When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly make up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing. [I]t is the philosophy of the Tao that … the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it. So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat.
-Alan Watts, What Is Tao?
Often when we endure long periods of chronic stress, overwhelm, or chronic pain, we become very used to living in a tense body, always braced. Many of us learn to fully tune out our bodies as a means to push through or just survive.
I, myself, tuned out my body for almost 10 years, trying to run from the tension and chronic pain. It wasn’t until I started listening to my body that I was able to start hearing what it had been trying to tell me:
“I am overstressed!”
The tension it was holding and where, the pain, all of it was my body trying to communicate a problem that it was no longer capable of handling on its own. Slowly, I was able to sit with my body, listen to it, and breath into the tension it was holding to slowly start to release.
So many of us are living in a braced body, not because we want to, but because chronic stress teaches us to hold our breath, ignore pain, and pretend we’re fine.
But healing starts when we stop resisting the fall. When we stop trying to hold it all together and let the body speak.
Your body’s tension isn’t betraying you- it’s protecting you. And when you start listening instead of pushing, you’ll realize it’s been trying to help you all along.
✨One thing you can try this week:
Before you reach for a “tool” or try to “fix” your body — take a 5-breath pause. Feel where you’re bracing. Breathe into it, let it soften, even just a little. Like a cat in free fall.
I’d love to hear from you! Where in your body have you noticed yourself tensing or bracing lately? Hit reply and let me know! 💌
With Gratitude,
Zoe
