Physical Wellbeing is affected by physical activity, health, nutrition and adequate sleep. There are many examples of physical activity that range from light to vigorous. Some activities include yoga, bike riding, walking, jump rope, swimming, gardening, hiking, dancing. Physical wellbeing is also related to the core essentials of basic human need. This dimension of happiness is beyond the physical body and if the primal needs of the physical self are not met the ability to thrive is unlikely . The core essentials of human life are, water, food, and connection to others.  

In this post we will explore some of the underlying conditions and blocks that prevent a person from commiting to and/or maintaining happiness of the physical self. We will learn how to work with the Elements to expedite healing.  Learn about the energy centers of each aspect of the self, also known as the chakras as well we will also discover other indigenous and ancient wisdoms that have the ability to not only transform your suffering into wellness but integrate self into the whole being you were born to be. I will share with you personal stories of my own transformative journey from depression, dissociation, anxiety and emotional dysregulation to self-actualization and awakening. This information is from my own experience of suffering everything that is here has been put to the test by myself and in my own life has been proven effective to not only help me heal old wounds, but to advance myself to fulfillment. My passion is healing, more importantly my passion is to provide knowledge of how you can heal yourself.  Let’s talk physical happiness…

My Story of Physical Suffering

So many times I mustered up the courage to embarked on a  journey called weightloss. From P90X, 21 Day Fix, Atkins, Keto, Intermittent Fasting etc. Dieting and exercising was a way of life for me, but it was never consistent. I lived a life of being in the, “in between”, either I was coming off of a diet or getting ready to start one, exercise programs were much the same. It was the all or nothing approach, working out 5-6 times per week, no carbs, no sugar. Once I started to see results life would inevitably throw a curveball. My response– immediately drop routine and anything else that was working so that I could catch my stress. Always a full participant in chaos. The results? Total decompensation of strides made. Weight quickly making a triumphant return, leaving me feeling defeated and worthless. 

Time after time living out the same weightloss fate.  Eventually a recognizable pattern emerged. Day 1- Declare, “Today I am quitting smoking and losing 10 lbs!” Getting through the first day by force, a strong constitution and constant google searches of dramatic before and after pictures. As this day repeated my will and determination deflated the day I would find myself parked in front of a pizza box with a pack of cigarettes ready to go was somehow inevitably slated. It became evident that I was trying to change too much in too little time.  It dawned on me that I failed in the past because I jumped into a lifestyle that I had never developed the necessary skills to maintain.

I changed my approach by making smaller changes, building skills and ability over time, this is what it means to build competence. Two years ago I started by working out once a week, that was it. I worked out once per week for several months and I noticed that after 3 months or so of working out once per week I could miss a week and without thinking I would go back to it, because I developed the skills of wellness, physical wellness was introduced and learned until it became a part of my lifestyle, my work-out routine was slated and scheduled, a part of my week, a part of my life, it felt as natural as a cup of coffee in the morning. From that point on I have slowly and steadily built in a daily workout routine over the course of the last two years. At this point in my life I work out almost every day, missing days due to injury or sickness the difference is now I always go back to it with ease and desire.  I have lost some weight somehow now that’s not the focal point. What’s important now? My health, sense of confidence, and having a connection to my body. I honestly can say that I love my body and myself. 

In the beginning keep it simple, choose one area of your life to change and slowly build competence towards this change, once you discover the new rhythm and it becomes effortless then add another thing to tackle. Slow and steady consistency is what makes the largest difference in the end. 

