“If you think of your body as a house, movement is the large front door, swinging wide open to allow your awareness, your thinking, to enter back inside where you have always belonged”
hILLARY mCbRIDE, pHD
This quote is taken from “The Wisdom of your Body”. It’s the book I wrote in my dreams. But in actual reality it was written by wonderful @hillaryliannamcbride .
In it, she compares our relationships to our bodies, to home owning:
Imagine you own a house.
Inside, the resources are set up comfortably, to help you live as you need: soft bedding for rest and sleep, cupboards of food to eat and a shower to keep you clean.
After a few years you peer outside and see your neighbours out on their lawns. They’re all talking about their houses. One of them comments “I love your new door” and the compliment feels good.
You head out onto the lawn and get drawn into this noticing of others: peering now at the size, style, colour and decor of others’ houses.
You start spending more and more time outside. You begin to make little home improvements, drawn in by seeing what others have done. People continue to comment which is encouraging. The outside of the house holds your attention and keeps you busy with all the work it invites.
And in your busyness, you forget that your house was there to inhabit – perfectly comfortable for you where you started.
Not just that but also you forget your home is yours – a way for you to express your individuality and authenticity, separate to everyone else.
Hillary points out that when it comes to our bodies, many of us are living on the front lawn. Looking after the outside, but forgetting how to live comfortably inside. Our “public body” makes it much harder for us to resist leaving the home that we were born into. The home that nurtures us and keeps us safe.
I think this has been my favourite book to read ever! There is so much in there that resonates. Highly HIGHLY recommend if you’re looking for a beautiful, sensitive, informed and inspiring book about the body and all its wisdom.
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