Several years ago I was with a friend and we were talking about some issues she was having with her boyfriend at the time. She was telling me how she wanted to be closer to him and was describing a scene where he was lovingly moving toward her. As she spoke, her arms raised up in a pushing position and her body started moving away (from the imagined partner). All the while, she continued talking about how much she wanted affection and closeness with this person
I told her to pause for a moment and notice what her body was communicating to her about this
There is often a split between what we think we should want (need, feel, etc) and what the body expresses
Now, does this mean she should break up with the boyfriend because of how her body is responding? No. It may or may not even be about that situation. But what it is showing us clearly is that something else is going on that is asking to be looked at
Every animal has inborn physiological responses that tell a story. But because we only give credence to the mind, we don’t take it as information, we don’t take it as relevant, we don’t take it as intelligence, we don’t take it into consideration at all
And because of that, we expend MORE energy talking ourselves out of what our bodies are showing us than we do being present with and curious about what is really there
So as an experiment today, take the body into account, and notice what else it may be showing you, not as a determinant, but as another channel of knowledge