Your Body Matters

There is this interesting part of human communication when no matter what you are saying - how articulate you are, the words you choose - the other person will ‘read’ your non-verbal communication as a default.

My first degree when I was a fresh-faced 18 year old was Speech and Language Therapy. I learnt how we make the words with our tongue, teeth, palate and vocal cords, but our body language is important too!

I was listening to a podcast episode (I was walking and thought it was not safe to watch the video!!) called “Why Good People in the Church Look Away: Abuse, Power and Protecting the Mission” and the thing that really struck me was a conversation around incarnation. They discussed how it matters where you are physically living out your life. If you are a Christian, you may be familiar with the word ‘incarnation’ because it is the word used to describe Jesus coming to Earth as a human baby. Sometimes knowing a word already doesn’t really help us understand how it relates to us.

There is a difference between what we say and what we live out. It matters where our bodies are. If we say that it is important to take care of the world and we choose to drive instead of walk somewhere, that is our spoken values not being represented in the way we live.

But it isn’t just about where our bodies physically are because we can be physically present in a space and yet stay silent. Silence communicates loudly.

We all have values in our head - the things that really matter to us or if you are a Christian, the things that you believe God has given you to care about. These values often stay in our mind and do help us make decisions, but it matters that these values move from our minds to our bodies. These values need to affect how you show up in the world, otherwise, what you will experience is a mismatch and that can often take its toll on you emotionally and physically without you consciously noticing.

My challenge to you (and myself) is to start noticing and being curious about our values. Are our values taking us physically to the rooms that reflect them, with the people that need to hear or benefit from our values? What is stopping us from speaking out our values in the spaces where we physically find ourselves?

Thinking about these things may cause us to question our decisions, our work, our time with others and our thoughts.

Chat with someone about it - a friend, a partner, God. But again, make sure your body is moving, your body matters.

Choose to move yourself to a space, a place or a person today that confirms the values you have. This will help you recognise what incarnation feels like for you.

Jess