E90: Body and Soul with Special Guest Beth Pettengill Riley

E90 Introduction

As a former athlete, I have always been appreciative of my body. I have long intuited that the body could be a portal into something vast and mysterious. This ran counter to the old lower masculine, Cartesian way of looking at the body as simply a machine. A separate object set aside from one’s mental, emotional, and spiritual lives. The body, in this way of looking at things, is not sacred. It is just a thing.

While it is true that the body is a temporary vessel for our Soul and Spirit, to diminish the body or disregard it leaves us dry and up in our heads. How many men are smart but lack the juicy presence of being embodied? How might men continue our evolution with a proper reverence for earth, bodies, the sensuous, and the feminine?

I think we will need to build it like a muscle. Something that has atrophied but not left us. Presence and embodiment seem to be waiting for our collective discovery. Men are starting to find what we have left behind.

I have said this before on a number of episodes. We aren‘t going to be able to think our way along the faint trail of the Hero’s Journey. If we could think our way through it, we would have done that already. For aren’t we all really good at thinking about it all. No. We will need to navigate it with our hearts and our FELT sense. It is here that the body suddenly arrives as an obvious ally in our quest.

There are ways of discovering this aspect of yourself. Somatic movement is a growing field that carries much wisdom and gifts for our tribe. As my guest today so elegantly expresses, the body’s wisdom can be the path that takes you all the way to the top of the mountain.

Beth Pettengill Riley Bio

Beth Pettengill Riley is a global leader in Somatic movement education and therapy with over 40 years of experience facilitating workshops in Continuum, Yoga & Meditation. She is the author of the book A Moving Inquiry: The Art of Personal Practice and maintains a private practice in the Santa Cruz area teaching classes and workshops and assisting individuals in finding greater freedom of movement. Here is my interview with Beth Pettengill Riley.

E90 Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Beth. To find her online classes or her great book A Moving Inquiry, which was created to help you create your own somatic movement practice, go to Beth’s website at www.themovingwell.com

To find out more about Somatic Movement, go to the hub of all things Somatic Movement at www.ismeta.orgIsmeta has a directory of practitioners in your area and a list of approved trainings in case you are looking to be trained in this exceptional work.

Basecamp for Men E90: Body and Soul