Meditating on your body

Nimue Brown

Oct 21

(Nimue)

There are a lot of meditations that will take you into your own body to some degree. It's very normal to start with a focus on your breathing as you settle and relax your body. I've put quite a few meditations in Druidry and Meditation that help a person experience their own body, relax and experience themselves in a spiritual way. I particularly like meditations that involve relating to the elements as they manifest in the body.

One of the things I've been trying recently, is meditating on my body as an ecosystem. We are composite beings, and a great deal of what's in us isn't human at all. We depend on friendly bacteria, especially in our guts. Wild yeast lives on us - and as I'm working with wild yeast for sourdough this has been particularly on my mind. Microscopic things live on our skin and in our hair. I haven't done a deep dive on the science side yet, but I think that would be a good way to add depth to this work.

I'm taking these meditations as a mix of contemplation and conversation. I settle, and I contemplate how much of me isn't biologically speaking me at all. I reflect on how I depend on my friendly bacteria, and I take time for gratitude. I've also started speaking to these beings who are within me and who are not me - in particular asking my gut residents what they would like, and what would make them happy.

I've always had a somewhat wonky digestive system. Some of that relates to the hypermobility and of course it's all been made worse by stress in the past. I also have a lot of ancestral issues around body shape, food, hunger and appetite - things that the women in my family have passed down through generations. Which is hardly unusual. Working on what lives in my gut is a way of exploring different relationships with my body and my ancestors.

I'm enjoying the process of contemplating my body in this way and trying to build my sense that my physical form is a community. I'm finding it a restful thing to investigate, and I'm also finding it joyful. It supports self-care and feeling comfortable in my own skin, along with all the tiny beings who are also (hopefully) comfortable in my skin.