Grounding by honoring the everyday needs of the body

    Yesterday I felt scattered with lots of loose ends...I was deluged in details and unable to complete anything. What was worse was every time I tried I felt pulled in a new direction and further from completing the tasks at hand. I felt equally powerless to coplete the tasks associated with deadlines coming up. Popular logic would suggest that when this happens we should put our nose to the ground and just power on through... This was certainly the reasoning I learned in school, from my parents and in many of the the jobs I've held.
    However I wonder what this sense of hurry does to the body and the spirit? I wonder If the body is telling us something when we are overwhelmed? Perhaps this is an opportunity to deeply listen and not an obstacle at all? Perhaps our body offers us the opportunity to set aside our to do list and instead listen to our innate needs for inner soothing and slowing down? I wonder what would happen if we got off the "Just get it done train" and listened to the wisdom of our symptoms instead of seeing them as something we must ignore or conversely, worry about?
    Seeing the symptom as a divine message as to the unmet needs of the body and the soul offers the opportunity to bring our hearts, souls and systems back into balance. Scatteredness by it's very definition suggests a need to slow down, focus and pay attention to simple activities that bring us joy and a connection with the five senses.
    I remember years ago when I was finishing my graduate program and coming upon the deadline for the first draft of my thesis. That morning I woke up and had intended to power through on a self-imposed deadline and, "Just get her done!" I was restless, unfocused and frustrated with the deadline and the amount of work I had heaped upon myself. Instead I found myself looking at pie recipes. That day I made coconut buttermilk struessel, 3 berry with crumbtop and chocolate orange cream silk.
My self-recrimination could have stopped there but I had grown up in a family where the expanded definition of responsibility ran deep and spontaneity and ingenuity were most often undervalued. So were listening to the needs of the body. I beat myself up for my procrastination further in an endless unconscious loop. I demeaned myself for doing something so fool hardy. Then I got the brilliant idea of speaking with several of my friends in the same program. The two I spoke too, when I was able to admit to them I had ignored my work said, "Maybe making pie was exactly what you needed to get to the point where you were ready to sit down and write? Do you feel more ready now?" I had to admit I felt more settled inside and less restless. The other one just said, " That's brilliant! "  After a night of sharing the pie with dear friends I felt more whole and calmed down inside.
    The next morning I was then able to sit down and write out all the qualities I wanted this draft of my thesis to have. I wrote them on a list in descending order and imagined my thesis embodying each one of them. Then I sat down and wrote veraciously for about a day and a half with these qualities as my diamond shining crystal clear end goal. Each quality represented a facet that added refinement to the overall clarity. Although I dug a deep well the day before I was able to catch myself quickly. So If something isn't sticking for you let it go....It may not be the right time to complete it. There is brilliance and opportunity in the moment beyond this one too. Honor the internal symptoms as rythms of your spirit. Let your body play and your heart open. Make pie or whatever task your body is drawn to do! Then return later, refreshed, and renewed with the inner clarity of the task and your ingenious brilliance intact!

    What have you let go of and returned to with a new awareness genius and clarity recently? I'd love to know! 

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