Our Inner Path to Balance
“You have to give up that control, right? You have to give it up for your body to understand how to speak to itself.”
What does balance feel like to you?
“Unattainable” tends to be the answer to this mythical question.
It was for me until pilates and wellbeing leader, Erika Bloom, inspired me to approach it from a new lens.
What if the response is a place, not an answer? What if it’s the place we know most deeply?
“Our bodies have evolutionary knowledge of how they should function best both biomechanically and in terms of homeostasis, our health, and organs.
If we’re not allowing them to function in that way because we're doing exercise that isn't functional or we're not moving at all, then, we start to get out of balance and walk through life without our bodies restoring themselves; That leads to living less optimally in every way.”
Our body's quest for equilibrium illuminates the inner compass we possess to find our center. How might we accept the invitation to listen to it?
“The first thing is you have to let go of judgment…of what you should do, what other people think you should do, and how your body should feel. You have to let go of this Western idea that we have to be ‘on’ and energized all the time.
You have to say: ‘If I'm tired, that's not my body telling me there's something wrong. That's my body saying I should rest.’
It takes time to learn how to listen to your body. It takes exploring how your body feels without that judgment.
We don't move and say: ‘Ah, that doesn't feel strong or right. What's wrong with me?’
We say: ‘Hmm, this side feels different. Can I put that into my library of possibilities of how my body might feel?’
In our conscious minds, we might not be able to interpret it. But, our body can. Part of this exploratory movement is to give information to part of our body that we're not in control of.
You have to give up that control, right? You have to give it up for your body to understand how to speak to itself.”
What is one signal your body is giving you this week? How might you slow down and listen to it?
Wishing you balance,
Jenna