The body is our home for life. We live in it every moment yet most of us live in a disembodied state, rarely thinking about our body unless something is going wrong, unless we’re experiencing some kind of pain or physical dysfunction. And, maybe also when we’re dressing it, or thinking about how we’d like to change it.

But when you live with chronic illness or pain, it’s as if the body turns up the volume and regardless of whether you want to or not, you’re forced to live in a heightened awareness of the body you live in. You’re forced to live in direct relationship with it, and this relationship can be just as complicated as any other—you might experience anger, frustration, power struggles, days or moments when things are less difficult, and days when you feel more accepting towards its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. You might struggle with feeling like the communication is “off” between you and your body, like you can’t understand it and like it can’t hear you when you tell it you need a break from the pain or want to understand what’s going on with it.

Because that experience can often be overwhelming, one of the most common body experiences of people living with chronic illness is the feeling of disconnection from the body altogether. You separate from it to distance from the pain because living in an embodied state feels like going deeper into pain that you’d instinctively rather not even feel to begin with. This is even more complicated if you also live in a visible bodily identity that is not valued or protected within your society or culture.

Trauma also separates us from connection to the body. The overwhelming experience gets walled off into parts of the body, areas which go “offline” as a protective mechanism. Trauma disconnects us from ourselves, from others, from the world around us, and from the present moment. To recover, we must return to the body, in the way that works best for us—and with compassionate, gentle timing and expectations.

Embodiment is being connected mind to body. It’s a different state of awareness: living in the state of mind-body connection, rather than living from the head and ignoring the body. It’s being grounded into the felt sense of the body, into its constant communication with you. It’s remembering, and living based on the knowing, that you are not just your mind but a whole body system, one that carries wisdom.

Reiki and somatic healing are embodiment practices for me. They lead me into the state of being, sensing, feeling, awareness, and inner receiving. With Reiki self-practice, I place my hands on my body according to Reiki treatment protocols or by just following my intuition, and I experience connection with my body-self.

I started practicing Reiki when I was lost in undiagnosed chronic illness, burdened with constant pain and exhausted from seeking answers and not getting help. Reiki offered me a way to safely tune into my body, feel compassion for it, and ultimately, feel gratitude. I would do my Reiki self-practice and laying my hands on my heart or belly or head, I would notice as my breath lengthened and deepened, tension lessened, pain would decrease, and I might even start to feel sleepy. Reiki relaxes the body and mind. Over time, I came to experience my body as a safe home despite the pain I was experiencing.

Somatic healing also helps me remember my body home, connecting me to it in direct conversation. Through this practice I explore the body as a holder of wisdom and truth, and as the keeper of all of my emotions, experiences, stories, and knowing. Somatic healing shows me that the body does indeed speak and that in developing an ongoing relationship with it, I can shift so many long-held “issues in my tissues.” As a compassionate, gentle approach, somatic healing leads me into a steady acceptance and kindness with myself, which has done far more for me than judgment or self-criticism.

Both Reiki and somatic healing have led me into a deep appreciation for my body. Through embodiment practice, we can come to have a loving relationship with our body even if we live with pain or illness or struggle with our relationship to our body in some other way. When you witness how much the body is for you, and how it holds the divine light and wisdom that is within you, it changes your relationship to it. You no longer want to live from the top-down. You want to be grounded always in this way of being, in connectedness and in appreciation for this temple, this sacred container we’ve been given to experience life in.

What is your relationship to your body?