Earth

“Mother Earth knows us by our footsteps. She knows where we’ve been and knows where we are going.” -Native proverb

As we develop, we develop from the ground up. Most of us learned to roll, crawl and then walk in our early development. Other than our human Mothers, Mother Earth is our lifelong Mother that provides for us all from birth to death.  We refer to the earth as a fixed place that we try to bring ourselves back to in order to gain security again. Loud Sudden noises-we hit the ground,When we are in need of change- we use the sturdiness of the earth to push our feet into the ground to gain leverage to run, to move, to change direction, when we are lost it is the Earth and landmarks that tell us where we have been and where we are going. We are deeply connected to the earth. We all originated from stardust, Carbon and water, every living organism is of the same matter, a plant vs. a human the made of the same elements just have a different arrangement. Mother Earth protects us from harmful UV rays and uses every bit of calamity to her advantage to provide life to us all. Every storm has a purpose, things that occur in nature on one side of the world benefit living organisms on the other side of the world. If Mother Earth knows anything she knows how to keep things in harmony even down to the air we breath, 21 percent of our air is oxygen, the level of  oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere is balanced and regulated by Earth if there is too much we die, if there is not enough we die. The Earth truly is a marvel and every living organism on this planet is interconnected. We are living and breathing and so is our planet. our physical and mental wellbeing is connected to the wellbeing of this planet. The Earth is the element of physical happiness because just like the earth our body’s are incredibly complex systems, muscles, bones tissue, organs, nervous system our brains, all working together in harmony, regulating and keeping us alive, when we are not in harmony with our body, we may experience a myriad of illnesses. The way towards healing is within us all. We are all made up from the same matter, every aspect of life matters. If we destroy ourselves, we are destroying Earth, we are destroying our nature and with it the Mother. 

Root

The Root Chakra is located at the base of the spine, the perineum, the coccygeal plexus, including our feet and legs. A Root depicts our connection to the ground to the nurturing force of  Mother Earth. It is what connects us to our outside world. It is our stability, survival and is what determines wellness in the areas of family, Home, health, financial stability and nourishment. Due to events in a person’s lifetime or the accumulative effect of stress A person might suffer from an overactive or underactive chakra.  When Trauma occurs, our physical bodies endure trauma first. Trauma is a Root chakra problem. When trauma occurs it happens to the physical body first which then impacts the function of other systems such as the nervous system and the brain. It is an internal chain reaction where in which the person’s quality of life is severely diminished. The chain reaction not only affects a person physically, emotionally and cognitively it is destructive and incapacitating other areas of life such as social,environmental, financial, occupational and spiritual. Life is affected from the ground up.

The root takes hold of the environment it is in and with that grasp launches life itself. The  Root chakra must be a priority in our approach to healing. If we do not acknowledge the health of the physical body and it’s systems we do ourselves a great disservice and healing will continue to be an illusive,  intangible thing and largely unknown to the seeker. If the root is not healthy it doesn’t support life and eventually succumbs to it’s environment rather than enriching it therefore thriving in it.

As we navigate our healing we will discover that everything is connected. My physical well-being is connected to my emotional well-being and my emotional well-being is connected to my social well-being which is connected to my mental well-being which connects me to spiritual well-being. Happiness is the wellness of entirety.

Rootbound

When I think of fear, I think of myself being covered in tight, tangled, immobilizing snake like roots. I feel rootbound. Helpless. We all experience fear. It is necessary for survival to have a healthy amount of fear, it tells us to stay away from dangerous things, it is fight, flight, or freeze. We can not live without fear, however fear can become the thing that keeps us from living. When fear becomes pervasive, it shows up in the form of anxiety and panic we are no longer in control of fear and are at the mercy and whimsey of terror. 

Anxiety tricks us to be afraid of action. I can not tell you how many times I sat on my couch paralyzed by inaction and the fear of choices. I was tormented with not knowing how to begin, perseverating on whether or not I should do the dishes or the laundry first. Hours would go by, unable to make a choice, or driving to the store only to circle the parking lot a few times to retreat home to safety, because the act of shopping would have presented too many variables to deal with.  Laundry piles up, mail goes unopened, avoidance of life. Life not lived. 

