Standing Naked

By MGAL Expert Dina Ferrante

It was change that I was after and change is what I got.

One year ago life looked very different.  I remember vividly feeling dull, languid and disconnected. I felt trapped within the confines of my own (yes, self imposed) life.  I felt this in my body which was becoming stiff and rigid and numb.  I felt cluttered and unhappy.  Those same words could easily be used to describe my mental, emotional and spiritual state.

I changed my life the way people change their clothes.

You know how when you go into the dressing room to try on clothes, you have to strip basically down to naked.  You have to take off all of your old, worn out, boring clothes that don’t fit so you can put on some new, brighter clothes without holes and stains?

That’s what I did with my life.

I took off everything that didn’t fit right anymore.  I threw away anything that had a hole or a stain or a missing button.   (I’m speaking in metaphors here. . . my socially admirable, status achieving house, my 2 businesses, several energy sucking “friends” and my bulging to-do list is really what I’m talking about . . . ).

You know who told me what to keep and what to throw away?  My body.  Old reliable.  I crawled right back into my body which had been seriously neglected for quite some time, and I asked her what the heck we were gonna do with this dilapidated, passionless life.

And you know what she told me?  Chocolate.  What?  Yes, chocolate.  I want chocolate, the good, over priced kind.  Um, actually, Chocolate and Sex.  I’d like more sex, she proclaimed.  My body claimed she was dying from a deficiency of passion.  Then she got bold.  Chocolate, Sex and Wine, that’s what I want.  I’d love a glass or 2 of red wine, to wash down the chocolate, after the sex.  Chocolate, Sex, Wine and oh yeah, some Yoga would be the icing on the cake.  Something to tie it all together, to integrate the bliss, ya know?  I’d like to feel totally and utterly saturated and satiated.  And if I could be dare to be greedy . . . I need to be outside more and to take deeper breaths.  Pleeeease  . . . .She was begging now.

Oh.

I listened.  I got back into my body and I paid attention.  During my yoga practice, I noticed how my aching hips which were holding onto the stress of my life.  I became deeply aware of the way anxiety held hostage in my body was causing my shoulders to hunch upward and the way my wrists clenched from holding on so tight.  I noticed how my breath was stuck in my throat and how my hamstrings were crying.

I gave my body and my soul wine and chocolate and fresh air and sex along with some other choice simple pleasures.   I remembered again why I loved yoga so much.  I began to feel free.  I was more willing to make conscious decisions about what it meant to live the life I was meant to live, even though I was scared of what the neighbors might think.  Grounded in my body, I knew I could move forward.

I knew the only way I could teach my son what I wanted him to know was through my example.

I made the hard decision to shed my social self, the veil under which I was hiding, my whole identity.  My whole wardrobe got tossed and here I stand, practically naked, waiting to see what goodies I will find at TJ Maxx (uh, I mean the Colorado Rockie Mountains, where I’m going . . . you get the picture).

What simple pleasures lie dormant for you?  What might your body be telling you, if you’d only stop long enough to listen?

Dina is Martha Beck certified life coach and yoga teacher. She helps women access their intuition and wisdom of the body to reveal their deepest passions. Her innate ability to listen intently, read between the lines and exhibit compassion without judgement supports women in consciously creating a life they love.Visit Dina’s website at http://dinaferrantecoaching.com/