Temple

The year has already moved into February, the month initiated by the second full moon of the year. Another cycle of traveling over white snowy mountains to the capital of Norway, a trip that takes me about 9 hours one way.

At the 5th session of the teacher training program at Northern Light Yoga, the theme was 'your body a temple'. This is a very relevant theme for this time we live in.

What does a temple represent to you? A place of safety? A place of beauty? Of worship, of adoration? And does it really represent how you see or treat your body? If you're completely honest, chances are that for most of us the answer won't be 100% yes.

And that's okay, you know. We're here to find our way home. To find it in ourselves. To go back to it to find it again. I didn't mean for that to sound easy. So let's start at the beginning.

Our bodies are born from the earth. Soil is formed from the rocks of the planet. Soil gives its elements to everything that grows above. Creating the perfect nutrition for humanity. You are literally built from the food your mother ate during pregnancy. And ever since, your cells are constantly regenerating using the building blocks you give yourself.

But the human mind invented packed lunch meat. And how to grow thousands of chickens that never see the light of day. How to extract pure sugars and oils and how to put them into everything. The mind figured out how to make it dependent on its own inventions.

The world became full of pseudo-food science. Promoting dairy and bashing naturally occurring flavonoids in the form of phytoestrogens, for some reason especially those in soy. And here I was, thinking everyone now knew that the genetically modified soy the rainforest is being cut down for is animal feed.

What do you think and why? Where do you get your information? Who generates your information and with what agenda?

The first cure is to work on the physical building blocks that you give your body.

In teacher training, we were tasked with focusing on the bodily systems. Digestive, nervous, endocrine, circulatory, etc. Do you know how your body works? How a million signals bounce around in continuous feedback loops and homeostasis regulation. The holistic nature of it, how everything is connected to everything.

As we moved further away from the earth, from our bodies into our minds, we forgot how to communicate with it and interpret its signals. How to feed it and how it works.

I can't help but think of the following wisdom again: "Stop trying to love, start trying to understand".

The second cure is to learn, understand and respect.

We are one with the earth. Our systems evolved directly from and with its rhythms and balance systems. Our pineal gland translates days and nights, summer and winter, to our brain. Do you have any idea how your glandular system is intertwined with itself and all other organs?

And don't get me started on the lunar cycle. Isn't it baffling how humanity manages to ignore something that is so in front of our faces? If our bodies aren't enough to show us our souls, then neither are nature's cycles.

We lost that rhythm. We lost the rituals and traditions that were born out of nature.

The third cure returns to the rhythm and cycles of the earth.

At the same time as we lost our connection with the earth and our bodies, we became obsessed with it. About how it looks and ages. Loving tightness and youth. A parade of flat stomachs. We've become obsessed with fitting into the mold. About how we can work the body like a machine.

The spiritual shadow of it is not much better. How the body is a meat suit, a meat prison for the beautiful soul. How "everything that matters is on the inside". As if your physical body is just a horrible genetic accident. Meaningless and powerless. A costume to throw away.

What if you knew that our body is a manifestation of our soul? A physical replica of what we have chosen to work with in this life? What if you knew that it talks to you all the time, giving you clues about what's going on with your spirit? Would you treat your suit differently? Do you see it with different eyes?

Those aspects of your spirit, the ones you took on life's wild ride, are condensed in your body. Owning it. It was never meant to be all roses and sunshine. Do you have a difficult relationship with your body? Do you not belong to society's body standards? Is it painful for you? Good. That means there's an amazing challenge ahead of us. The cliché is true. Find the beauty in the ugly. The absolute glory of life.

Dive in, relax into it. Soak it in. Your body will catch you; I promise.

The truth is in our bones, in our skin. It runs through our veins. Where does it hurt? Where are you uncomfortable? Your body is a child, born of the earth, shaped by your hands. Will you care about it? Will you listen to it? Will you listen to the immense intelligence at your fingertips?

In the temple we go to pray. And that prayer is us.

Written by Ellen Wild (Kundalini Yoga teacher in training 2022/2023)