The meaning of the word obedience my surprise you…etymologically, it means ‘deep listening’. This is the ‘obedience’ of true loving attention and self-care. To turn toward our own body, heart and spirit with that kind of listening may give us the guidance, medicine and comfort we need. We are sensitive beings; it is our design as well as our potential to be perceptive at many levels. We are always picking up information from the ‘field’, the environment around us. The information that we are picking up may be below the level of conscious awareness, but it definitely affects us, and our heart is decoding and giving meaning to this information all the time.
We are also constantly receiving information from the systems of our body, our interior ‘field’. Our being is always offering up information about what we need, what course correction is necessary for our well-being, what feels right to us, etc. So much of this information goes unheeded because we are not attuned to our deeper body-being. That is, until it turns into a more insistent symptom, pain or uncomfortable feeling. This attunement, or ‘deep listening’, is a skill that benefits every aspect of our lives, and one that can be learned and cultivated.
Turning in and tuning in to our body and heart is essential for our self-care and care of others. There is no map for this increasingly complex and always shifting world, and to navigate it with discernment and balance, we need our inner compass. All the body/mind practices can calm our nervous system enough for us to be able to tune into our felt-sense, but the practice of meditation, in particular, develops our capacity to listen in. Coming home to ourselves, coming in close to our own being, becoming more intimate with our heart and the whispers of our body needs…all these are the gifts of meditation. The Somatic meditation practices that I share in my courses and the guided meditations on this site can get you started on that path of deep listening. I invite you to listen to the meditations, and check out the course offerings on this site. Please do reach out if you’d like more information about the courses or private sessions with me 🙂