Anxiety presents itself in a very physical way, most people who suffer from anxiety will tell you that it is physically uncomfortable, pressure in the chest, heaviness, racing heart, sweaty palms, for myself an extreme episode of anxiety would render me vomiting.  As I come to explore and get to know myself and the full spectrum of my emotional responses it has occured to me that often the way a symptom presents itself is usually telling of how to manage it. Anxiety presents in a very physical way, therefore we must manage it in a physical way. As we reveal anxiety’s true nature it is pretty simple to understand. Whatever the reason, anxiety or fear are present because of perceived threat, our response to a situation internal or external is based off of our own evaluation of safety or risk. Should we determine that our lives are at risk our bodies are programmed to respond in a certain way. Increased heart rate preparing you to run, sweating to cool your body from the major exertion of energy about to take place etc. The problem is, we hardly ever use this response the way it was designed. So instead we hyperventilate, our hearts race, palms are sweaty, we may experience discomfort in the chest and instead of utilizing the adrenaline running like a team of horses throughout our body to provide life saving energy, we vomit instead. The alarm goes off but we don’t have the code to shut it down–until now. It’s really quite simple, your body is the key. Your body simply needs reassurance and requires you to do something life affirming to override the system.

What does that mean? It means move your body in a way that communicates that life is good, dancing,yoga, tai chi, simply breathing deeply and moving in a synchronized way. This communicates to the body and the brain that there is nothing to fear. Our ancestors generally did not dance if a tiger was chasing them, they ran.

Sometimes I imagine the fear response to be more like an inquiry, “Hey man, I just heard a noise, is everything okay?” Except we never answer the question, so this only makes it worse. Our body continues to ask until it’s screaming and searching for your proverbial lifeless body on the side of the road. Just answer your body next time. When you have a  physical sensation of fear, respond with a physical answer, something that communicates safety. ” Hey man, I’m totally okay. False alarm.” Take a full inhale through the nose, exhale completely, repeat, check in with the five senses, put on your favorite song and dance. Literally shake it off.

  Fear is either the agitator in our lives or the catalyst for new expansion and growth. Your fear is not frightening, it is something frightened. Take fear by the hand, reassure it, comfort it and send it unconditional love.

Dedicate Yourself to Wellness

We must be dedicated to the practice of wellness through self-care. We don’t have to work-out around the clock to love ourselves but we do need to have a daily practice of mind-body connection, intentional breathing, meditation, light stretching, nutritious intake of food and water, sleep etc. We don’t even have to do all of those things at once to start, we must simply start. Start with something simple, practical and accessible. slowly build a routine of wellness. When my dedication begins to slip there is a noticeable change in how I am feeling and coping, I heard once to “Trace it back” to trace back to the last time I felt well and see if there is anything I am either doing or not doing since then once the break in the chain is discovered, I repair it. Usually for me it is something very simple like getting 8 hours of sleep.

Sleep is tantamount to feeling well. When I stay up late and do not sleep well, the following day my symptoms are more pronounced and my ability to utilize coping skills is strained. Now when I lose sleep the following day I am very gentle with myself and I adjust accordingly by planning a quiet evening at home practicing some form of self-care and my only priority is sleeping a full 8 hours. Basically it is pretty simple. Pick one thing to do each day and do it. You do not have to work out an hour per day to reap the benefits you can simply pick a small thing like a Warrior I pose with a breathing technique and do that a few times per day and get the same benefits. We overcomplicate things especially when it comes to our physical happiness the truth is most of the time our healing is simple, generally one consistent action taken over and over. Happiness is a ritual it doesn’t matter what you do, keep it simple, often and accessible.

 

Ahimsa-Nonviolence

Ahimsa simply means to do no harm, or compassion for all living things. The physical aspect of yoga is in the Asanas (body postures) which means staying or abiding. Ahimsa a Yama a yoga ethic from the 8 limbs pathway to enlightenment. Ahimsa is a practice for our whole being when we do no harm to our physical body we honor our limits and don’t push past the point of control arriving at injury. This is also adopting the practice for our spirit, doing no harm with our words and thoughts.  Ahimsa is the very first step in Ashtanga or the 8 limbs, which is a step by step guide to enlightenment. The belief is that if you ignore Ahimsa you can not proceed on your journey, because everything must first stem from the principle of nonviolence. If you are not willing to practice nonviolence or compassion then you will never be able to achieve enlightenment. Now most of us may not be working towards Buddha status, but there is wisdom in compassion and if consistently practiced it will change your life. 

