One of the biggest sources of dis-ease I see in my practice comes from people not listening to their inner truth and conforming to how external sources tell them they “should” be feeling or behaving. In my process of preparing to give birth I am receiving endless – and often conflicting – recommendations that lead me to question which advice to trust. I find myself returning again and again to the wisdom of listening and responding to the impulses of my body.
To develop self-trust we need to let go of outside authority, tune into what is happening in our systems, and invite our organisms to speak with us. When the ideas of the neo-cortex become an aristocracy over the directly felt-sense of our body we become disconnected from ourselves. In patriarchal religions and cultures the body and its impulses are generally considered a hindrance to spiritual growth, productivity, and polite obedience. This separation of mind and body acts as a form of fascism because we lose our self-authority when science, ‘empirical’ evidence, and dogma rule over intuition, art, dance, and dreams.
Stress and speed also tighten our bodies and muffle our ability to listen to what is true for us. The body interprets both stress and speed in the same way as they both activate our sympathetic nervous system causing compression and impermeability of our tissues and cells. This creates resistance, tightness, and inefficiency that heats up the body and leads to inflammation and elevated cortisol levels. As we reduce our resistance, tension, and effort we expand our ability to take in information – especially that which arises from the body itself – and increase our ability to absorb nourishment of all kinds.
As I prepare to give birth I find myself returning again to a process of inner discovery where listening to the body is a key component to unfolding life. This is a cultivation of wildness and trust where our ancient organism’s truth can emerge.
