I have found that through participating in contemplative practices, whether they be going for a run when I’m upset about something, or sitting in my thoughts to center myself (even if that’s centering myself in being okay with not being centered). I have become more conscious of my immediate physical reactions. It’s kind of wild how our bodies react to things so quickly, often faster than the brain.
I experienced this while reading Michael Maniates piece on Individualization. After reading about individualization and how little impact things like recycling, planting trees, riding bikes etc. have on the well being of the earth, my stomach got heavy. I got that feeling I get when I realize that I’m lost. I sat in the HUB feeling a little lost before I realized that the notion that the choices I make in my everyday life make a difference in the health of our planet, is a central part of my lifestyle and in turn my identity. My stomach proved to be more in touch with my emotions than my mind was, in that I reacted to the reading first in my stomach and second in my head. I found myself a little angry with Maniates for bursting my bubble.
I find a lot of comfort in the idea that our bodies are connected to our minds. In a lot of ways they act pretty independently, most of our muscles are involuntary and they just do their own thing and keep us alive which is pretty nice. I am not sure how good I would be at reminding myself to breath all the time. But they are also deeply connected. We make choices that effect our bodies and our bodies send us messages like “eat something” or “this is not right” which is mimicked in the idea of the anthropocene through the connection between the earth and humans. Our bodies are smart! And they know what is good for us, our subconscious mind reacts faster than our conscious minds sometimes and the earth is the same way. The planet is smart, and sometimes it reacts faster than we do to things. A good example of this is mountaintop removal in Appalachia. We blew off the top of mountains in Appalachia in search of coal (not so nice to the mountain) which in turn contaminated drinking water, and lead to brain-tumors and brain cancer in the communities around the coal mines.
The insights I gained from paying attention to my physical reactions to messages and ideas were telling in a lot of ways. For one I found out that I don’t know myself as well as I thought I did. I often think of myself as a pretty easy going and understanding person. But it turns out that when someone says something I don’t agree with, not only does my mind say no, my body physically rejects it first. Another thing I learned is that I am far more attracted to the path of least resistance. I like the idea that I can make small changes in my personal lifestyle to make a difference in the health of the planet far more than the daunting idea of needing to delve into the frustrations of our country’s divided government in order to make a change to the way I effect the earth.
