The purpose of caring for ourselves is to support and enhance this vital function of maintaining our physical life. When we engage with our physical life - our bodies - we open to the entire spectrum of human experiences.
Maintaining a relationship with the body is a life time journey. The more familiar we become with its needs, wants, and demands, the more successful we will be at fulfilling them.
Most of us are likely to be comfortable with needs, basic details of life that we all have in common. We all grow up to learn how to fulfill our human needs.
Our wants are the fun stuff, above and beyond our needs. The unique domain of our personality and gifts that we use to give and receive with those around us. They add joy and diversity to our lives and others.
The demands of our body are more difficult to handle, generally related to the process of life and our limitations. Demands often present in terms of pain: "No," our shoulder might say, "I just can't lift that any more." Our knee might say, "I have had enough!" Our digestive system may revolt with "I'm not comfortable with that anymore." Our emotions may set us on fire.
Anything that threatens our sense of wholeness usually sends us on a quest for answers. Our bodies are the mediator between our internal processes and our external circumstance. They can help us discern what is true in life, something resonates inside us as a sense of knowing. Or when a truth needs to be reworked and we need to change - which can not be duplicated or imposed on us from the outside.
Reducing our pain, calming and centering our body, and then seeking to discover what is real underneath is the journey of life. Engaging with the processes that move through us is the journey of healing. To remember the gift of human life is the joy of healing.
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