Defining the “Healthy” Body
By Evelyne Noel
I propose that a healthy body is simply a responsive one. It is an adaptive system that moves us towards harmony. If the system moves in that direction, then we love it for fulfilling its function.
My body was impeccably healthy until I flipped off the bike and landed sit bones first on the sidewalk, creating immobilizing compression in the sacral area. At that point, did the body become unhealthy? If so, then I just moved myself into a place of lack.
Or…
I turn to the body from a witness point of view, and compassion flows as it would towards anyone who is hurt. From the compassion emerges care: ice and then days of warmth, rest, stretching, Tigers Balm.
I can’t bend forward or roll up, so I connive other ways to get vertical. Mostly though, I start to see the immense work the body is doing to respond to the injury. I feel both sides of the sacrum (one is more bruised than the other) reaching one to the other in the memory of harmony. The yogi’s spine yearns for the length it once had and tentatively reaches for it.
I go to the Level 2 TriYoga Teacher Training weekend, knowing that all poses will elude me. So, I reach for a therapeutics practice, with an ear out for the Level 2 teachings. Hours of it. In the stillness of that practice, the subtle body is allowed room to move forward, claim its role. It flows freely, intelligent in the paths it chooses and it seems…I have a new friend roaming around.
In this accident, there was never a loss of anything. The body remained vibrant in its adaptive desire to heal. There was no “unhealthy” or “healthy”, just a different manifestation of what it means to live.
All was always well, all is well and yes, I will ride a bit more carefully!
Evelyne Noel has traveled extensively and now explores the wilds around her home in Highland Lakes, N.J. on foot, bike or boat. A retired educator, she devotes her services to three grandsons. She cherishes the garden, her watercolors and the sweetness of friendships.