I'm Really in My Body

The Value:

One of the values I've earned from journaling is that I am really in my body.

This means being fully aware of all of the pains, all the pleasures, the boredom, uncertainties, clumsiness, brightness, fears, hope, love, etc. and also recognizing the tension and relationships between them.

It is recognizing I have a mind, a body, a spirt, and I'm the observer of all of it. I'm also the villain, the hero, the victim, and the perpetrator.

It's coming out of autopilot to make decisions, (both smart ones and arguably dumb ones) with full awareness and acceptance of consequences.

It is being the author of my world and the character at the same time.

The Story:

There's no individual story or event that made me earn this value. A system of somatic awareness developed naturally throughout my journaling practice. I did not create it intentionally.

I did not pick up my journal thinking "I'm going to use this tool to get more in my body".

This was purely incidental because journaling requires reflection (you already knew that).

I think the operative for me was anticipation.

See, I didn't just reflect on the journal and let it be. I often wondered, randomly, what I might end up reflecting on later.

Sometimes the reverse would happen. I'd notice that what I'm experiencing reminds me of something I wrote in my journal in the past.

This is being prepared for the feelings ahead.

Now, these anticipations and reflections were not 1:1, they were abstract and rooted in the principle.

For example, hanging out with friends and family triggers a sense of gratitude and joy in general , a feeling which I embody and pay attention to. That feeling in turn connects me to other moments that triggered that same feeling. It's not friends-to-friends (1:1) it's concept-to-concept.

The cycle of anticipation and reflection puts me in my body. Practicing doing that over and over naturally will make you more aware. You'll learn your feeling patterns, make categories, and come to understand how you feel across different themes and environments. It's like driving. You don't see the same exact people all the time, you encounter new roads, construction, etc. It's always different, but somehow always the same.

You've seen enough to extract recurring themes so you know what to expect and how to navigate "new" situations because you've compiled all you've experience before.