Slow Down, Trust Grace!
You can’t rush the biology of the body. ~
Doctor George Haidukewych
The amount of healing that happens within the human body in a 24 Hour period (or even just a good nights sleep) is phenomenal! Our physical bodies are the most intricate, highly sophisticated and complicated piece of artistry and science ever created. #truth We are all simply practicing, whether it’s practicing medicine, yoga, a golf swing, piano, etc… we are all continuously learning and discovering the limitless capabilities of our minds and possibilities of our bodies. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you think you know, you can’t rush the healing process. As Trevor Hall so eloquently sings it, “You can’t rush your healing, darkness has its teachings.” ~🙌
Going through the healing process from #totalhipreplacement has heightened my awareness and appreciation to the importance of our usual mundane activities (like sleep) that we take for granted. I am fascinated on the fact that I can go to bed with ankles the same size as my thighs #kankles feeling tight, sore, tired, heavy, having muscle spasms and craps, only to then wake up within a 7 hour period of sleep feeling stronger than the day before! (with almost normal ankles) 🤣
We are all bio individuals, therefore what we need in regards to food, water, rest, activity, stress, etc… is uniquely different to each one of us. Yes there are some universal principles that we can adhere and honor, but the bottom line is that we can’t rush our own biology. #slowdown and listen to what your biology is saying. The small brain at the top of our body, protected by the skull will lie to us, but the body never lies! The challenge stems from the fact that so many of us aren’t in our bodies. We either choose to ignore the body, out of our own righteous indignation and ego, or we have become so numb and out of touch from using different escaping vices that we can’t hear or feel anything our body is trying to tell us. Don’t wait to be forced by an injury or illness to slow down and tune in, make a conscious choice to slow down and tune in.
I was taught to pray as a child by my mother, so I’ve been practicing prayer and some form of meditation for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember “not praying”, it’s just what I do, and have always done. For me, prayer is my daily (now ongoing) conversation with God (fill in the label for God here that resonates with you)… so I’ve always taken time (yes there were periods in life when it was only a few moments a day)but I have always felt a strong connection with source. I also started dancing at the age of 5, so daily connection to my physical body has also been a lifetime practice. Now when I say connect, just like a marriage it doesn’t necessarily mean that the “connections” or relationships were healthy. For example, when I was young, I would tell God what I wanted. I thought I knew best, and so I would give God ultimatums or ask for a specific sign to prove that the Holy Spirit was in fact working in my life. Now of course, I can laugh about it, but trust that back then I was quite serious in those moments. My young relationship with my body was the same sort of vibe. Most of my early years were spent training to be a professional ballet dancer. I was taught to deny my body of what it wanted and needed. In fact, being able to deny my body food and rest, and push through pain, was considered strong and passionate. Just like my relationship with God, I would also give my body ultimatums, and when it wouldn’t “perform” I would get pissed off and angry, as if my body let me down.
So even though I was practicing prayer and meditation, the intention behind these actions were drastically different than they are now. I credit this shift in my relationships to yoga. Yoga is a whole and “Holy Science.” Through asana practice, we learn new ways of moving our physical bodies, releasing old habits and patterns. By channeling all of our awareness and concentrating on the quality of our movements we create new neurological pathways in the brain. New ways of moving plus new ways of thinking, means new ways of living. Our yoga practice becomes our meditation, and allows us to be the witness. When we are able to bear witness to our lives, we awaken to the fact that we are not our body, nor are we our circumstances. We realize that we are Spirit having a human experience.
Spirit moves slow, life moves fast. Can we merge the two together, so that we may dance through this life in a Grace-filled manner? I say yes. When the quality of our intention is in alignment with Grace and practiced with consistency and devotion, our actions and thoughts become Divine. All extraneous relationships and habits fall away, thus allowing us to slow down, quiet the mind so that the body can guide us to a deeper connection with Spirit, or vice versa, let Spirit guide us to a deeper connection with our body. We cant rush the biology of healing, but we can slow down and trust that the Master Physician is always at work in our lives and that all is in Divine order.~