Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Hello everyone and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host. And today we'll be talking about my body, my friend. I am hoping that we'll be approaching this in a way that's new for you, not the usual way we think about the our body. So if you've been watching the episodes, there is a fundamental spiritual principle that we keep on talking about. And the fundamental spiritual principle is that I am a soul. I am a soul. I am living consciousness. I am the living being that's living and using this body to express myself in the world. And so from a spiritual standpoint, the soul you could say, comes into a body or begins to use a body as a baby and uses the body throughout the life of the body, through childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age, and then the body goes back to the earth. Are we thinking about this the way it actually is? So let me ask that question first. If you're listening to this, see if you can quiet your mind a little as we talk about this, because this is the real spirituality. I am a spiritual being. I'm a soul. My nature is peace. I use this body. I either, you could say I come into a body or I have a body. I'm using this body to live my life as a human being. So let's check for a minute. Do we ever think about it that way? I'm gonna say probably not. The episodes up to this point, have been all about what's going on in the mind. How we think about things and how we can change the way we think about things. But now we're gonna talk about the way it actually is in terms of spiritual experience. So I am the soul. I'm using this body. So the title of this is My Body, my friend. And if you think about it, my body, I've been with this body since I came into the world in this birth right? I come in with the body and I'm with the body and the body's with me the whole time, what else does the body give me? So it gives me the ability to relate in time and space. It gives me the ability to express myself. It gives me the ability to give and take, right? To have experiences of interaction in the world. Okay, the physical body. Well, what else does the body give me? Body gives me. A nationality, a family, maybe whatever part I'm playing as part of the culture, maybe education, you know, gender, that's all given as part of the body. It's amazing, right? In reflection with this, my body, my friend, I'm not talking about this from a psychological standpoint, like okay, just. Let's just think positive about the body. I'm really take a moment and reflect what is the actual role of my body in my life. It is not only is the body essential for my life, but it's constantly giving me the opportunity to express myself, to experience myself, to have relationships and so forth. Some of the things that we think about with the body are related to the changes that the body goes through. Maybe there's illness, maybe, of course, even developmental changes like I've shared in the past. The body is getting older, you could say, reaching a certain stage where different transformations are beginning to happen and so forth. And so I've been thinking to myself, okay, that's what the body is doing. But I, the soul am still here. What kind of thoughts am I having about that? And I'm trying to work that out with the thoughts. Actually, it's pretty powerful to be able to distinguish out your thinking apart from what's going on with the body and everything else. So my body, my friend, so what is a friend? Friend is someone who's there for you in good times and bad, right? I know someone close to me was very sick one time, and they were having some negative thoughts about the body. They actually said something like, I feel like my body is betraying me. In other words, this person expected the body to be healthy when the body wasn't healthy. She felt like she was being betrayed. And so maybe some of you feel like that. Maybe when I say my body, my friend, maybe you're thinking this body is not my friend. I wanna say the basic principle is that the body is there for us. We can't be alive without it. The rest of it in terms of how the body works and whatever part of that is, you could say genetics. Part of it is lifestyle, part of it is. Just part of life. Things that things come up. Sometimes people get sick, sometimes people pass away at a young age. Sometimes there's accidents. Sometimes people lose limbs and all kinds of stuff that happen with the body. Sometimes there's mental problems, Alzheimer's and things like that. But from a spiritual standpoint, all those experiences can be there. But we also could have very positive, what I would say generally natural experiences with the body. So what I'd like to do now is have a short meditation on the body, on my body. And regardless of what you have been going through with the body, I am inviting you to sit and have this meditation. To try to get a pure, kind of a fundamental essenceful feeling about the body. So let's do that now. Sitting quietly. I, I notice how the body is sitting in the chair. I can feel the weight of my body in the chair. I bring my attention to my muscles and the posture, make sure that I feel the body is balanced, and I take a deep breath in. And exhale. And again, inhale and exhale, noticing how the body breathes. Inhale and exhale. Noticing that the body has many, many functions. That are functioning by themselves. The heart is beating, the lungs are breathing, the senses are working. Just relaxing and observing how the body is functioning right now. Maybe there is some discomfort. Maybe there's some thoughts, extra thoughts in my mind right now. Just notice the thoughts. Don't do anything about them. Just notice them. Recognize them as thoughts. And now gently bring your attention to the center of your forehead. And in your mind's eye, visualize a sparkling point of light, a sparkling star, a notice the star sparkling in the center of the forehead. And as I'm watching the Star, I say to myself, I am the star, the soul, the living, peaceful being pure awareness, living consciousness. And then I take a moment to think about my relationship with this body. The body has always been with me. The body has let me live. The body has. Allowed me to have relationships, experiences, pleasure, joy, body lets me interact with the elements of matter and I can express myself in the world. Just take a moment to recognize a little more clearly now how important my body is and perhaps have a moment of gratitude that whatever the body is going through. The body has its own timetable. It has its beginning, its middle, and its end that I, the soul, I'm eternal and I can observe the changes in the body and remain peaceful. Of course we have to do what we have to do, but internally I can remain peaceful and grateful and see the situation clearly. I, the soul, the living being, and here in time and space using a body, having an experience. And his body has been my closest companion, the gratitude for nature who gave me the body. Just take a moment and have your own, have interaction of your own feelings, your own thoughts about nature and about your body. Now gently begin to bring your attention back, back into yourself back. Bring your energy forward, waking up a little bit. Bring your fingers and toes to life. Move them around a little bit, take a deep breath, and exhale. Come into waking awareness now and we're back. So I hope you enjoyed that experience. It's good to remind ourselves. About the situation that we actually are in. We have a lot of different ideas and thoughts and fears and worries and obsessions maybe related to the body. We have a lot of information coming in and we're trying to navigate all of that, but from a spiritual perspective, it's a very simple essenceful relationship. So I hope that's given you a new perspective, something to think about and reflect on, and I'll leave it there. So remember, our slogan is Heal, empower, and Serve. And until next time, take care.
