Embodied Intelligence

The ease and joy of living our Embodied Intelligence
Kookaburras have been consistently showing up for me in the last few years. The first very significant meeting was with a Kookaburra in the garden who I was able to be with for what felt like a very long time, and actually got to stroke on the chest. They appear very often at a time when I am in my head, feeling stressed, and ‘working hard’. When a kookaburra visits I am always drawn to smile, to pause and breathe, and when I do I get the feeling I am connected to a bigger flow, that I don’t need to try so hard, I can lighten up and it feels as though my head, heart, and gut intelligence come into alignment and I immediately experience greater ease and feel more joyful.
There is a word in Sanskrit, Pratibha for which it is said there is no English equivalent, Pratibha is where logic and prayer meet, where science is not antatogistic to poetry and poetry is not antagonistic to science. It feels as though the kookaburra invites me into that experience. There has been research done on integrating our multiple intelligences (head, heart, and gut) and some steps (paraphrased here from Oka & Soosilu)
1. Shift out of stress response … the kookaburras help with this by inviting a smile (which is known to lower stress hormones and increase endorphins or feel good hormones BTW We often think of kids as happy and in the flow and they smile an average of 400 times a day cf the average adult smiles 20 times a day) and inviting fuller, slower breathing (this also shifts us out of stress response)
2. Pause and get a broader perspective
3. Connect with the body and felt sense
4. Line up head, heart, gut intelligences in greater congruence and live from there
Week 8 in our practice we will literally lined up these 3 centres of intelligence and it is my hope that it helps us reveal greater ease, trust, and joy along the way.