The world is your jungle gym

Having a practice that does not require any equipment - dance, yoga, martial arts, running barefoot, and meditation all come to mind - means that no matter where you go, you can get in your body.  You can always stretch, always move, always rest.  The fact that feeling good is always available to us doesn't mean that we always do, or that we always try.  

I've been thinking about this lately.  Riding my bike is yoga, practicing massage is yoga,gardening is yoga.  Riding my bike I can stretch up from my tailbone through my back, neck, and the top of my head to feel more comfortable and ride longer.  Practicing massage I can work from postures that make my body feel stronger and more relaxed.  Gardening I can squat and stretch my muscles as I strengthen others.  Here's the kicker though: sitting here typing on my computer is also yoga: I can make adjustments in how I'm sitting and how I position the computer to use my muscles more effectively and put no pressure on my joints.  As I write this I am sitting up straighter to take the tension out of my lower back.  I just dropped my shoulders about half an inch, realizing that I was holding them up by my ears.  There's more though.  I have the option to tinker with where and how I sit, mouse, and type until I am adding no tension to my body and I can write forever.  As it is I can't stay on a computer for too long: I stop and walk or stretch or make some food to let my body align itself back up the way it wants to be.

Our bodies want to be strong and healthy.  Think about what you are doing for the most amount of waking hours every day.  Where is your body when you do that thing?  Can you do anything to make yourself more comfortable while you sit at your computer? Drive in your car? Eat? Watch television?  Which activities that you do are making your body uncomfortable?  Can you change them or spend less time doing them?  Is there anything you do at a computer or in a car that you could avoid entirely?  Could you meet with a person face to face or walk down the street to run an errand?

Here is the truth: you never have to make yourself uncomfortable; It's always your body and it is always your choice what you do with it.  Take long breaks from the things that seem to put discomfort into your body.  Find a more comfortable way to accomplish your desired goal.  Listen to your body... have fun in there!  It's your one little container you've got to carry around your soul and your emotions and all those thoughts in your head, it might as well feel good, right?

If you are uncomfortable at work and then you go to the gym to work out or practice yoga or get a massage, good for you; that's a great start.  I encourage you to think about your body all day, though; we're in our bodies always, not just during "this is when I care for my body" time.  How can we make our whole lives a workout? One that makes us strong, flexible, healthier, and full of more life, beauty and potential.  

I'm working on it.  Often it means that I make decisions that feel strange at first to myself or my family or peers, ("What do you mean you just can't work in front of a computer for forty hours a week?") but I am investing in something that will be paying dividends for the rest of my life.  Dividends in the form of a healthy body, and also, surprisingly to me, in the form of a healthier feeling and better functioning mind, and spiritual and emotional life.  The more I learn to listen to my body the more I become sensitive to the other things going on inside of me and in the world around me.

Just take care of your body and your body will take care of you.  You have to be in your body all the time, and at any time you have the option to stop and say, "Am I comfortable? What can I adjust? How can I feel better?" then make the adjustment.  Find a place where you can learn athletics without equipment: a yoga or martial arts class is a great start, and be picky until you find an instructor that makes you feel that you can do it ANYWHERE at ANY TIME.  You don't need a mat or a foam prop or a fancy belt to help you stretch or get stronger.  All you need is your body, gravity, and the ground. 

Wow, perfect.  Nina Simone is singing "Got Life" on my little stereo.  No matter where life takes us, we've always got the body.  What a blessing!