what is bodhielements?
in order to truly heal we have to believe that transformation is possible throughout the depth and breadth of our existence. once we believe that any of the elements which make up our lives can change, transformation will begin to happen. to make this possible bodhielements teaches principles that can be practiced in all spheres of life: spirit, mind and body.
the 7 principles
bodhielements works from seven basic principles. though we often describe them in sequence it is important to remember that, like the seven dwarfs, they work together rather than just one after the other. the example below is one possible application of the principles to help explain how they work.
awareness
what is actually going on right now. in our example this is a little niggle in consciousness that says “hey, something’s not off”.
decision
as the name suggests, this is the decision to look at what has come to our awareness. decision can be unconscious. we ignore the little niggle of awareness out of fear, irritation, or because we’re too busy with something else. bodhielements is about trying to make that decision conscious. with the decision to look at that niggle comes:
focus
we’re actually looking at the source: in this example we find that it’s lower back pain. aha! that explains why we decided not to focus on it before, fear… fear that if we look at it we might find that it’s a symptom of something worse. however, in focusing on the discomfort (current reality) we gain:
sensitivity
awareness + focus on a specific area or problem (in this case back pain) = sensitivity, which ironically brings understanding of all the factors that contribute to the pain: i’ve been sitting slumped at this computer for almost 4 hours. maybe i should take:
action
with the awareness that we’ve been sitting for 3-4 hours we know that any movement should start out gently: joint rotations and a warm-up, rather than jumping up and immediately trying to lift 60kg overhead as fast as possible. in fact back pain should probably tell us to give up on doing that workout altogether. though if that is what we were set on doing then this is where we need:
humour
the ability to laugh at how stuck we can become and therefore remember to enjoy the exploration of different exercises such as air squats, ki exercises, yoga, etc. which will allow us to experience:
relaxation
if you need an explanation of relaxation… well… head back to the top of the page and start with a decision to focus on awareness of the breath, as your sensitivity to an action increases and you enjoy the gentle flow of inhalation and exhalation allow awareness to expand to encompass the whole body… ahhh, doesn’t that feel better?
