by Frolic Taylor
“In our body is our life journey – a record of all that we have seen and done. In our cells are the memories of all our joys and heartbreaks and all of our errors and deep wisdom.”
Seven years ago, I attended Ron Pevny’s Conscious Eldering retreat held in central New York and so began a profound journey – difficult but infinitely rewarding – into the depths of my mind, body, heart and spirit. Today, I am a 74-year-old woman filled with acknowledgement of, and gratitude for my gifts, clarity about my highest values, and a passion to share my BodyWisdomTM seminar with my fellow elders.
When, in later life, a desire to be of service arises, we want and need our body to have the alive energy to implement our intentions. In order to have that aliveness as an aging person, I have discovered that we must summon the courage to completely “befriend” our body. Primarily this involves a willingness to retrieve memories and enter into a deeply truthful relationship with our physicality in present time. Very likely in the past, our modus operandi has been to “tough it out” or cut it out, or to just “get over” our wounds and “get on” with life.
However, scientific studies at Harvard and Tufts Universities have proven that our body stores – in its very cells – unexpressed emotions. They may be grief or fear, anger, guilt or unfulfilled longings but they also include suppressed feelings of wonderment, arousal, love, joy, and peace.
In my personal journey I found it necessary to release adversarial attitudes that I felt toward previously damaged parts, and embrace my past traumas – including an abortion, being fired from a job I loved, and a rape. Miraculously I learned that my body yearned to be connected with my heart’s experience! When I did that, I could actually feel a beautiful healing begin. Slowly but surely, my abandoned and/or neglected body parts came to feel accepted, understood, appreciated, and cared for. Ultimately over time, my body has become my beloved.
It is inevitable that just in the process of living multiple decades, we experience trauma, illness, surgery, bad sex, loss etc. But Deepak Chopra in his brilliant book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind taught me that “Our bodies are composed of energy and information…[they are] an outcropping of infinite fields spanning the universe…The biochemistry of the body is a product of awareness…[and] awareness is curative…you [can] create your body in new forms.”
As a teen, my back pain was explained by an x-ray that showed I had an extra lumbar vertebra partially fused to my sacrum. In my 40’s, I developed a uterine fibroid tumor the size of an orange and in my 50’s, came the onset of high blood pressure. Three years after attending my Conscious Eldering retreat, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a harsh wake up call but a messenger that I must nurture a keen relationship with my aging body. Its history could easily be a burden in realizing my elder-life dreams.
However by employing the following techniques five years ago, and at various times in the last 30 years, I have restored my body to strength, flexibility and freedom from pain. How? By practicing yoga poses, directing breath and vocal resonance to my seven electromagnetic fields (my own invention – I call it the Chakra-Tune Technique(TM ), guided visualization, journaling that includes the flow of automatic writing, investigating my family’s legacy burdens, studying two books -The Radiance Sutras and Wheels of Life, receiving deep tissue work and acupuncture, following light affinity, learning movement re-education, self-massage, mindful eating of life- giving food, body mapping, basking in mother nature, and performing self-designed healing ceremonies. They were and are all methods for good “stewardship” of my body.
Today, my precious physical hostess trusts that I am devoted to an enduring partnership of my mind, body, heart and spirit – till death do us part. This was the last piece I needed to complete my conscious eldering puzzle. I am now blessed with a balanced body pulsating with alive energy enabling me to implement my purposes for the last chapter(s) of my life.
I wish the same for you!
Frolic Taylor has been a teacher/guide/facilitator/leader/educator for 40+ years. She has designed a unique “Body Wisdom (TM) course grounded in the wisdom she shares in this article. She can be reached at froltay@aol.com
