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Inhabiting the Body · Infinitely Precious

• 0:00
  Intro: Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 0:12
  James: Well, hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's good to be with you again for another week of the Infinitely Precious podcast. Thank you for joining me. For those of you who've been with me from the beginning, I thank you. And for those who have come only recently or are trying out for the first time this podcast, I want to thank you for coming today.
• 0:33
  If you find it meaningful and helpful, I want to invite you to share it with others. I certainly welcome your insights and comments if you wish. Jamesinfinitelyprecious dot org. So last week I began when I began the podcast recording, I did not realize by the end that I would be beginning a series, the Inhabiting series. We've been doing the ripening series.
• 1:05
  I talked about nine ripening dimensions in life. I don't have a certain number of inhabiting dimensions in life. I just want to talk a little bit about some various aspects perhaps of our lives that are worth being fully present in. Not just being in the process of but entering fully into, really inhabiting. Last week I invited you to inhabit your life as a gift that you are precious.
• 1:40
  And if you really inhabit that space then being precious becomes the way you engage the world. Well, I want to take just a step back and talk about inhabiting our bodies. That's the way we engage the world for the most part. It is our bodies through which we speak if we are able to. It is with our bodies that we see the world, at least through our eyes optically, and experience the world through touch, through hearing if we're able to, through smell, if we're able to and through taste.
• 2:24
  We get to be a part of living. And if we inhabit the body, we become aware of what the body tries to tell us in various moments. So inhabiting the body is to be fully present in the moment that I am. We talked about that among the ripening processes. But what does it mean to inhabit my body?
• 2:49
  Well, sitting here in front of you right now and thinking with you right now about my own body, I'm trying to feel. I am feeling my body and feeling a certain tiredness in my shoulders. Today's podcast is being recorded at the end of the day. And so it has been a full day. There have been lots of creative intellectual elements.
• 3:20
  There are some physical elements, some emotional elements, some engagement with the world, some engagement with some texts as I prepare for a sermon this coming week. And all of those things while they sound like they're emotional or spiritual and they are an intellectual. They're also physical. They're also a part of my body. The longer I sit in front of a screen working on something, the tighter my eyes become and I need to attend to that reality.
• 3:54
  Supposedly, it s better for me these days. The last time I went to see the ophthalmologist, suggested that when I got my prescription glasses that are primarily for reading that I get the blue light function put into them so that the blue light doesn't tire my eyes so much. But I still feel tired at the end of the day. I do a lot of reading, a lot of looking. And as I do, I can feel that in my eyes and inhabiting my body is just recognizing that that is true.
• 4:27
  And asking the question, should I just take a break right now? Not in the middle of the podcast, obviously, but when I feel my eyes and the tiredness, the dryness in them, do I take just a moment to sit down and close my eyes and just rest that important part of my body? When I feel tired, if I'm really inhabiting my body, really feeling the tiredness within me and the places that it accumulates for me and my shoulders. Sometimes it's in my arms. It's in my hands.
• 5:04
  I can feel it in my legs when I'm walking. If I've asked more of my legs than they want to be a part of. I feel that tiredness. Now, inhabiting that invites me to say, I'm listening to your body. I'm hearing what you're saying to me.
• 5:23
  And by inhabiting you, I'm going to take a moment to sit down and rest for just a moment. Just kick back, maybe get a glass of water, maybe because even in this moment, as I read somewhere that as soon as you feel thirsty, that means you're already dehydrated. That you need to constantly keep up your hydration. So should I sit down? Should I take a break?
• 5:53
  Should I quiet? When I'm in a conversation with people and I feel parts of my body tightening up with my gut, sometimes my muscles. Occasionally, if it's something that makes me frustrated or I feel anger beginning to rise, can feel the tightness in my fists or maybe in my face or across my forehead. As I feel those things beginning to arise, my body is trying to tell me something. And if I'm inhabiting this body, I'm able to respond to its signals to me, to it saying this is too much stress.
• 6:37
  Step back for a minute. Catch your breath. Let this go. This is heavy. Those kinds of things.
