"The aliveness in the body is an intelligent aliveness, and the wonderful thing is that when you direct attention there, it removes attention away from thinking. You cannot feel the aliveness of the inner body and think a lot, because consciousness is taken out of thinking and moves into the body. Feel that, just feel..." Eckhart Tolle

Anyone who knows me knows I like to think. A LOT. Sometimes my brain will just start spinning about a topic, issue or idea, and hey, it's quite the party up there, one which can last FOR DAYS. Some folks might term it intellectual OCD. I just like to think I am really, really smart.

But even I will admit that this thinking habit gets in the way on a regular basis. Which is why I LOVE the quote above. (It's probably also the reason I love Hawaii, because my body is sooo happy there, and when the body is happy, usually the brain follows along.)

For better or worse, I have a pretty strong mind-body connection. But not in the way described above. To my thinking, there are two ways that this mind-body connection can go. There is the dynamic listed above, one in which the mind is attuned to listening to the body, and then there is the opposite dynamic, one in which in the mind is really good at bossing the body around. I am by nature, but even more by upbringing, of the latter persuasion.

The awesome thing is that I am slowly learning to access the first dynamic. And this has been an enlightening experience, because I am learning that my body is pretty smart. For instance, when I am feeling stressed, and my habitual inclination is to push through it and keep going vs. taking care of myself, my body sends out some pretty distinct signals to me. It's actually been sending out these 'stressed out' signals for years, so I have some pretty intense muscle memory presently going on that I am dealing with, but DPT (darling physical therapist) is doing his best to retrain me in this area. Actually, DPT is fairly awesome in several aspects, and I feel he has been a real godsend.

But I digress. (Surprised, anyone?) Through some very specific exercises, I am learning to SLOW DOWN. I don't power through (most) things anymore. Every now and then something comes bursting out, but that is usually because I have withdrawn from a problem instead of trusting my heart to deal with it. And my body lets me know when this is the case. Like waking me up at 5 a.m. every morning because it knows that something needs to be dealt with, and hang it all if it is going to let me sleep through it!