How to Use the Body While You Think It’s You
How to Use the Body While You Think It’s You was originally a workshop which I gave at the “Who Are You Really?” Course in Miracles conference in Cleveland, Ohio in 2012. Little by little, it has grown into a library of articles, essays, video, a Facebook page and other stuff (as it keeps growing).
The topics (see list below) include how to use the body to practice forgiveness, facing fears about death, not having to have perfect body health to spiritually awaken, how falling apart can be the best thing you can do, and more.
Here are some tantalizing quotes about the body from A Course in Miracles:
“And you have done a stranger thing than you yet realize. You have displaced your guilt to your body from your mind.” ~T-18.VI.2:5-6
But luckily, ” … the body is a learning device for the mind.” ~T-2.IV.3:1
So, “The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put.” ~T-8.VII.4:3
Reassuringly, “Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly.” ~T-8.VIII.9:8
Last but not least, “The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.” ~W-5. What Is the Body?
Topic List:
The Purpose of the Body (essay) and The Purpose of the Body (video)
Death Is Just A Belief (essay) and A Happy Conversation About Death – Interview with Jon Mundy (video)
Body Health Is Not a Measurement of Unfolding
The Spark Is Still As Pure As the Great Light
A Course in Miracles and Body Image (Facebook page)
A Better Way to Say, “I Miss You”
This Is the Best Moment Of Your Life
Ask Amy: Forgiveness – Am I Doing It Right?
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ACIMBodyImage/
Living the Language of Love, Harmony & Beauty (work-in-progress)
ACIM teaches us that the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the body is to use it as a vehicle for learning, as a communication device. After many years of working with the Course, the body feels less like “me” and more like a beloved car–a great vehicle in which to get around; a “thing” that I do my best to treat well and maintenance regularly.
In my personal curriculum, yoga has been one way the Holy Spirit has reached my mind through the classroom of my body. Through my personal trials and tribulations with the body, I have tried all kinds of alternative healing.
On the physical side, there’s been cranio-sacral therapy, myofascial release, visceral manipulation, Feldenkrais, every kind of massage you can name (yes, I’m a massage junkie). Body-oriented psychotherapy has included what I call expressive-release work (see bioenergetics based on Wilhelm Reich’s work, emotional somatic healing, and EMDR (uses eye movement).
Spiritually there’s been qi gong, tai chi, Afro-Cuban motion, belly dance, Indonesian latihan, EFT and much more.
How to Use the Body While You Think It’s You is a fascinating subject, especially since the Course tells us the body isn’t even real. But while we identify with the body, happily there is a way to use it for true healing, miracles, and the Holy Spirit’s pure loving purpose. I call this practical mysticism and embodied spirituality.
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