• 6:45
  Now at the same time if I truly inhabit my body, I take a walk outside on a breezy day, I get to feel the breeze in my face and it gets to remind me of things as it touches my skin, as the coolness comes upon me, or maybe on a humid day as it often is in August, I feel the heaviness of the breeze on my skin. And it's just an invitation to bring myself back to the body. What do you do to make sure you're inhabiting your body? Are you intentional about listening to what the body is saying right now in this very moment because that's what inhabiting the body is. It's learning to recognize and listen for the signals that the body is giving.
• 7:40
  It is telling us at any given moment. It has an immediate response to things when something is triggered in terms of fear or uncertainty. We feel that in our bodies tightening up the rush of adrenaline. The body tries to tell us what we need. We push through sometimes and I've talked about this in the ripening series.
• 8:09
  I've talked about this throughout the last couple of years, oftentimes our society asks us to push through those feelings that the body has and sometimes it's absolutely necessary. There are moments when you can't stop what you're doing, you need to push through. But I want to suggest to you and to myself because I'm listening that there are moments when I really ought to be listening to what my body is telling me. I really ought to take a step back and say, I am tired. And yes, I could push through this next assignment.
• 8:47
  I could read this next chapter in the book. I could write this next text. I could read through the scripture one more time so I could prepare for this sermon. I could push through even though my eyes are saying they're tired, even though my body is saying that it's tired or it's stressed. I could push through or I could listen.
• 9:13
  I could listen to this body that is a gift to me in this moment. Now, as it turns out in this moment, besides my eyes are a little tired. I can feel my eyes being a little tired. So, sitting in front of the screen, as I'm recording this, it is one more moment in front of the screen. And perhaps I'm pushing through.
• 9:36
  And perhaps I need to listen to my body and this is an invitation to do just that. But perhaps it's just an invitation for me to say, as soon as I'm finished with this podcast, as soon as I've finished this task I'm in the middle of right now that I need to complete, Then I need to step back, close my eyes, drink a glass of water. In my time zone, in my time space right now, we're getting close to the time when I make some fresh coffee for myself and my wife to consume. And maybe that's what I do now. As soon as I finish this recording, rather than going immediately to the editing and processing and uploading, I instead take the moment to step back because I am listening to my body.
• 10:36
  What would it look like if you inhabited the moments that come your way in your body? When your body tells you you are hungry, when your body tells you you're thirsty, when your body tells you you're tired, when your body tells you you're happy, you feel the endorphins running through you. What's to stop you from inhabiting your body by just dancing or singing a song or just letting the smile that you feel rising up from within you come to your face because that's inhabiting your body. That's being present. It's listening to this moment, this now because I want to say to you something if you are a person who seeks after the spiritual.
• 11:22
  The divine in your everyday life. These bodies of ours. These are part of the ways that we sense the spiritual reality of the universe because we experience our everyday life through touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, time's passage itself. If we have all of those senses, and if we don't, we experience it in the senses we do have, in the ways that we do experience it. But this body tells us things if we are willing to listen.
• 12:03
  So friends, a practice of inhabiting your body. When you get up in the morning, feel. Before you even get out of bed, Are you rested? What does it feel like when your body feels rested? While you're in the shower or the bath, if today is that day that you take one, What does it feel like when that water is rushing over you in this moment?
• 12:30
  Warm water, cold water, however you take a shower. How does it feel on your body? What does it feel like to wiggle your toes? And you can do that while you're sitting at your desk at the office or in a chair at home. What does it feel like just to feel my toes wiggle?
• 12:50
  Are they in shoes? Do I feel the top and the bottom of the toes of my shoes as my toes touch them? If they're open and free and I'm walking in the grass, if I'm barefoot, what does the grass feel like? What do I feel on the bottom of my foot? When I'm washing my hands, what does the water feel like?
• 13:13
  What does it feel like when I'm using the soap as I'm lathering the soap on my hands and rubbing them together? All of those ways are simple, quick ways to bring ourselves back into this body that we're inhabiting right now. Listen for its signals. Listen for what the body will teach you and tell you about how you're doing right now. What you need right now.
• 13:39
  Rest, a quick dance, a little walk, all those things. Listen and respond to what your body says. Learn to inhabit the body. Well those are my thoughts for today. Whether you inhabit your body well yet or not, whether I inhabit my body well or not, I want to remind you and myself that you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 14:09
  Thanks for joining me today. Thank you so much for just being you. Inhabit that for the wonder that it is. Until the next time.