A forgotten spiritual practice that often goes unrecognised – especially for women – is care for the physical body.
Aka EMBODIMENT ✨
Embodiment includes more than just meditation, eating and sleeping well and drinking enough water.
The missing part is this: Strengthening the body! Building muscle. Giving your physical body the work it desires.
Way too many spiritual teachings infer that the body doesn’t matter as much as developing your consciousness and awareness. That we’re meant to transcend the physical.
There’s a huge problem with that however: your body is where you live for as many years as you’re here.
And, every cell of your body is infused with your consciousness.
It’s where we learn our lessons and where our karmas play out.
I’ll always feel fortunate that my root spiritual teacher would regularly emphasise “the primacy of the body” as an important part of the spiritual path.
We actually need a strong physical container to do all the inner work effectively.
Though… I’ll freely admit I didn’t quite understand what that meant until I began lifting weights.
BUT also… that teaching conflicts with what women are conditioned to believe: that we should take up less space, that our body is only acceptable if it’s as small as possible, and that we should eat less in order to achieve this.
Myths…
Several generations of women have also been led to believe that women shouldn’t lift weights, because they will “bulk up” and look “too masculine”.
Most of my life, I haven’t enjoyed having a physical body, due to childhood abuse, body dysmorphia, being “too tall”, and “too curvy”.
It took perimenopause happening for me to decide I needed to do something different than trying to starve my body into the submission it never gave.
Lifting weights is the gift that keeps on giving
My initial motivation to join the gym was to build muscle, strength, and fend off bone density issues.
To be honest I’d almost given up on the idea of losing weight, especially in perimenopause. Because one of the prevailing narratives out there says that it’s very hard to lose weight when you hit perimenopause.
I’ve spent my life doing various forms of exercise, and when I was younger cardio seemed to be enough.
But as we age, cardio isn’t enough any more. The number of bootcamp groups and other cardio activities I’ve done to try and shift excess weight has been a LOT.
I’ve also tried changing up my diet, and detoxing this and that, to no real effect.
What HAS made a significant difference is eating lots of protein, eating a lot more food than I used to, and lifting weights.
Start…somewhere, anywhere
I began doing online movement training with The A Life, and found confidence and skills that I didn’t know I could have as a result. Despite years of exercise, including martial arts, dance and yoga.
In May last year, I felt ready to tackle a new level of challenge, and joined a gym.
There are many things I don’t enjoy about the gym – the noise, a lot of the music, the smells, and the busy-ness.
But I’m willing to overlook all of that because not only am I building muscle, but a whole lot more too.
I’m building confidence.
My joints are happier.
My sleep is improving.
I’m dissolving my body dysmorphia.
My mindset is evolving… because I have evidence of what my body can do that I never thought it could!
I’m also learning to admire all of the small changes in my body each session – after years of negative conditioning, it’s AMAZING to have so many nice thoughts about my body. I also benefit from all of those happy endorphins!
I’m in an environment (smells and all) where everybody is focused on strengthening their bodies.
And it’s all kinds of bodies, ages and abilities. There are people recovering from injuries. Older men and women. Younger kids. Anyone can start anywhere and build strength!
I’m healing trauma, too
Because trauma doesn’t just live in the mind, it lives in the body and the nervous system.
Healing isn’t just about our emotional and mental states. It’s very much about the physical as well…
Certain exercises and movements felt unbelievably hard for me at first. Not because the movements themselves are difficult, but because there’s trauma stored in parts of my body that get activated.
Sometimes I’ve had a full emotional meltdown working through my training program. But instead of refusing to do certain exercises, I’ve just taken my time. I’ve moved slowly. I’ve welcomed the panic that surfaces.
And what’s happened is progress. Capacity is built. I now have muscle definition I’ve never had in my entire life before now.
I’m getting stronger as I get older, not weaker
Finally, it feels much better to have a physical body than it ever has.
Which was actually a goal of mine from maybe 15 years ago… to find a way to enjoy being in a human body.
And here I am, much earlier than I thought possible, ticking that goal off my list…
Much love,
