Recent Revelations
The Body Joy Blog
Healing tips, inspiration and musings from Bella
the wounded healer…
I knew Gabrielle had mapped the path of the wounded healer. I had read about it but this past week I had the opportunity to dance it. To embody it. To feel into the utter truth of it.
life imitates art…
Life imitates art imitates life imitates art. And I absolutely count on that.
a pound of cure….
The word "cure" came from the Latin "cura," meaning "care" or "concern." When the French incorporated cura into their lexicon, it morphed into "curer," which meant "to care for" or "to heal." That leap---from concern to heal---feels like a philosophical bridge I’ve negotiated over a lifetime in the healing arts.
living the questions…
It was a Palm Springs conference in the 90’s when anthropologist Angeles Arrien, spoke directly to my soul. Her lecture topic: commonalities across indigenous cultures in the art of healing. There was one custom that connected several cultures. A person seeking medical attention would go to the village shaman who opened the healing session with this inquiry:
First the good news…
Insight sometimes materializes in chapters. Know what I mean? Themes show up this way and that. Connective threads emerge in your face. Sometimes it takes several aha moments to anchor insight into reality. Today, with gratitude, I write about a wisdom kernel received from you, my physical therapy patients. A recurrent theme all summer long.
August Musings
This is a month dedicated to stopping. I have been very quiet, mostly at home or camping. It is not my usual state of being. And it feels good. Feels right. Feels needed. And this emerged today:
not your standard yoga…on demand now
Back in 2020-22, with Covid raging away, I taught “not your standard” yoga weekly on line. An interesting interlude we were grateful to share. The final 55 classes, became an ambitious dive into experiential anatomy.
Lessons from The Big Fall
Calendared as a day of remembrance, July 20, 2023: The Big Fall. A day to recall what it means to suffer trauma, how healing happens in fits and starts, how at times life lessons get delivered in uncomfortable ways. It got my attention and these 3 reminders have played out with consistency over this ensuing year.
soft animal of your body
Mary Oliver opens her poem Wild Geese with these poignant lines:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
cannabis curious…
I’ve been clear about the medicinal benefits of low dose cannabis for years. Actually more than 50 years. But here’s the deal: I’m firmly on the elder side of life and even though younger folk assure me times have changed, I feel a bit of trepidation writing publicly about this topic.
if you’re human…
A perfect example of prajna paradha, Sanskrit for crime against wisdom. This word actually names what we all gut-recognize: our natural, organic human tendency to turn away for what we know is best for us.
seriously, it’s a no brainer
Curiosity about this unique body in motion. Cultivating fascination about every emerging impulse. Ruminating mind pales in comparison, so boring.
threshold of possibility
This is what I want to say about my feet lately. I trust them like never before. They seem to know what my heart desires more than my head does. And I am following.
those magic balls
I looked at him and said, “Do I really have to do this?” To which he replied, “Did you really want to get better?” I bit the bullet.
not done yet
There is nothing but liquid turbulence tossing me hither and yon. No sense of up, down, sideways. I hold this precious breath as long as humanly possible.
feeling our inborn GPS
Life pulls us this way and that. Sometimes we think one thing, feel another then move in a direction totally unrelated. Out of alignment. Sigh.
training for The Big Whatever
Been moving through a rough patch lately. Such is life, eh? My 74th turn around the planet right around the corner, a reminder of my draft into life’s black belt training unit. And what is it I am training for? Every day, like it or not, I am the recipient of ever advanced readiness coaching for The Big Whatever.
feelings take time
I was born body-mind connected. Curious and instinct-driven about my body in motion from the get go: twirling, skating, hop scotching, tree climbing. Anything that ends in “ing”. Enthralled with body moving through space in relation to gravity.
miracles in motion
I remember deepening into our amazing nervous system in physical therapy school. Dissecting fragile filaments from muscle and fascia. Memorizing the radial nerve course.
BIG FEELINGS are definitely dangerous
BIG FEELINGS are definitely dangerous. A guiding principle for my wee self. An old story. One I’ve spiraled through with the support of skilled therapists and played out on many a dance floor.