As we finished our early morning walk and stepped through the door, I was telling Chuck that my blog today was going to be about talking to the body in a soft manner, because the body likes to be talked to in this way; it responds to softness rather than hardness. Within seconds Chuck called excitedly. He had just opened the great master yogi B. K. S. Iyengar’s book Light on Life to the following paragraph: “When there is softness in the body and lightness in the mind, the asana is correct. Hardness and heaviness mean the asana is wrong. Wherever there is tightness, the brain is overreacting, and you are caught and trapped there; so there is no freedom. Performance from the intellect of the heart, with lightness, firmness, and at the same time softness means it is a total stretch, total extension, and total expansion. Asana done from the brain makes one heavy and done from the heart makes one light.” With that synchronicity our day began!

I recently asked Jeanne/Saleph for advice on how to better connect with her when speaking for her in a channeling session. I had felt her to be far away. She responded that really all I needed to do was relax and let the words flow through me. She was telling me that a softened body and light mind, freed of worry and thought, were the key, just what Iyengar stressed in order for the energy of a yoga pose to flow through one.

Saleph’s answer got me thinking, not so much in a heady way, but I began to pay attention to my body, especially when I wanted something from it. I noticed that if I spoke gently to it, rather than in a commanding manner it immediately responded. Easily and without fighting back it gave me what I asked for. This, I thought, is the key to everything! This is the same thing that Iyengar discovered.

If we are energy then we must learn how to relate to ourselves as supple and flowing energy rather than as tough and rigid matter. We might think it’s important to be tough and rigid sometimes, but as Iyengar goes on to say: “When should an asana be soft and when should it be rigid? In motion the whole muscle should be like the petals of the flower, open and soft. Never be rigid in motion; only be rigid after you have acquired the position. A farmer ploughs a field and makes the ground soft, a yogi ploughs his nerves so they can germinate and make a better life. This practice of yoga is to remove weeds from the body so that the garden can grow. If the ground is too hard, what life can grow there? If the body is too stiff and the mind too rigid, what life can live?“

Synchronistically, this was the message from Saleph that percolated inside me all week. The body will not respond to harsh commands. It will, however, open like the petals of a flower if we relax, allowing energy to channel through us.

As I relaxed my body, my mind automatically followed suit and relaxed too. As I began to gently speak the following words, “Relax your body, relax your mind,” I noticed an immediate reaction—I got extremely calm. Aside from the physical relaxation that I sought, I noticed other things as I spoke differently to myself. As my mind relaxed and got out of the way I began to look and feel different. I noticed how much lighter I felt and how normal worry and stress released. Things that might have plagued me were suddenly not so important.

“Relax your body, relax your mind,” became the mantra of the week. I have used this mantra before to go into light self-hypnosis and I’ve always found it very effective, but this week I took Saleph’s suggestion to heart. I put the mantra to the test and watched what happened as I intentionally and repeatedly relaxed my body and mind throughout the week. In the softness of the suggestion, I began to experience how right she was. My energy flowed better and calmer. Even though I spent a great deal of the week around workmen doing some work at our house, the calmness in me flowed and the workmen responded in kind. It was a most energetically serene week, without incident or conflict; everything went perfectly.

I realized that the way we talk to our body really does effect how it talks back to us. If we are harsh to it, it will not budge. If we are rude to it, it will be sad. If we are disgusted with it, it will not change. If we are angry at it, it will not respond to us but turn its back and ignore us. On the contrary, if we ask it nicely and gently and lovingly to help us change it will be right there, ready to assist. We are energetic beings and energy is fluid, not rigid. As Saleph was letting me know, energy responds to softness.

I began to think that this relaxed and positive way of talking to the self could offer real help and good results in all kinds of issues. If I gently suggest to my body that I would like to lose a few pounds, will it respond in the affirmative? I think it will. If I set the intent to treat myself lovingly, will my body come to aid me in learning how to love myself? I think it will. If I want to let something new into my life, will simply talking about it gently with my body yield results? I think it will. I’ve already seen the results in my own body as I’ve gone through the week.

The synchronicity of Chuck randomly opening a book to exactly what I had spoken to him about a second before is part of the energetic flow of which we are all a part. I cannot deny that being in a flowing energetic state has brought good physical and mental results. In addition, it brings home in this morning’s synchronicity how connected we really are to the magic of the universe; how in fact we are it.

Saleph’s answer to me was perfect. The more relaxed I became and the more I spoke in gentle and loving tones to myself, my usual doubts and worries about my channeling process fell away and my body became soft and my mind became light. My body seemed really happy to immediately respond with good feelings. It even gave me good advice. It told me not to worry so much, that it knows exactly what to do; I just have to let it!

Perhaps my experiences of gently speaking to the body will be helpful. Why not give it a try too?

Sending love and gratitude,
Jan