Joe's World

In spiritual quests, at least for me in the past, when something “goes wrong”, I would find myself doubting and even getting angry at God.  That has changed greatly since practicing Tai-Chi on a serious level.

For the last few weeks, I have had a tender knee.  In the past , I would have been mad about that , thinking from a spiritual perspective that my body should  be without pain, or should heal extremely fast. It would be my measure of  how spiritual I had become. So in the past I would be feeling unhappy about my injuries, never noticing how miraculous my body is.  Think about it, broken bones heal, wounds stop bleeding, etc.  How wonderful our bodies are.  I never realized how full my life can be no matter what the state my body is in.

From practicing Tai-Chi, I have developed a great respect and trust for my body that is undeniable and filled with joy.  I am using my tender knee to learn more about my body.  I have discovered that my quadriceps and hamstrings are more than one muscle.  I have seen how the knee interacts with the rest of my leg, pelvis, etc.  I have not had to curtail my study and I am enjoying and appreciating my body in new ways.  In fact, my skills are increasing due to my injuries.

And the best part is that as my knee heals, it is working better than ever.  And as my knee heals, the rest of my body works better.  The great thing about learning about your body is that you can have confidence that with proper care, which is actually fun to do, you don't have to give up your youthfulness. 

I am not advocating getting injured to learn, but in life when things don't go as you want, we have a choice about how we will deal with it.  When you can create a loving relationship with your body, you can expand that to all parts of your life.  You can see the magic of a loving spirit right here on earth.  Just because things aren't the way you think they should be doesn't mean that you can't be “unreasonably happy” as my teacher, Sang, says.

What kind of relationship do you have with your body?  How does that parallel with the rest of your life?  How does that map to your spiritual life?  Have fun noticing.