Or was it the mushrooms?
Today we bought some mushrooms at our local farmers’ market. I tried to squeeze past the mushroom farmer’s table, because it was intimidating for some reason, but my daughter couldn’t look away. Before I knew it, we had walked away with three kinds of mushrooms I’d never seen before. (Sidenote: I have a bunch more questions for the mushroom farmer now.)
I think the gray ones are oyster mushrooms. I got them home and decided to do something with them for dinner. This was the tricky part, as I have been on a strict anti-inflammatory protocol since February and the randomest things add more heat to my system. But I worked with an energy kinesiologist in Brooklyn (in 2015) who helped me learn how to muscle-test certain foods or substances (or even thoughts!) to see whether or not my body wanted them. Simple – if I actually let myself do it.
I dug my hands into these mushrooms-I don’t know how to describe to you how spongey and light they were. Clearly full of water. My senses, and whole self, gravitated toward them instantly. I felt totally at ease with the idea of eating them – the light mushroom scent wafted through me.
Ok – this overwhelming sensation experience put me back in my body – there is something that happens when the senses collide, and one loses their verbal agency for a moment. My kinesthetic sense jumped out into my field of awareness, reminding me that I have a tailbone, and heels, and not just mushrooms and a nose and fingertips. I was also calmer at the KNOWING this would nourish me, and felt my ribs and belly soften, making a little more space for my breath, and for my nervous system to settle.
The kinesthetic can take us out of our verbal, analytic mind and more into our movement sense, connecting us more to gravity and creating a dynamic, buoyant sense of balance. Then we are free to let those overwhelming moments come to us, and we can really experience them. The feel of the mushrooms, the awareness of the feet on the floor, ourselves in the room, the music playing, the rain on the windows, the space outside and above and in front and behind. When we are more balanced, our nervous system can function optimally to provide more accurate input/output to/from the brain. This is developing reliable sensory appreciation.
Whew. I love noticing the indirect-ness with which this process takes place – it’s not always the same, you can start anywhere, and nothing is too small to notice. Space and time shift around. Or was it actually just the mushrooms?
