship with it.

And so the reason I say sometimes it gets kind of imbalanced is because think about it very much like a home,

Like a house that you might live in.

If you believe that the intention of the house is to be looked at and seen a certain way by other people from the outside,

Then maybe you'll allocate all of your resources,

Time,

Energy,

Money,

To how the outside of the house looks.

Because that we've been taught,

That's what it's for.

That's what we're supposed to do.

And this is the relationship that I see a lot of people have with their bodies,

Is they're paying a lot of attention to what it looks like from the outside for other people.

You.

So much so that they forget or sometimes it just,

Again,

Innocently doesn't even occur to us to think about what's going on inside.

And so again,

If we use the example or the metaphor of a house,

It's kind of like if we make the outside look really,

Really pretty,

But then on the inside,

It's empty.

And it's cold.

And there's nothing in it.

There's nowhere to sit.

There's nowhere to sleep.

There's nowhere to hang out.

We can't host other people.

It doesn't feel comfortable and sometimes doesn't feel safe.

Because the inside is so empty.

So if that doesn't work and we don't want to keep that for the rest of our lives,

Then what we can replace it with is the reminder that the body is the home.

We live in our bodies,

Our bodies are our home.

And the intention is not for it to look a certain way for other people,

But to operate as an instrument,

The vehicle through which we,

I,

Get to experience life.

This is what's carrying me through the world.

Sometimes I hear people refer to it as the meat suit or the earth suit.

This is what I get to wear while I'm here.

And that is the intention of my body.

I have a body so that I can move through the world.

If I didn't have a body and I was just simply energy or conscious awareness,

I wouldn't be able to experience my human life.

And this is where sometimes people might say the reminder is that your body is not an ornament.

Your body is an instrument,

An instrument that allows you to walk and run and jump if you are lucky enough to be able to do those things.

And then we can practice gratitude,

Gratitude for the things that our body allows us to do.

So if this kind of reminder is resonating with you,

Then if you want to take it a step further,

You know,

Thinking about some of the things that you can do because you have a body.

And I think on one level,

Very often this is talked about where you might say,

You know,

I'm grateful for my legs because they allow me to take walks in nature that I really enjoy.

Or I'm grateful for my arms because they allow me to cuddle with my cat or pick up my baby,

Things like that.

And that's all wonderful.

And again,

If that is the reminder that you need,

I really do invite you to take a moment,

Even pause this video and just write down 10 things that you're grateful that your body allows you to do as an instrument.

Not as an ornament.

But I think it goes for me even deeper than that.

That is,

Why do we have a human body?

Is to feel.

Why we have a human body is to feel.

What are we here for?

If not to feel our way through the human experience,

Not just to take the walk or pick up the baby or cuddle with the cat,

But to,

But to feel.

Feel these things,

Receive these things,

Take these things in.

To me,

That is the purpose of the body.

That is the intention of the body.

If you didn't have a body,

You couldn't do those things.

So it could also be a separate practice,

But just considering again,

What happens in your life now that you have your five senses?

That you couldn't experience if you did not have your five senses.

So even if your home,

Your body never moved,

It didn't go for the walk,

It didn't pick up the baby,

It didn't do any of those things,

What are some of the things that you get to experience.

And so the things that I see,

Like I think about the things that I see.

That you know the beauty and the awe that I get to take in with my eyes because I have that I have the privilege essentially of having that Sense.

Come to life.

But same thing with the things that I can smell and taste and hear and feel.

This is what the body is for.

This is what the body's for,

Is to carry us through our human life and to bring our life to life.

That's the intention of it.

And for what it's worth,

I do think that personally We are here to love.

To experience love,

To give love,

To receive love.

And so what.

Are we doing here,

If not that.

If not that,

And if we were not in human form,

In human bodies,

We couldn't do that.

Our bodies allow us to experience love.

And that is the purpose.

And so again,

I'm saying all this because then it maybe changes the relationship we have with the body if we understand that this is the intention of it.

This is why we have one to begin with.

And so,

Again,

If it's resonating,

Just considering,

Well,

If before,

Maybe you were holding onto the belief that your body is an ornament for other people to look at,

And now I'm coming along and suggesting another belief system that is actually your body is here for you and the purpose and intention of it is for you to experience life.

Then you get to just gently consider and contemplate.

You don't necessarily have to change anything,

But if you just allow yourself to take this in and sit with it,

How might that inform your relationship with your body moving forward,

Your relationship with yourself moving forward?

Because again,

House,

Maybe this is a moment where someone might say,

OK,

So instead of dedicating all of the time,

Energy,

Effort,

Resources,

Money to what the outside of my house looks like,

Maybe I'll take some of that and spend it on the inside.

If the purpose of the home is for me to feel comfortable and safe living inside of it,

Well,

Yeah,

Maybe that changes how I behave around it.

Maybe that changes what I put in it or how I move in it.

You know,

If we just consider that the purpose of your body is to be your home.

What does that mean for you moving forward?

And maybe you can take this as an invitation to practice a little bit more love.

A little bit more patience.

Being a little bit more gentle.

And spending a little bit more time just paying attention to how comfortable do you feel.

On the inside.

With this being where you live.

Because I can all but guarantee that when that is your focus,

When that is your primary intention.

Things.

Fundamentally and very powerfully start to transform.

Internally,

Externally,

Spiritually,

And beyond.

So the next time you need a reminder that your body is your home and you are the spiritual being living inside of it.

I hope this video can serve you.