<p>Even if your occupation involves physical labor, you may have a habit of dismissing your body, of ignoring its needs, pushing past its limits, rejecting its requests. If, like so many of us, you have a sedentary occupation, you may be even more disconnected from your body&rsquo;s wisdom and from its needs. <br /><br />While I spend a good deal of my workday in front of the computer or on the phone, I have learned that I can bring my body to work. What&rsquo;s more, when I bring my body along I can process much more information&mdash;and meaningfully&mdash;than my frontal lobes can crunch on their own. My intuition is sharpened, as it so often speaks through physical signals. My response time is lessened while my ability to refrain from reactive behavior is increased&mdash;a paradox that illustrates the surprising power of somatic awareness.<br /><br />What does it mean to bring your body to work?<br /><br />It means learning to notice instead of to ignore the signs and signals your body sends. It means developing habits and practices that invite your body to contribute its wisdom and to activate its learning capacities. It means waking up to both pain and pleasure, and being curious about how these can enter into and inform your work.<br /><br />We live in a culture that encourages us to numb our primary experiences of pleasure and pain with activity, consumption, or entertainment. We are trained to compartmentalize our physical experience, not to engage with or trust it. We join gyms to get exercise while driving even short distances and riding a mower around our yards. We work overtime to buy entertainment and vacations, sometimes with the result that we are too wound up to enjoy our time off. We starve ourselves for fashion and stuff ourselves for comfort.<br /><br />The good news is that we have an extraordinary amount of power to reconnect with and reclaim our body&rsquo;s wisdom. We can activate that power simply and directly, by forming the clear intention to honor and experience our body as sacred and taking tiny steps to respect and restore it. Here are a few acts of power that are within your reach:<br /><br />* If you like to listen to music while you work, play tapes or CDs instead of the radio. Make a commitment to stop and change the recording as soon as it is finished. This will build in breaks from prolonged desk work.<br /><br />* Drink water. Keep a bottle of water on your desk and drink it instead of the third cup of coffee, the fourth cup of tea, or a soda. <br /><br />* Walk or bike whenever possible, and extend your definition of what is possible. This not only provides opportunities for exercise and fresh air, it will recalibrate your clock to a kinder, gentler pace.<br /><br />* Take time-outs. Even if you do not meditate, you can begin to cultivate stillness and clarity by taking brief time outs. Simply sit with your back comfortably erect and your feet flat on the floor. Breathe in energy and refreshment, breathe out stress and anxiety. Even five minutes will give your body a chance to tell you what you need to know.<br /><br />* Start a somatic journal where you log your observations of your physical state a few times a day. Take five minutes before work, after lunch, and at the end of the day and write down three things that you notice about your physical sensations. For example: right shoulder pulled up and forward, legs twisted tightly at ankles, forehead wrinkled. This simple activity will at once train you to observe and experience yourself somatically while creating a sketch of your habitual postures and attitudes.</p> 2008-11-24T00:01:40Z -14.0557 334 2319 true 12 7670 bring-your-body-to-work 2 2008-11-30T18:03:02Z 2008-11-30T18:03:02Z

Do you bring your body to work, or do you leave it behind, operating as much as possible without awareness of the joys or sorrows of your cells, your joints, your belly?

0 2009-02-24T09:47:22Z