Latest / STOPTIME: Live in the Moment. / Listening to Your Body: Compassionate Connection With Your Physical Self
Transcript
- 0:01Lisa Hopkins: Hey there, today I want to talk to you about the most important relationship that you will ever have, the relationship with the one who has been by your side ever since you were born and will stay with you until you take your very last breath.
- 0:18Lisa Hopkins: I'm talking about your relationship with your body.
- 0:23Lisa Hopkins: What is the first thought that arrives when you think about your body?
- 0:29Lisa Hopkins: I'm willing to bet it's something about how it is lacking Too thick, too thin, too weak, too short.
- 0:40Lisa Hopkins: You know the drill Our body has to listen to a lot of criticism from us, but when was the last time that we actually listened to our body?
- 0:51Lisa Hopkins: There's so much that our body can tell us if we just hold space for it to express itself.
- 0:59Lisa Hopkins: I'm going to share with you something that happened to me recently that really reignited the importance of this to me in my life.
- 1:13Lisa Hopkins: Movement used to be built into my life because that's what I did for a living.
- 1:16Lisa Hopkins: Most days, I would dance for at least four hours, usually more, and then there was the time spent on my feet getting to the class or the theater, or standing on the subway, walking to the train.
- 1:29Lisa Hopkins: My body was in motion all the time.
- 1:32Lisa Hopkins: I regularly asked, slash forced my body to do things beyond what was comfortable or reasonable in pursuit of art or achievement, and my body faithfully complied.
- 1:44Lisa Hopkins: Pursuit of art or achievement and my body faithfully complied.
- 1:48Lisa Hopkins: I can see now how incredibly strong and unconditionally loyal my body was, despite decades of using the mirror as a reflection of what was missing or needed, a tool to criticize or to look for imperfections.
- 1:58Lisa Hopkins: I used my body as a vehicle to express myself and through that expression I have found much joy.
- 2:07Lisa Hopkins: But the question that I'm pondering today is when was the last time that we held space for our body to express itself?
- 2:17Lisa Hopkins: So the other day I was on my mat in my studio doing some simple stretches, like I often do between sessions or when I remember to step away from my desk.
- 2:31Lisa Hopkins: It's hard sometimes, because I get really absorbed in what I'm doing.
- 2:37Lisa Hopkins: The beautiful cello music wafted around me and through me like the aroma of something delicious cooking on the stove in the kitchen, and I breathed it in as I spontaneously raised my arm without thinking, allowing my body to inspire my movement.
- 2:55Lisa Hopkins: The more I listened, the more my body told me what it needed.
- 3:01Lisa Hopkins: Although I was simply seated on the ground and the movement was minimal, it felt like the two of us were dancing as one.
- 3:12Lisa Hopkins: It was spontaneous but connected, different from improvisation, which I do love to do.
- 3:20Lisa Hopkins: I wasn't reacting or even responding to the music.
- 3:24Lisa Hopkins: I was well.
- 3:25Lisa Hopkins: I was simply listening to my body.
- 3:27Lisa Hopkins: As I sat cross-legged and still on the ground, I could actually feel my spine stretching in both directions.
- 3:38Lisa Hopkins: There was this sensation of being deeply rooted in the ground beneath me, lengthening far beneath the studio floor into the fertile earth that supported the building from far, far below and the top of my head, from the back of my neck, extended in the opposite direction, upward.
- 4:00Lisa Hopkins: I felt as if I was in a trance, channeling something else and yet, at the same time, absolutely clear, guided now by only my body.
- 4:12Lisa Hopkins: I scooped my arms down to go up, gathering energy and raising my breastbone to the sky in a high release.
- 4:22Lisa Hopkins: I felt open and powerful and completely ready to receive.
- 4:30Lisa Hopkins: I took a deep breath and on the exhale I smiled from deep in my heart.
- 4:40Lisa Hopkins: I was one with my body.
- 4:45Lisa Hopkins: Unexpectedly, tears began to stream down my cheeks like a gentle rain on the petal of a tulip that has opened its petals to the sky.
- 4:55Lisa Hopkins: It was sublime.
- 4:58Lisa Hopkins: It was sublime what began as an intermission between sessions, to get out my kinks, transformed into this gift from my body which, unbeknownst to me, had been holding on to something for me.
- 5:11Lisa Hopkins: It was holding on to it until I was ready to let it go.
- 5:17Lisa Hopkins: Although I know intellectually that our bodies have an incredible capacity to hold on to pain, I had no idea that I needed to release anything until that moment.
- 5:31Lisa Hopkins: As the tears stream down my face, I looked into the mirror with love and thought about my mom and all the years that we had spent together in the studio, moving our bodies together.
- 5:50Lisa Hopkins: I felt the urge to summon her and, as I write this, imagine that she had already answered my call in the gentle caress of my warm and happy tears.
- 6:02Lisa Hopkins: It felt amazing to connect with my body in that way and I urge you, dear listener, to do the same.
- 6:15Lisa Hopkins: Love your body as it has loved you and allow it to be ally and treat it as you would your closest friend.
- 6:24Lisa Hopkins: I still dance all the time, but these days I dance with my body to the rhythm of my unfailing heart, and when I look in the mirror, I marvel at how lucky I am to have a body that holds me up and supports me unconditionally.
- 6:49Lisa Hopkins: There are no coincidences in life, so it's no surprise that today is my mom's birthday.
- 6:58Lisa Hopkins: Mom would have been 86 today.
- 7:02Lisa Hopkins: Happy birthday, mom.
- 7:03Lisa Hopkins: You will live forever in my body and soul.
- 7:07Lisa Hopkins: I'm Lisa Hopkins.
- 7:11Lisa Hopkins: Thanks so much for listening.
- 7:12Lisa Hopkins: Stay safe and healthy, everyone.
- 7:14Lisa Hopkins: Get out there and dance and remember to live in the moment.