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What Being a Personal Trainer Taught Me About the Body

Yup, when I lived in Sydney, I was a personal trainer. I was a PT to support myself while I studied for a Master's in Religion at the University of Sydney.


As I began to learn about meditation, I incorporated it into my training, both with my clients and myself. I experimented with mindful movement in my own workouts and then began to teach mindful movement to my students, showing them how to move and exercise with awareness.


Using this approach, I taught myself and many people to be aware of the body and to deepen our awareness of the physical body. Why? Because, to be honest, I discovered that most of us simply were not aware of the body. We didn't know how to hold it, we didn't know how to move it, we didn't know how to feed it. I found this again and again, with hundreds of people, including me.


The Body is the Foundation for our Spiritual Work.

Why is being aware of our #body important if we have an interest in conscious living and meditation? Because the body is the foundation for our spiritual work. In the philosophy that I study and love, Kashmir #Shaivism, the body is an entry point to expanded awareness.


Exercise: Body Awareness Questions


Through physical movement, we can go deeper into the body and beyond it. Keeping this in mind, I find it's a good practice to ask the following questions when exercising or engaging in physical activity:

  1. How aware am I of my body?

  2. How can I be more aware of my body? 

  3. How is my posture? How am I sitting or standing? If I sit or stand with a bad posture to give myself temporary comfort, how long does that comfort last?

  4. How do I move?

  5. How do I exercise?

Asking these questions can lead us into a deeper understanding of our body and our relationship to it.


Next, I will expand on the topic of the body and share some pointers that will take us deeper into an awareness of the body and elevate our consciousness at the same time.

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