"Your body is your only home, when you chose to be physically strong, emotionally balanced, mentally sharp and spiritually conscious, harmony will come into your life." I came across this idea years ago when I was on the stair master at the gym. I realized that all the effort that I put into my physical health, was just a portion of what true wellbeing really was. I realized the importance of "loving my whole self" and just knew that I needed to tune into the four other areas: my body, emotions, mind, and spirit to truly be whole.
It is so common in our culture to be dominantly focused on one or two of these areas, which makes the other components fall by the way side. I know today that if I feel insecure, frustrated, or the myriad of negative emotions that surface, that I am probably out of balance and need to readjust. This is when I came up with he "holistic beach exercise", which helped me get back into balance.
The next time you feel insecure, lost, frustrated, over-emotional, or even like you want to retaliate; it may be a sign that you are out of balance. It is up to you to do the self work at this point and find where you are out of balance by looking at where your attention is primarily. Once you find your imbalanced perspective you can try this fun activity to help you realign and embrace your whole self: the body, emotions, mind and spirit.
Holistic Beach Exercise
Go into nature (the beach, forest, a mountain, lake, etc.) where you feel safe. If it is warm enough consider wearing a bathing suit, so you are aware and conscious of being in your body. Next, only choose to send love to yourself during this exercise. Yes, silence all those thoughts of comparison, hatred, criticism, etc. Then begin to bring awareness to the different areas of you, one at a time. Body: Settle into your body and begin to walk, feeling the sensations of your body. Tune in with your body and send it love. Walk 10 minutes in one direction, and feel your body, feel the ground, the wind, and the temperature. Begin to shift your awareness to gratitude for the container you have been given to scoot around in this life. Feel how much your body does for you, and stay in that space of gratitude.
Emotions: Next, enter the feeling of love and choose to only feel love. Feel love for your body, for your self, for everything you see. Bathe yourself in the feeling of love like it is a warm golden light coming from the core of the earth and soaking into your body. See this golden light soaking into every cell, organ, bone, muscle, and mostly into your heart.
Mind: Notice all the thoughts that pop up that make you feel bad and consciously choose to drop them with your next step. Leave them behind and repeat the mantra, I love you, (your name/ a loved ones name) and send out love to everyone you see. When you look at something say “I love you” in your mind.
Spirit: Ask your higher power to join you in this quest. Imagine a cord going out your head and plugging into the most beautiful and abundant source we have, God. This is where you can use imagery. Imagine the picture of a lamp (you) the cord (your connection) and God, Life Force, Higher Power (the socket), and plug into that. Every time that you notice negative energy surfacing in you, breathe it out and reconnect vertically to the spiritual source that created the ocean, the nature you are in, and the love that we are able to feel!
After you have practiced each exercise in each area, (about 10 minutes) turn around and head back to where you started, repeating the exercise and continuing in this same holistic and loving space. The ideal time for this exercise is about 20 minutes, but if you only have 5 minutes and a walk to the mailbox, that will work too. The idea is to do what you can, with love!
Sophie Skover Frabotta, a holistic life coach, specializes in helping women in eating disorder recovery learn to embrace, accept and fall in love with their body. She not only teaches this but lives it herself as she healed from bulimia and lost seventy-five pounds. Through this process she ] had to learn to love and embrace her new body. For more information on how Sophie teaches her clients to love their body, please contact us: info@LSSHarmony.com