Happy Wednesday Reader!

Each of us has two bodies.

The first is our conceptual body; this is what we imagine when we think of our bodies. It’s our sense of body image, informed by what we see, what we think others see, and all the narratives – healthy and unhealthy, loving and unloving – we’ve learned to place upon our physicality.

Throughout my life, I have textured my conceptual body with phrases like:

• "I like my freckles."
• “I weigh too much.”
• “My stomach is too big.”
• “My muscles aren’t strong enough yet.”
• “I like my shoulders...but they could be better.”

Some healthy-ish narratives, but mostly not-so-much. (And so much comparison to perceived cultural expectations!)

Our second body is our experiential body.

This is our body as it is: the shapes and ways we move, the lightness when we dance, the muscle tension, the scars, the stomachaches, the sore backs, and the pops and clicks in our ankles as we walk.

This is the living, breathing, changing organism that is us – our real, enfleshed body, no narratives and no judgements.

Here’s why it might be useful to think of these as different bodies:

In our society, we’ve been sold so many negative messages about our bodies that the two tend to get blended together.

We think our conceptual body is our physical, experiential body. We lose our ability to feel without interpreting and layering in a smorgasbord of goods, bads, and wish-I-hads.

From Willa Blythe Baker:

For those of us with lifelong patterns of stacking narrative on top of narrative about what our bodies “should be,” our first step might be to unblend our conceptual body from our experiential body.

When we do that, we can set the narratives we have about our bodies off to one side long enough to spend some time with our physical, experiential bodies.

We can stop thinking about our bodies so much and learn a more intentional way of actually living in them and as them.

Here’s a simple practice for starting this unblending process:

❓ Questions

1. What aspects of your physicality have you been rewarded for in your life? For which aspects have you received negative feedback? How have these messages become part of your conceptual body?
2. What is your relationship with your experiential body? How often do you check in (outside a doctor's office) to see how your body is doing, feeling, and moving?

🧰 Resources

• ​The Wakeful Body by Willa Blythe Baker (book)
• “Learning the Difference Between Body Image and Body Reality” (article from Shondaland)
• ​The Enneagram + Attention Cohort from Caryn Berley​

This final resource comes from friend of The Wednesday 1-2-3 Caryn Berley!

If you’re familiar with the Enneagram, or brand new to using it as an inner work tool, this is a phenomenal opportunity to connect with others and go deeper in understanding how your attention operates and how you relate to the world. (And, to be honest, Caryn’s just the best!)

If you check it out and want to apply, use the code W123 and you'll get $25 off during checkout – applications close tonight at midnight!

🧩 Community Question

A big thank you to Molly, Catherine, Deb, January, Margaret, and Caryn for sharing your responses (and resources) to last week’s teaching on using music in our inner work! My inbox was full of good stuff 😄

This week’s question:

If an answer or short story pops up for you in response, please share by hitting “reply!”

⏪ If you missed last week's email:

Hope all is well-enough with you,

Andrew IG: @andrewglang​