body as scapegoat

[Sheryl Valentine]

Hi Friends,

A couple years ago as I was looking deeper at the whole weight/body/food issue I wrote a lot about it, and now, I am being prompted to return to those posts for my own healing.  I see that we can always go deeper.  I know that the problem with body/food/weight is really not about the body, the food or the weight, which is why I strive to go deeper.  This week I was prompted to return to this post on the body:

           In my job as a doctor of chiropractic, obviously I have frequent discussions with people about, guess what? Bodies! I am ever grateful for these opportunities to speak with people on a deeper more intimate level than in normal discourse as it has facilitated a greater understanding of all the issues we humans have with our bodies.

 

             Let’s take a look at the myriad of ways we focus on the body: Health, illness, obsessions about looking good, or about not looking good enough, aging, gender, skin color, sexuality, handicaps – clothing it, housing it, feeding it…the list goes on and on and on. 

           We identify with the body as being who we are.  In A Course in Miracles we are told that the ego (the false self) holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and yet it also hates the body, because it cannot accept it as good enough to be it’s home. 

            We can readily see how this is true.   If you feel that you can only be happy if your body looks or feels a certain way, then you are looking at it with the ego and you will most likely come to hate it.  But, when we learn to look at the body through the vision of Spirit Within, it becomes a learning device for the healing of our mind.

              In the past year or two, I have been looking deeper within at guilt and unworthiness.  Just as I recently wrote about how we can avoid looking at guilt through blaming others, in the same way, we can avoid looking at feelings of unworthiness when we project them onto the body as the source of these feelings.  Thus the body becomes a scapegoat for unworthiness, guilt, fear and judgment.

 

          Essentially, the plan for freedom is to seek healing where it is, within our mind.  The ego seeks to keep us out of our mind, and its primary way of doing this is with a focus on the body.  The body is the ego’s idol and such a great distraction!

 

            We fear looking within because we think we’re going to see a big snake pit.  Not so.  When we look within with the Light guiding us, we find that we are Light.  In the Course I am told that it is my task to seek and find within myself all the obstacles to the awareness of the Love that I am.   We must look within for the obstacles, not outside of us.

         I came across a message on Regina Dawn Akers website that was given to her from Holy Spirit called: “You like having the body to blame”.  This message so spoke to me in regard to what my Inner Teacher has been teaching me about looking at the feelings within.  Much of the message contains ideas that I already understand and have experienced, but where I felt spoken to directly was here:

 

            “I ask you to be willing to look at this belief in your unworthiness without the anesthesia of projecting it onto a body.  When you cannot blame the body (or other circumstances in your life), the pain of the unworthiness may go deeper than you know.  Be willing to feel this pain in order to learn it is not real.  It is only an experience of emotion, but behind the experience of emotion is a light that reminds you it isn’t true.  Invite the pain into your presence.  You do not want to avoid it any more.”

 

            As I read the part about inviting the pain into my presence, I felt a little fear about it, even though I also felt very ready and willing to look at it. As I had this thought of fear, immediately I was reminded of a passage from NTI Luke 8 that says (my emphasis):

 

            “Let all things serve the purpose of healing.  Do not avoid healing because you do not want to look at the pain of unworthiness and guilt.  We must look at it together if you are to be healed.  Do not be afraid.  I am with you, even now.  Stay with the process.” 

            Admittedly, a few times since then I found myself thinking, “I wonder how the pain is going to come up?  I wonder when it’s going to come up? I wonder what it’s going to look like? I hope it’s not a big drag!”  Each time those thoughts came up, I responded with willingness and trust that I am being healed now, I am not afraid, the light is with me now.  We invite the pain of unworthiness up, simply, so that we can see it and let it go. 

          

            So if you’re reading this today you too want to go deeper.  We might consciously think that we want to finally lose that weight, or get healthy or whatever, but underlying that wish is an unconscious desire to stay the way we are because, feeling not good enough because of our body keeps us from ever healing those feelings that lurk in our mind.

            So instead of focusing on what bodily thing you’d like to change, ask yourself, “What do I really want?” 

to know my Self as Love created it

unlimited and Free

            When I keep this purpose in the forefront of my mind, then I am united with the Love that I am, and thus my body can be used to simply extend Divine Love.  The truth is that God cannot love you through me, if I hate me.  And God cannot love me through you, if you hate you. 

            The body as used by the ego becomes an instrument of separation; when used by Spirit Within, it becomes an instrument for communion.  Let’s not judge ourselves for how we have used our bodies lovelessly, instead, let us be willing to do the inner work so that our bodies may be used by Love. 

            As you go about your life this week, be willing to look at the ways you may be using your body as a scapegoat for unworthiness, guilt and self-judgment.  And then be willing to ask Love to look at your body with you that it may be used for its real purpose – extending the Love that You Are.

[Tammey Barton]

thank you for share!  Make me think alot need that :) Have a Blessed Day!!

[nathalie carles]

I have to read this several times... my English shows a few limitations here...but I understand the overall.

On my way to read it again...thanks Sheryl!