Inner Body Awareness Slows the Aging Process

This article was originally published by Technorati on 16 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Some dermatologists are now recommending moderate amounts of sun exposure based on the health benefits of vitamin D. Our skin produces Vitamin D when it's exposed to the sun. Studies indicate that most Americans have deficient levels of it.

The downside to increased sun exposure is the cumulative damage that UV rays can cause. This is why doctors recommend covering face, neck and hands while soaking in the sun for 10 to 15 minutes three times a week on arms and legs. UV rays are responsibly for most of our wrinkles as we age.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow combat this aging process? Slow it down? Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle claims that we can through "awareness of the inner body."

In The Power of Now, he writes: "Whereas the outer body normally appears to grow old and wither fairly quickly, the inner body does not change with time. . . If you are twenty years old now, the energy field of your inner body will feel just the same when you are eighty."

What does Tolle mean by inner body awareness? It's easier to demonstrate that explain.

Close your eyes and think about your hands. Keep your awareness focused on them for a few moments and they will begin to tingle. Move the awareness to your feet, they will begin to tingle too. Do this for your whole body at the same time and that's you "being," as opposed to you thinking. "Be more, think less," is Tolle's advice in a nutshell.

"If you inhabit the inner body," Tolle writes, "the outer body will grow old at a much slower rate, and even when it does, your timeless essence will shine through the outer form, and you will not give the appearance of an old person."

[See the entire excerpt from The Power of Now here.]

This claim may seem farfetched, but we don't have to take Tolle's word for it. We can conduct our own experiment.

Here's what I recommend: for the next 30 days, focus awareness on your eyes. As often as you think of it and for as long as you have time, make them tingle as per above. Bring the life energy of your inner body to your eyes, the lids and the skin around them.

Bookmark this article in your browser and on 16 June leave a comment as to how your appearance and life have changed.

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Photo credit: Real Simple