Learning

January 14, 2024

We learn from our body’s messages that alert us and help us understand our needs, fears, and desires. When we are hungry, it lets us know by a growling stomach. If we are sick, it gives us fever and pain. When we are scared, it gives us goose pimples or raises the hairs on the backs of our necks. When we are desirous of affection, our body reaches out for touch.

The body not only teaches us, but it learns. Just as the heart and mind learn by taking in experiences, creating memories, and using that information to move through the world, so does the body.

A blow to the body makes an impression that is not easily forgotten. The blow encodes emotional and physical effects into our neuromuscular system that it stores in its memory. Physical insults are encoded, but positive experiences are also encoded and stored in the body. Tissue and muscle memories can be evoked and released by a touch to the tissue that was impressed by the experience. We may not be consciously aware of the memory and, therefore, do not have words for it. The body does not learn, communicate, or teach in words.

Our body has an inner landscape composed of the areas that hold impressions from various experiences. The body's brain is in the lower abdominal region. Sometimes called the cath, it is the Central Intelligence Agency of the body. It knows the inner landscape of the body's knowledge well and provides many things it knows through its message system.

About thirty years ago, I was walking into a massage therapist's office when the person ahead of me was leaving. As I met the person in the doorway, I noticed she was holding her head in her hands and was crying. Then, when she lifted her head, I recognized the lady. It was my friend Pat who was in a spiritual study group with me. "Pat," I said, "Are you alright?" She looked at me, smiled from behind her tears, and said, "I am just fine; the therapist was working with a certain area of my body, and when she massaged it, so many memories flooded me. I had flashbacks of my childhood and the way my grandmother held me and rocked me. I felt that same feeling again, and it powerfully touched my heart."

Inquiry: What may your body be communicating to you now?

Dear God,

Bring me closer to my body and its knowings. Align me with my sacred temple. Amen

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