The idea of Ahimsa is applicable to all aspects of living, in our environments, social circles, nutrition. Nonviolence in every way with every sense.  Practicing Ahimsa in the form of self-love has been an empowering experience. I think most of us are not aware of the thoughts we let fly like daggers, little injurious, penetrating daggers that thrash and slash our self-esteem and value.  I was so unmerciful towards myself and half the time did not realize the daily self-flogging that I endured. One day I decided to start watching my thoughts and to modify my thinking by supplementing with positive self talk. At first it was alarming how my default thinking was so negative, harmful and shaming. At first I simply asked myself when a thought popped up, “Is this thought helpful or harmful?” If determined to be harmful the next task would be to modify the thought to one of a helpful nature. If I was thinking “you look fat in your swimsuit.” I would modify this thought to, “ You are in a swimsuit and you are loving your body today by taking it for a swim.” The more I practiced this my self-talk became more cheer-leader like, positive, confident and even daring, because of this shift in thinking I have gone on to tackle so many aspects of my life that due to self-shame and fear I did not have the courage to tackle.

Ahimsa in my thinking has radically changed my life. Not only do I wear swim-suits freely in a crowd of people, I command attention in a room, I go where I want to go and I do what I want to do, I am unstoppable the “cheerleader” is now a BOSS, I feel like if my inner dialogue had a persona she would be a mixture of Ruth Bader Gingsberg and Beyonce–She is kind of the shit.  I am doing things that I never thought I would or could do. The only thing that changed was the way I spoke to myself.

Take Happiness Off The Shelf

My physical body said so much about what I couldn’t communicate to the world. It was a physical barrier that I had created out of need for safety. Connections to others did not always produce positive results. My size and shear fear of judgement and ridicule of others kept me from participating in most physical activities. I honestly felt as if my physical presence was offensive. Intuitively I knew that exercise would help me to feel differently however in order to walk through the doors of any fitness establishment I thought I needed to overcome some obstacles beforehand like losing 20 pounds first, or being able to do a work-out without throwing up. This reasoning generally prevented me from  walking into a gym with the intention to exercise with others. I spent more money on work out clothes or clothes for that matter during this time in my life. I always had an idea in my head that I could cover up my shame with the perfect fitting jeans and shirt, the perfect outfit would solve it all. Somehow it was never enough for me to feel good about myself? Shocking, I’m sure. I had images of myself in my head, thin, frolicking in the fields, laughing etc. I was happy in these daydreams. I thought at that time that I was happy and frolicking because I was thin. Happy and frolicking reserved, placed on a shelf labeled “When I am thin.” Funny, yoga class was also on that shelf. I placed so many things on the shelf, truly believing that in order to achieve them I must be thin.

Well I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I had it backwards. You have to frolic in the fields and laugh first and then you receive happiness, when you are happy you generally take better care of yourself and whether you lose weight or not is not the main focus, living life fully is. Take those things that you have placed on the shelf off and do them now. Take that dance class, go swimming, do yoga.   

It is vital that you radically accept yourself as you are currently. This self-approval is critical before you can embark on any journey of transformation.  Accepting and loving yourself in any shape or form all starts with how you communicate to your body.

Begin by changing the language of a body of deficit to a body of strength. How often do you berate the image of your body? Avoid well lit dressing rooms or full length mirrors? Are you  ashamed and afraid of what you might encounter? Staring directly into the abyss of cellulite an act that we all know could prove to be fatal. We fear embracing our jiggly parts thinking like a stray cat if we show it kindness it will never leave.

Truthfully fat is fear. It is rapidly produced by anxiety, shame and avoidance. Our midsections expand in direct proportion to the size of our fear.  This applies to those of us who have the opposite problem some of us attempt to shrink. The goal of poor body image is the same for us all. invisibility. to be overlooked by fear, believing that wasting away to obscurity is necessary for survival.

