Your body is a compass, at least some of the time. 

Can you remember the magic of watching the needle of a compass find North for the first time? For me this opened a whole world of curiosity about the forces of nature.

Your body is a compass, at least some of the time.

When I lose my bearings, it’s challenging to discern even the simplest thing, like “does my body want this food right now?” It’s frustrating when I can’t access discernment, and the fallout can be costly in so many ways. That thing that happens when we ignore our intuition or gut response. I know you’ve been there.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to explore how to orient in space and time. one step at a time. We’re rebuilding something, and it’s easier than you think.

In my office and “Flow School” online, we orient to “True North” first. In Osteopathy we talk about the “Midline”, which orients the “needle” of our body compass, a reference axis of the interplay of structure and function. That may sound complicated. It’s not.

They would often have no idea what I was talking about, and they could feel it anyway.

I’ve had hundreds of really smart medical students in my office over the years. Most had never heard of “Midline,” and every one of them, every one, was able to feel “it” on the first day.

I didn’t expect this. Recalling their looks of wonder in those moments reminds of that first time I watched the needle of a compass find North.

I knew they weren’t pretending because their learning and the healing work would take off like a rocket. The consensus is “students are work”. From the day I figured out “midline first,” taking students made my job a breeze, and instead of tolerating trainees, my patients were disappointed when there wasn’t one.

I would ask the students, and often the patients, to imagine an infinite line of current from their heart into the ground, through the planet and beyond.

Once they could feel that, I’d ask them to run another current from their heart through their crown infinitely above.

They would often have no idea what I was talking about, and they could feel it anyway. That’s when meaningful learning would begin. The kind that comes in deeper than the mind. That kind that comes in to the body, where we can access a depth of wisdom the mind simply doesn’t have.

Often I lighten things up with humor. Humor accelerates learning, tons of research on that. “If I told you we’re going to “Osteopathic Hogwarts” (Harry Potter’s magic school), would that be exciting or concerning?

Not everyone has an answer to that a question right away. People touch into their deeper knowing at their own pace. Regardless, within a month or so of practice, both “givers” and “receivers” of embodied attention remember how to engage meaningfully with the forces or healing in themselves and others.

Let’s start with this piece.

Connect with your heart, and feel your midline extend infinitely below and above. If you’re lost, feel free to “cheat”—go out and hug a tree. All’s fair in love and Flow!

What do you feel? Perhaps your weight feels like it’s anchoring into the ground. Perhaps you feel a sense of rising. Or both.

Do you sense a new awareness of your breath, or your heart? Perhaps one foot is beginning to tingle.

When you sense into your midline and feel your body respond, allow your awareness to softly include the space around you, perhaps to the horizon.

The sensations that come when we arrive in present time and space are never the same twice.

Perhaps you’re feeling forces within you reorganize. Shift. Settle. When our attention spans effortlessly between our bodies and the expanse of nature, we learn — and heal — as nature intended.

Here’s a gorgeous share from our study group on the healing power of harmonizing with the forces of nature: 

“I am an ophthalmologist. I’ve had scoliosis since I was a child, and the scoliosis is resolving. It’s amazing to me, at my age, that it’s happening. I’m feeling taller . . . I think the scoliosis was affecting my height. I just want to thank everyone that this is possible, through the whole systems of fluid, midline, dynamics. Thank you, everyone.”

Allow yourself not to “know.” Allow yourself to feel, be curious, and surprised