** Winner of The Ultimate Nap Book: Change Your Life without Getting out of Bed by SARK is……
Clara! I drew Clara’s name at random and you’re the winner, Clara! Please email me with your mailing address so I can send this out to you. Congratulations, and thanks for commenting. Happy napping!
Many of us live from our heads, ignoring or trying to forget that we have bodies. We don’t eat as well as we should, we sit too long at the computer, we don’t pamper and
treat our bodies with respect.
Travel, however, forces us to live from the body. You can’t override the effects of jet lag.
Your body will wake you up at odd hours. Your usual gymnastically-active mind
will suddenly go limp, all coherent thoughts fleeing to the shower room.
There’s nothing to do but surrender and let the body lead. The body will say, “Nap now.” Or “Get some exercise immediately!”
This is an issue that comes up often for my clients. I’m like them; we try to ‘get things done’ and sometimes we’ll ignore the signals our bodies’ signals.
It’s important to let the body lead. When people ask me how to be more creative, these are among the first practices I recommend – the actions that allow our natural creativity to blossom.
How to let the body lead? I’ll share an example from my experience plus a few suggestions.
Take a nap!
In the first few years of my coaching practice, I hadn’t found my work rhythm. I was still
operating from some notion of the 9-5 schedule, 8 hours straight of work.
But that wasn’t my rhythm. It turned out that my body likes to take a rest in the afternoon, between 2 and 3 o’clock. At first I’d fight the urge to escape from the desk
and take a nap.
But once I succumbed, I learned that the nap, or the walk or the yoga class – the body’s
agenda – is exactly what I need. After hours of work at the desk, my body and
mind need to shift.
When my body leads this way, it enlivens my work in at least two ways:
I always get new ideas and perspectives on the project I’m working on.
I always receive a pointer to my next step. This is very helpful for me. I juggle a lot of projects, and can easily get confused about the next best step. When I return
to the office I pick up from there, implementing my new idea and easily moving
to the next step.
This is one example of the body taking the lead. I believe that our bodies hold all kinds of wisdom and guidance, and that we need only to tune into the intelligence we carry
there.
How to tap into the wisdom of the body?
For me, simple practices work well. Try any of the following:
Walking eases me into a pleasant and primal rhythm. I always tap into my body’s wisdom with a walk.
Practicing yoga is my body’s bliss. It makes me strong, supple, gentle and grounded.
Eating carefully. It’s not always easy to do this (especially when traveling) but I do the best I can to eat well, to eat slowly and to eat the right amount. This is a daily
challenge, and I try to listen when my body says enough, or no, don’t eat that.
Let your body lead today. What happens to you when you let your body lead? What practices do you use to lead from the body?
Share your practices and results in a comment below! When you leave a comment on this entry, I’ll put your name into a drawing for SARK’s groundbreaking book, Change Your Life without Getting out of Bed: The Ultimate Nap Book.
This book and napping have definitely changed my life!
I’ll draw a name at random on July 1st and will announce the winner on this blog.
Women’s Body Stories
Back by popular demand, this unique workshop I lead with De West is guaranteed to help you have a deeper connection with your body.
In Women’s Body Stories workshop, De leads us in gentle yoga asana, followed by my writing instructions. It’s been carefully designed to help you slow down, tune in, and gather the wisdom of your body.
Plus, it feels great and is quite lovely to share an afternoon with a group of women in this way.
We’re meeting in Boulder on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 from 2:00 pm – 5:45 pm.
Please join us! You’ll get an early registration discount – $50 instead of $60 – if you register by July 1st. Find out more here.
I set time each day to either bike ride, do yoga, or run. But there are days when the best I can muster is a beach walk. Funny thing, I can get out on a misty foggy day to wolk the beach and the next thing I know I am doing Tai Chi or yoga on some rock outcrop.
I have been working 3pm-11pm shifts at a group home as a day job. This leaves from 8am to 2:30 for creation, play, breathe, and body. It is a long day–but honoring my self-practices before work leaves me feeling abundant and blessed.
Sunday, I let my body lead me to Kim’s for a maple bacon cupcake. Then, I took a nap and dreamed about another one.
Sometimes I just have to grab my hulu hoop and let the energy flow!
Kim,
It sounds like you have a good groove going with your creative play and work. It does sounds like a long day, but getting your time in first is a great way to fill your creative well!
Your snippet of your morning walks on the beach is so moody and evocative! I can just see you moving gracefully in the mist! Thanks for sharing that!
Carl,
I wanna hoop, too!
Karen,
Maple bacon cupcake. Now that is a creative adventure, and I can see why you had to go try it. And then a nap. Perfect body indulgence!
Because I’m a morning person, I find that the way I start my day has big impact on my frame of mind for the rest of the day.
Practicing yoga first thing — even a mini version on those days when I have an early appointment — simply gives me energy. If I have an at-home workday, I take a few minutes after yoga to play in my visual journal. I used to write morning pages (a la The Artist’s Way), but I’ve gravitated to working visually because it seems to exercise a different part of my brain than the more linear task of writing.
These two things center and prepare me in ways I never thought possible, and I feel palpably different when I don’t get them in.
Hi Cynthia! As a fairly new “freelancer” with a varying schedule day to day, including last minutes changes, additions and subtractions. It can make a person nutso if (I) let it.
I am slowly learning to listen to and honor my body, brain and spirit’s need to use down time for so many of the resources mentioned above. I lost the art of napping after years of corporate. Naps are a deserved blessing! Impromptu walks and dancing are a superb way to inject creativity or let it all go! And there is so much more available to me, especially living here in Boulder.
Speaking of which, I often wonder how much Juju energy you left behind from the abode I now reside in. I still feel Miss Honey, and I still feel you. 🙂