What if rather than condemn, we receive, offer approval? Seeing our bodies in the light of the true miracle that they are. While you condemn, berate and detest your body, your body loves you. Think about how it shows up every day laden with weight or insufficient nutrition, it is resourceful and works around the clock without any pay. When we acknowledge what our body actually does for us instead of what it doesn’t do we open a door to self-love. Give your body a raise by taking it outside, fill those lungs with air, have a nice stretch and wash it out with some water. That is an act of self-love. That is how we begin our transformation. 

Speak to yourself and your body as if it is most precious and beloved. Instead of saying, “Ugh. My shoulder is killing me,” Say, “I am so thankful for my body and what it does for me so I am going to go ice my shoulder to say thank you.” Don’t worry if at first it feels phony. It is a practice and takes time to change thinking patterns.  simply commit to observing your negative self-talk and change it when you notice it. It’s also helpful at first to label judgemental thoughts by saying, “I just had a negative thought about myself.” If anything changed the course of my healing and life the most it was changing the way I spoke to myself. All relationships thrive with good communication.  

Practicing Ahimsa has guided me to a better relationship with myself and the body that I inhabit. My body is now. My body at any given time is an astonishing vehicle for healing in every capacity, it can be used as a tool to overcome suffering from trauma to both body and spirit. My first Yoga class I attended I went expecting to elevate my heart-rate, what I did not expect was for it to elevate my soul.  It is written in the book The Living Gita, Chapter 15, verse 9 The ,ears, eyes, nose, sense of taste and touch, and even the mind come to life only by God’s presence. Thus, it is God who actually experiences and enjoys the sense objects. The definition of God is many things to many people, for me God is now, in this moment, God is the peace that I feel when I am practicing compassion for myself and others, God is in the sunset, a crisp fall morning, the dew on the grass, the taste of coffee, the comfort of a warm bowl of soup, God is within my own body, with every heart-beat or wondrous inhale.  God is in the senses.

Hence why the skill of using our senses is so transformative, we use our body and it’s senses to connect us to the spirit of higher self. This is the idea of the personal god that an essence of God lives within us all. I prefer to call this essence the divine.  If we are not loving our body we are not loving the essence that inhabits us all. If we are avoiding the senses is it no wonder that we feel completely and utterly lost to ourselves?  

Ahimsa in a way is an invitation to experience your true nature  in the moment. We must honor our physical body, stretch it, move it and nourish it.  do no harm to your senses, be vigilant of what you are smelling, hearing , tasting, feeling etc.  As I practice Ahimsa I am ever changing in my preferences. I find that I gravitate towards music that is uplifting, soft and gentle, I do not spend hours watching television anymore, I enjoy a clean environment and I love to smell fresh ingredients in my food. The most soothing and amazing place for me to be now is in nature. In nature every sense is full of delight. To do anything else now feels like I am doing harm to myself. If my environment is unkempt, if I watch hours of negative programming,  even if I eat too much, I am hurting myself. The first home is the body it communicates needed information to us through our senses, do no harm to the messenger. Your body is sacredly linked to your soul, both can be wounded, both can heal. Use the body to access yourself. Begin a conversation of honoring and safety through movement. To address the physical needs of the body is the root and foundation of all healing.

An Offering to You

Notice when a negative emotion comes over you. How do you usually experience this emotion? Do you numb it, fight it, attempt to escape it? Is it possible to remain tuned in to your  body and experience the sensation of the emotion, instead of disconnecting self from feeling the body, observe how your body feels in the moment saying to self, “I am present, I am connected to my body. This feeling will end, It always does.” Begin to press your feet into the ground if you are sitting inhaling pressing feet into the earth, exhale release the tension, repeat until you notice a sense of calm come over you, if you are standing begin to inhale and exhale as you lift your heels off of the ground coming up onto your toes, inhaling and exhaling, rising and lowering.  Now that you are connected to your physical body notice your surroundings with your senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. Notice what it feels like to have experienced the entire cycle of the emotion, the beginning, the middle, and the end. Write down your observations.