Our sacred miraculous essential bodies… Teacher and performer, Nina Wise shares in her book, A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life: “If we are to fully know freedom, we must find that freedom not only in the mind but also in the body, the house of our being. The physical body is our medium for connecting the sacred and the profane, the transcendent and the ordinary, a medium for giving expression to our essential nature which is unencumbered and open and zesty.” Yes, we are “ZESTY”!
Often when traveling we notice people and their bodies, perhaps judging a little too quickly or conversely intimidated
by a stranger’s beauty. According to the online website, Whimn’s, “The average weight of people the world over is 62kg ( lbs).” Citizens from the United States, Germany, Canada, England, Russia and Australia are higher than the average weight scale while “Asia contains 61 percent of the world’s people … but only 13 percent of the world’s weight.” In some countries, including Tonga and Micronesia, largess is celebrated while Bangladesh is the “lightest country in the world – with the average weight of both men and women being just 49.59kg.*” Bangladesh is not alone. Many countries throughout the world suffer high infant mortality from malnutrition, inadequate diet and lack of water.

In “ developed” nations we take abundance for granted. Even despite athleticism, exercise, knowledge, access and lots of talk
about a proper diet, we make unhealthy choices for our bodies. Without adequate sustenance or care we expect our physical selves to go along with us, sitting for hours on end and then demanding reliable movement from point A to B. We presume cooperation regardless of treatment!

Further the Search Inside Yourself Institute in its 2-Day workshop curriculum suggests from scientific research that our
“emotions manifest as physiological sensations…emotions many times happen before our thinking brain is fully aware of what’s happening, (affecting) our behavior (and decision making).”
Feeling battered from emotions and unawares in our bodies, we “ flip our lids”.
Travel and daily life can arrest routines and often we return home having lost a sense of rhythm with our bodies. Sound familiar? How might we recover back to our core, wherever life takes us?
Here are a few suggestions for finding our ZESTY selves through mindful bodily care:
Begin Anywhere…when out of sync and feeling unwell, sluggish etc… start gently again with a movement routine, whatever it’s been in the past. Just begin, without recrimination, in small bursts, gently and kindly. Get back to the yoga class, walking the dogs or other work outs. Walk around the block at lunch. Just move and keeping moving. Begin.
Simplify diets for a few days or more. Often when in a new place we’re ingesting unfamiliar food parings and ingredients. Eating is part of the adventure (grasshoppers, anyone?) Yet, once home stomachs are out of balance. Get back to the basics. Root out “bad” bacteria picked up on the road. Cut out overindulgence, sugar. Drink water (some people like to add a lemon slice) Savor every bite in our mouths. Slow the pace at mealtime and give our bodies time to recover with less. Feeling better will become an easy motivator.
Stretch Although “Restorative” work-outs get a bad wrap, the benefits of stretching are wondrous, astonishing. Google “stretching routines”. For the quickest recovery, stretch often and at least twice a day. Seriously, regardless of athletic abilities, everyone can stretch. Consider stretching an easy way to pause, a daily practice.

Thank you again to Nina Wise who said, ““Fortunately we can find our way back to the body without undue effort, and through our recovery of the grace inherent in the body, we lay the groundwork for grace in the way we walk, and exercise, and talk, and make love, and sing and party and meditate.”.
Recovery, dancing back to our bodies, is always within reach.
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*https://www.kidspot.com.au/health/wellbeing/health-galleries/the-average-weight-of-women-from-around-the-world/image-gallery/53abb4c60ab05aac7d83ee8196ef3b3e?image=9