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I walked past this big billboard on the side of a hospital in Jersey City, NJ, USA just about every day for about 5 months. You’ll have to look closely to be able to read it. There are even more branches to look beyond if we want to really embody it.

Being healthy starts and ends inside the physical walls of our bodies. And if we find ourselves inside the walls of a hospital it often means we have neglected this. And if we truly believe that being healthy is found in here we may spend the rest of our lives looking and not finding.

What do you think?

Don’t you think being healthy starts long before you get inside a hospital? 

I remember one of my first times I walked this route it was pouring with rain, I had cotton sneakers (the only shoes I had at the time) and a truck came by and covered me from tip to toe in water! My feet, socks, shoes, everything was soaking wet! I was like a drowned freezing rat! I saw this scene so often in movies and now it happened to me!

Don’t get me wrong. I may have cursed (like a sailor!) but then something else kicked in. A gratitude to be feeling the rain. Feeling the cold. Feeling my emotions. Feeling my feet! FEELING! When we feel something and acknowledge it, it is like nourishing a line of communication from your body to you. And if you choose to ignore it or perhaps don’t know you are ignoring it, it starts to weaken the connection and communication lines, and ultimately your relationship with your own body. Imagine your body to be a small child seeking your help. Imagine how that child feels when you ignore them or silence them?

Taking medication that deals with symptoms is a form silencing the body and making the pain that you are feeling go away, without really feeling it or even acknowledging it. The same pain that is trying to tell you something important. Over time our body gives up trying to communicate and carries on existing in “airplane” mode with most of our incredible “apps” not functioning or dulled down.

We have a choice! You have a choice!

Imagine we treated our inner temple like we do when we arrive at someone else’s home. Or at a magnificent temple in India. We take off our shoes. We tread lightly. We are careful with our words. We listen. We show our respects. We focus on devotion. We are grateful. We are conscious. We are aware. We are alive.

What do you put inside your temple?

How do you speak within its walls?

What actions do you do inside your sacred space?

Hang on! If our body is communicating with us. Are we not the body? Who are we? Are we not all the same? From the same source? 

Where to look?

I’ll give you a clue. Close your eyes, otherwise you are sure to be looking in the wrong place!!

Namaste. The light in me sees the light in you. The same light that is inside us all.

Peace!

Bodhi

For those interested in a little personal update:

My chapter in Jersey City and New York City has just come to an end. I am now an 800hr certified Jivamukti teacher. It feels miraculous to have found my way here and to a truly wonderful teacher, friend, human. Thank you Austin. Thank you to you and Bobby, and everyone in the Jivamukti community in Jersey City and New York, and anyone else who has been part of my journey here. I feel beyond grateful! It’s been one of the most challenging, inspiring and insightful passages in my life. I know that home or the feeling of being home, has little to do with the place and much to do with the people you surround yourself with. I definitely felt home here and when I left knew it wouldn’t be for the last time.

I am so excited and grateful to share that I will be teaching at the Jivamukti Yoga centers in Barcelona, Luxembourg and Munich over the European summer. And will be assisting two wonderful teachers at a retreat in Crete in July. Flip this is like a living dream! Get in touch for more details! Would love to hear from you! Would love to see you!

I am in Barcelona for the month of May. Luxembourg for June, August and September. And Munich for the first half of July and Crete for the second half of July! Stoked to be celebrating my birthday in Crete! Come and join me! 

Oh and Austin and I are planning a yoga, meditation and safari holiday/ retreat in South Africa for the first quarter of 2020! Let me know if you are interested! You have gotta experience this guy! And the wonderful beings and teachings of South Africa. But most of all hopefully you will get to experience yourself a little more!  

10 Comments

  • Karen Bradley says:

    Congratulations Bodhi….you are amazing! Plus your journey forward will be totally amazing. All the best and lots of love from Australia x

    • Avatar photo barefootbeing says:

      Thank you so much for your support along the way! So much love for you! Have you done another Vipassana retreat?

  • Tarryn Munro says:

    It’s been a long-ass time since I’ve been able to read & reply.
    I’ve missed reading your blog.
    Reading this, and loving the post, I remembered that I forgot to take my chronic medication when my alarm went off earlier this morning.
    A horrible tasting syrup that I have to take!
    Then remembering (actually, how can I forget, I have another alarm for that too, this afternoon!) more chronic meds.
    I hate chronic medication, I hate medication full stop. But the last week has left me with anxiety as I feel strange and not myself, feeling the worst seizure come on (already experienced the jerks and absence seizures at work).
    I am still resentful that I have to live my life by more than my morning work alarm. But so far, I haven’t found the solution, not with MY condition.
    There are contributing factors of course, stress (find a job with no stress), lack of sleep (stop being an insomniac), and hormones (stop being female)!
    Alternative options, no relief yet…
    But there are dietary options, exercise options (of course), but still no relief.

    The chronic medication leaves such horrible side effects, and resentment…

    But, as part of this post, comes a mental adjustment too. Acceptance…
    This is a contributing, spiritual factor.
    Gratitude that I can still feel the cold (and certainly complain, but have my kitties cuddle up close), that I can still move despite falling a couple more times than I would like, from heights I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but walking away with only bruises and no broken bones.
    Gratitude that I live in a complex where my neighbours check on me…
    And and and…

    So with this post, I contribute my story, but take away and realise, my non-acceptance and resentment are added factors.

    Time to work on the “non-medical” aspect.

    Thank you again Bodhi, and so looking forward to your brief return to SA.
    SA is missing your bare feet!
    💚

    • Avatar photo barefootbeing says:

      Thank you for being so open! There is so much medicine for us all in this! Love to you Tarryn! Just wrote another blog! I have a few in the pipeline! Happy someone reads them! Much love!

  • PJ Moses says:

    Congrats Bodhi..
    I have been wondering where your journey has taken you and I’m glad that your continuing on such a beautiful and inspiring path!
    Keep on being a blessing to this world we call home my brother..
    you’re always in my thoughts and in my heart!

    PJ

  • Bela says:

    Congratulations Bodhi!!! <3 bela

  • Chris says:

    Congratulations Bodhi. Looking forward to seeing you again soon and connecting. I think of you often. Sending love. xxx