Like the sky holds the sun
Powerful, magnetic, centralising, universal, warm, vital and energetic. The sun has been endlessly mythologised in folk tales, spiritual and cultural history. Stories of the sun are woven into what it means to experience life on the earth. The rhythm of our life is quite literally written around our circumnavigation of it.
The sun of the body, for me, feels like the heart. It is the organisational centre of the circulatory system, it has its own magnetic field, which can be sensed from beyond the body itself, and it is a source of inner warmth and emotional intelligence. That’s why we talk of loving and being loved from the heart.
Embryologically, the heart is the first vital organ to develop from the mesoderm, or middle layer of the embryo. The head then develops from this same cellular layer. In the womb, we all grew in the shape of flexion with the head nodding inwards towards the heart. We have always looked to the heart to see ourselves.
Much like the way the sun is always, always held by the vastness of the sky, the heart beats within the context of the broader body, and of course could not exist without it.
When we drop into the felt sense of the heart it’s an invitation to experience the universal essence of awareness itself. When we feel through the head alone, we understandably experience ourselves through stories or identities, referred to as vikaplas. These stories subconsciously become like clouds so thick that with time, we forget how it felt to see with the brightness of the sun's rays.
Our practice is a parting of the clouds so as to remember the sun that was always there. In these moments there is a clarity. Sights, sounds and smells can appear in heightened sensitivity and the everyday can become exceptionally beautiful. On sunny days, meditate on the warmth of the skin, the way the light touches life and observe the natural world in its most effulgent state.
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I’ll be sharing sun and heart based practices throughout June. Come practice at Victoria Park Pilates every Sunday at 10am or online every Friday from 7.30am.