Honoring The Body

We take some time to honor the physical body, and explore the different layers, systems, and structures that each have their own unique wisdom and consciousness. We explore the skin, muscles, connective tissue, organs, circulatory system, and the bones.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation on honoring your body.

We often experience our bodies as a house that we live in.

We experience them from the perspective of the disembodied mind.

And to some degree it's true that our consciousness inhabits this form.

But consciousness is also interwoven with form.

It permeates form.

It's not coalesced in one particular space inside of this fixed container.

So let's experience the magic,

The beauty,

The wondrous nature of our physical form.

We'll start with the skin which wraps us and contains our inner body.

Feel your skin.

The skin of your arms,

Legs,

Back body,

Skin of your face.

Appreciate your skin and all it does for you.

It's the interface between the world around you and your inner body.

You reach out and touch with your skin.

Your skin breathes,

Inhaling and exhaling.

Your skin contains your blood,

Your muscles,

Your organs,

Your bones,

Wraps everything.

Feel your skin and honor your skin.

Let a natural gratitude for your skin arise.

And then let's go inside the skin.

There's a layer of fatty tissue under the skin.

But perhaps more easy to sense is the muscles.

We're used to feeling our muscles and you can tense and release them.

Let yourself feel the bulk of your muscles.

Every muscle is attached to a bone.

There's connective tissue that weaves through every muscle.

This connective tissue is innervated and it forms a web that connects your entire inner body.

So feel that web flowing through your inner body,

Connecting every muscle.

There's the tissue that connects the muscle to the bone.

For example,

Your bicep muscle is connected to your arm bone.

The muscle and the connective tissue and the bone are a continuous flow.

There's no break.

There's no line.

Bone,

Connective tissue,

Muscle.

And that connective tissue flows through the muscle itself.

Feel that in your arm.

Arm bone,

Connective tissue,

Bicep muscle.

This connective tissue connects everything.

Your bicep muscle,

Your upper leg quadricep muscle,

Your lower leg calf muscle.

The muscles of your face,

Muscles of your back and feet.

They're all held in this intricate,

Beautifully woven web.

This web also contains your organs.

Your lungs are wrapped in three layers of pleura.

Three layers of wrappings.

Each lung.

Each layer a little bit less dense as you go in from the outer layer.

The outer layer of your lung as you breathe and expand presses outward,

Slides on the inner ribs.

And the inner layers of the lung are more soft and subtle.

And they give way to the spongy lung tissue itself.

Let yourself as you breathe feel your lungs expand and condense inside your chest.

Let your breath slow down a little bit.

Let your exhale lengthen.

And feel your lungs absorbing and receiving the air.

There's a mystical transaction that happens in your lungs where the oxygen is drawn out of the air and transmitted to the blood.

And your blood pulses out of your lungs into your heart.

This fully oxygenated blood pulses right into the back of your heart.

Your heart,

The first thing it does is it nourishes itself with this rich oxygenated blood.

This blood that's flowed in from the outside.

And then it pulses that blood to the far periphery.

The blood flows down the arteries into the blood vessels,

Into the capillary beds where it pools and nourishes the cells of your body.

And then the blood is drawn,

The deoxygenated blood is drawn back up,

Back through the capillaries,

Back through your veins and back into your heart where it's received and then pulsed into your lungs again.

This cycle of circulation is how your body nourishes itself with the breath.

We experience and feel the breath on the macro level.

We feel the lungs expand as we inhale and condense as we exhale.

We feel the air flowing in and out.

The breath encompasses the blood flowing through the entire body,

Nourishing every cell and every cell,

Every tiny cell in our body breathes,

Draws in the breath and releases.

They're all doing it together like a vast symphony.

This mystical communication,

This mystical self nourishment through which we derive sustenance from the air.

The heart,

The pulsing of the heart is just this,

Drawing the blood in,

Pulsing it out,

Drawing it in,

Pulsing it out.

Feel your heart driving your circulatory system.

The relationship between the heart and the center and all the veins and vessels and capillaries throughout your body.

Circulating blood,

Liquid,

Nourishment,

Energy,

Constant motion.

You don't have to think about it.

You don't have to get it right.

You're not in control.

This gift is given to you all the time,

No matter what you're doing,

Whether you're awake or asleep,

No matter what you're thinking,

Whether you're doing a good thing or a bad thing.

This gift is given to you,

Offered to you,

Without reserve.

The blood flows up into your brain.

Feel the heft of your brain resting in your skull.

Feel the electric activity pulsing,

Circulating,

Swirling through your brain.

Feel the sensations of your glands excreting.

Down in your belly organs,

Liver,

Small intestine curled and coiled right in the center beneath your navel.

Large intestine wrapping,

Framing like a picture frame the outside of your abdominal area.

All these organs,

Stomach,

Gallbladder,

Spleen,

They all coexist within this container.

The peritoneal sac.

They rest on each other.

They move.

When you breathe,

If you allow your belly muscles to soften,

Often the belly muscles constrict and hold everything tightly in place.

If you allow those belly muscles to soften,

You allow your breathing diaphragm to descend as you inhale.

All those belly organs can soften and move and ripple and slide on each other.

They're full of life.

They're full of blood.

They're full of awareness.

You can visit inside your small intestine,

Inside that maze of coiled consciousness that sorts out nourishment from waste.

All along the way,

There's a wisdom,

A discernment,

A considering,

A containing,

Releasing,

Containing,

Releasing.

This is good for me.

This I don't need.

This is good for me.

This I don't need.

Vast wisdom all the time.

Let your mind acknowledge,

Surrender to that wisdom.

Bow to that wisdom.

Sometimes our small intestine may be confused.

It may be traumatized.

It may be carrying something that inhibits the wisdom of its discernment.

Let your awareness bow to the pattern of discernment that underlies the pattern of health and wholeness and intelligence that underlies whatever major or minor dysfunction,

Confusion may be going on at any given moment.

Feel into the natural wisdom,

The organic wisdom of your small intestine.

And then let's venture into the bones.

Bones of your pelvis,

Bones of your legs,

Upper thigh bones,

Solid,

Still,

Creating space inside of you.

The space of your legs is created by your leg bones.

Otherwise everything would just collapse in on itself.

The space that contains your heart and lungs is created by your rib bones.

Your verticality is created by the compact bone of your spinal vertebrae.

The bone of your head protects your brain.

Let your tongue touch the backs of your front teeth and feel these bones.

Then come back to the thigh bones in your legs,

Big,

Solid,

Compact bone.

Feel them.

Listen to the consciousness of your bones.

And inside the bones,

The marrow,

Rich,

Thick,

Healing,

The depth of where your health,

Your homeostasis,

Your sense of balance is manufactured in the depths of your bones.

And then allow yourself a comprehensive experience of your embodiment,

Bones,

Organs,

Glands,

Muscles,

Fatty tissues,

Blood and lymph flowing,

All contained by your skin.

Every layer,

Every bit,

Every portion has its own unique consciousness,

Its own unique flavor of being.

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Thank you for joining me for this time to honor your body.

Blessings to you.

Reviews

Thank you Matthew, cool view of our make up that we take for granted.

Loved it! ✨️ Thank you for sharing your light 💫 Namasté 🙏

Thoughtful and spacious practice. Thank you! 💟☮️🕉