December 12 Prompt: Body integration. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn't mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present? (Author: Patrick Reynolds)
Ugh. I like this project, but I don't like this question. I feel like me. I am a cohesive me almost all of the time. Grounded in my body. It may be a body that I'd like to change. It isn't perfect. It could use more exercise and more green vegetables and fewer french fries, and more frequent teeth cleanings. Seriously, it's been awhile. But it's mine. It serves me well and thinking about it as something separate from my mind is just strange for me. I don't feel like a separate body. A couple of weeks ago I twisted my knee doing yard work and it was frustrating. I felt old, slightly gimpy. But I went about my business. I bitched about it a couple of times to Joe. After about two weeks, it's pretty much back to normal. It was irritating that my body couldn't do exactly what I needed it to, but it's me. It's all me. I'm lucky to be healthy and I can respect the fact that people with serious health problems may not feel grounded in their own flesh and bone, but I don't feel that way. I should treat my physical self better than I do, and I'm working on that. I simply don't have much to say on this topic. For once. Will I feel differently when I'm 70? Probably.
So I open the floor up to you, readers. Do you feel connected to your body? Or does it betray and irritate you? Or does this question seem kind of silly to you too?
3 comments:
I wasn't sure I understood the question correctly, so I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who struggled with this question- in fact my answer is still a draft post. lol
I don't feel connected in my body because I'm always in my head (more on that in my response to this post: http://tinyurl.com/25lk7jh).
I definitely feel you on having trouble with this prompt, as well as several others. I think the point of it all is to just keep going--write what you think, even if it's not what the "expected" response is. I know that I've deviated from the prompts several times, feeling like I was going to disappoint or offend someone, and instead, I found community by expressing my objection, and still benefited from it as a writing exercise.
It's amazing that you constantly feel a bodily integration. I'm jealous.
I feel the same as you most of the time, I think...but I definitely noticed both times I was pregnant that I felt even more so. If that makes sense.
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