What do you hear? (part two)

Part of my journey to health is to not stop my reflections just on food...what I eat, etc. For me, my health is a much wider than what I eat or don't eat....it does go to what I put on my skin....in my hair...what I read, watch...spend my time doing. You know?

I will refer to one of my favorite books - Women Food and God by Geneen Roth. Part of her book Roth explains the practice of inquiry. The practice of inquiry is all about self-reflection and listening to our bodies. Click here for part of the book. I will include some of my favorite parts below.

Sometimes when I ask students what they are feeling in their bodies, they have no idea. It's been a couple of light-years since they felt anything in or about their bodies that wasn't judgment or loathing. So it's good to ask some questions that allow you to focus on the sensations themselves. You can ask yourself if the feeling has a shape, a temperature, a color. You can ask yourself how it affects you to feel this. And since no feeling is static, you keep noticing the changes that occur in your body as you ask yourself these questions. If you get stuck, it's usually because you're having a reaction to a particular feeling—you don't want to feel this way, you'd rather be happy right now, you don't like people who feel like this—or you're locked into comparing/judging mode.

So, be precise. "I feel a gray heap of ashes in my chest" rather than "I feel something odd and heavy." Don't try to direct the process by having preferences or agendas. Let the inquiry move in its own direction. Notice whatever arises, even if it surprises you. "Oh, I thought I was sad, but now I see that this is loneliness. It feels like a ball of rubber bands in my stomach." Welcome the rubber bands. Give them room. Watch what happens. Keep coming back to the direct sensations in your body. Pay attention to things you've never told anyone, secrets you've kept to yourself. Do not censor anything. Do not get discouraged. It takes a while to trust the immediacy of inquiry since we are so used to directing everything with our minds. It is helpful, though not necessary, to do inquiry with a guide or a partner so that you can have a witness and a living reminder to come back to the sensation and the location.

So today, I want to allow what my body is telling me to be welcomed into my life...I want to identify what they are...what they look like...where they are...I think when we identify our feelings for what they are....feelings, they lose their power/control over us.

More later. I actually took a picture of my dinner tonight. I want to post it sometime. We have shady internet...it just cuts in and out so it's hard for me to get super invested in what I'm writing because I fear I'll lose my post.