One of the most powerful body practices I’ve ever encountered is a body inventory of gratitude. Do you have two ears? Be glad. Two eyes? Be grateful. Ten toes? Get thankful.
Really, gratitude makes any body healthier, or, at any rate, happier, and thereby, healthier.
Start anywhere you want—and especially when you’re feeling blue—and begin to give thanks for the health that you have, no matter how miniscule.
Go top to bottom, or bottom to top, or begin with the toughest bit of your body first. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that we all learn to appreciate the unbelievable, or should I say, believable miracle that is the human body temple.
In fact, do you even think of your body as a temple, a holy place? Do you treat your body as a bit of the sacred on Earth?
I have to confess that I don’t always. I don’t always eat the best things for my body, but I do always exercise—every day. I don’t always get enough rest either. I do, however, guard my time quite well, and I spend enough time alone for my needs.
Body gratitude is a great way to check in with your various parts. Very few of us spend much time thinking about our parasympathetic nervous systems, but they’re hugely valuable in terms of how we handle stress.
Give thanks for your hormones, your peptides, your DNA. Think about all the marvelous functions your body provides without so much as a request from you, and repair to your gratitude practice as often as you can.
“All right, Dr. Corso, I’ve got a message from the previous practice.” I hear you asking. “So now what do I do?”
Now comes the stickiest part of body messaging: interpretation. Or, more importantly, correct interpretation. When we’re reading our own bodies or those of the people we love, we can get attached to outcomes, and skew our body messages.
That being the case, the first thing to do is to tell yourself the truth about your attachments. Do you want a particular outcome? Are you afraid? Are you tuned in to your own emotions? That of the person you’re reading? Get current with yourself.
Then, as a series of generalizations:
If you’re picking up information from the front of the body, it could be about going forward, into future time.
If you’re picking up information from the back of the body, it could be about the past.
If you’re picking up information about the right side of the body (not as you’re facing it, but the body itself), it could be about dynamic action in the world or about relationships with male persons.
If you’re picking up information about the left side of the body, it could be about magnetic attraction or about relationships with female persons.
I could go on and on about these sorts of mystic messages, but it is good to remind you that every human (or animal) is an individual so there are no absolute rules. Keep tuning in, and keep listening.
Hands and arms are most often about giving and receiving; feet and legs about going forward or backward.
Information from the head is usually connected to particular organs. Learn to ask …
…if there are eye problems, what doesn’t the person want to see?
…if there are ear problems, what doesn’t the person want to hear?
… if there are mouth problems, what doesn’t the person want to say?
All these are simply prompts, none, as I said, are absolute for anyone.
And, randomly, in no particular order …
Stomach difficulties, ask what can’t you stomach?
Lung difficulties, ask what are you having trouble letting in or letting go?
Back difficulties, ask is your back against a wall? Are you backed into a corner? Has no one got your back?
After a while, you’ll begin to realize that body messages are supremely logical. What anyone needs to learn is how to speak the language of the body.
That language is most often literal.
In addition, in my next post, I’ve listed plenty of books in which to study this sort of language and thinking.