Practice Happens in Our Bodies!

"Our bodies are always talking to us, trying to get our attention. Our work is to unfold, to listen, and to claim the truth about our beautiful, storied bodies." - Ellie Roscher

With this blog post I’ve blogged every month for a whole year! Yay! I think I can call myself a blogger now, it’s a habit that’s part of me and who I am. Last year at this time I wasn’t sure it was possible and here we are. Yes, these posts get mostly written the last day of each month and yet they get written! Yes, there are times when I wonder what I’m going to say up until the very moment I start writing and yet my words emerge as I sit at my computer and type. It’s a habit and a practice that I’ve been nurturing, it’s been a slow burn. Here’s what I know about this practice so far. It’s available to me when I’ve gotten present, when I’ve started to notice what’s bubbling up for the topic of the month – I’ve turned the light of awareness onto what wants to come out right now. It’s available to me when I’ve given myself some grace, even as my judge is telling me it’s too late, I’ll never finish and really who’s reading these posts anyway?! 😉 It’s available to me when I give myself some space in my day to just BE and I honor that space as part of the process. It’s available to me when I choose it! It’s easy for me to get lulled into the next thing on the list that’s easier to do than a blog post. And then I remember, I’m a blogger, I blog every month and I choose to write. These are the inner layers of my leading from the inside out framework along with some space in between and my choosing! These elements support my writing practice.

And this has me thinking about practice, the next layer of leading from the inside out. Practice is a word that I hear often in many different contexts. “I need to practice.” Or “I don’t want to practice.” (the mantra when the kids were in music or sometimes even sports).

Or "Practice makes perfect (or progress)." Or “It’s a practice.” Interestingly these first three phrases are about what we believe or feel about practice. And the final phrase (which is newer to me) “It’s a practice” is a defining statement, it's an acknowledgement of the journey we are on. So what is practice or a practice? Richard Strozzi Heckler, author of the TransformAble book of the month, The Leadership Dojo, reminds us “The body is incapable of not practicing. And what we practice we become.” Three pieces here, practice is happening in our bodies, we are ALWAYS practicing something, and what we practice we become!
 
So let's untangle these threads. First, practice is embodied – yes, we can think through what we want to practice in our minds, even visualize this practice AND YET practice happens when we act through our bodies. The body is key here. The body being key is not something that I ever thought of up until a few years ago. Ironically I wasn’t thinking about my body even as my body was intimately involved in my daily life as a mom. I spent over four years (less a few months) either pregnant or nursing my sons. Then I had a few years off and did it again for another almost two years with my daughter. And back then if you had asked me about my body, I would have said that it’s something that carries my head around – that’s why it matters to me – my body makes sure that my all-important brain is available to me wherever I’m at. Oh and by the way, I wouldn’t mind, let’s get real, I would like very much, if this body was about __ number of pounds lighter (the number depends on the year, month, day). Now with my Presence-Based Coaching training I understand, although I do still forget often, that what happens below my neck actually matters. And my body has much more of a role in how I show up, how I feel, and who I am than I ever realized. When I’m grounded and centered in my body, that’s when I am my most clear and connected self. This is how we tap into our authentic selves and our true leadership, it happens through embodied practice.
 
That brings me to the second thread, we are ALWAYS practicing. Our bodies are practicing something every moment. Of course this is true, our bodies are always with us and we act from our bodies in the world. The thing is I’m not always with my body – I am often ignoring it, or worse berating it. So the practice is happening and I’m not fully in it. I’m out to lunch, I’m in the future or the past. Then there’s that final thread, we become what we practice! Am I practicing what (and who) I want to become? Sometimes … today I’m practicing being a blogger and even a writer and that’s definitely who I want to become. And other times, not so much, I practice ignoring my needs (body, mind, and heart) or I practice resisting rather than being with what is. I practice disregarding the data that I have available to me in my own body – the feeling in the pit of my stomach when something doesn't feel right or the lightness I feel in my chest and heart when it does. Lots of practice happening all the time for me and it comes back to this question “is what I’m practicing who I want to become?” There it is, the reminder that who I'm becoming is happening in me wholly, not just my head or my heart, but my head, heart, and body. When we embody who we want to become we unfold into who we are meant to be. This is what practice is, it's an unfolding and a becoming. Wondering about your practices and who you want to become? Let's connect.