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career & business The Best Tool for Your Career By Kimberly Errigo Most of us are familiar with the frightening character The Headless Horseman from the short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by American author Washington Irving. Fewer people are familiar with his cousin, The Body-less Horseman, who was twice as frightening. The Body-Less Horseman was known to wander the streets of urban America as a disembodied head, looking endlessly for his laptop computer. Today, there is a Clan of Body-less Horsemen which formed in the wake of his travels, and which continues to grow parallel to the Internet. If you feel confused, unhappy, or stuck, you’re in a critical situation. If you are multi-tasking, you’re in danger. The Clan is watching you to see if you might be ready to join. The Body-less Horsemen show up when people are dangerously “out of their body.” Luckily, you can stop the Clan in its tracks. Sending those Body-less Horsemen away is simple: Be in your body. If you are stuck in your head, in your thinking, you won’t experience the world in a sensual way. Sensuality is confused with sexuality in Western culture. Sensuality is simply the quality of being in the body, fully embodied, savoring life. It means deeply tasting, feeling or perceiving. When you are in your body, you feel each experience completely. Yoga, tai chi, exercise, being in nature, conscious pampering, hard physical work, dance, and cuddling bring you into your body and keep you safe. Mindfulness, whether focused on breathing, eating, walking, speaking or playing, centers your attention in your body and closes the curtains so those pesky horsemen can no longer see you. Coincidentally, you’ll reap many benefits from being in your body. Your body is a fine-tuned radio receiver, a doorway to joy, and a fail-proof source of guidance. When you’re in an optimal state, you can manifest what you want with grace and ease. You can create anything you want, and you’ll know better what you want to create. It will come to you instead of you chasing after it. Your vision of what to do next in your life will come more clearly into focus. All of those benefits add up to you being more happy, more confident and more able to manage the stresses of life. Being in the body also improves physical and emotional health. About 18.8 million American adults have depression, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. Heart disease, the number-one killer in the United States, is diagnosed in 26.6 million non-institutionalized adults, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In the shamanic world, depression and anxiety are symptoms of soul loss — which coincidentally only occur when one is out of one’s body. Shamans and healers know that if the emotional or physical body is out of shape, it’s because the person is not fully residing in it. Therefore, the practice of being in the body not only chases away the Body-less Horsemen but also helps such symptoms lift. Being in your body also will increase your personal power. Personal power isn’t the power to control others. It is the power to listen beyond attachment, attune to wise and compassionate action in any situation, and bring divine energy down to earth. When a person acts from this centered place, he or she is “standing” in his or her power. People who stand in their power radiate charisma and energy that is attractive to others. As you attune to the inner wisdom of your body instrument, you’ll get closer to doing what you are meant to do. Some 62 percent of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels. Even in today’s economic climate, 84 percent of U.S. workers are unhappy in their jobs. Dissatisfaction with a job may come from a variety of sources, including not being able to use one’s skills, not finding the work itself to be energizing, having high levels of stress, or the common mistake of picking the wrong career from the start. Conventional wisdom guides prospective job seekers to update their resumes and leverage their networks to find positions. Yet, this approach may have you leaping from the frying pan into the fire. If you want to find your next career, practice being in your body and watch results improve. Additionally, you’ll be more attractive to a potential employer if you are feeling the benefits of being in your body. If you float into an interview with only your head showing, it would be unusual to succeed in attaining the job. If you find it difficult to make time for body care in your busy schedule, remember that the Clan of Body-less Horsemen is watching. Set a goal of daily activity in nature, where the Clan of Body-less Horsemen cannot penetrate. See how it changes your experience, loosens the confusion, and opens up the field of possibility. And don’t be surprised if, in your mind’s eye, you see disembodied horsemen floating away from you like dandelion seeds in the wind.
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© 2010 The Guide to Health, Wellness and Creative Living |
Kimberly Errigo, certified life coach, lives in south-western Wisconsin.