Q: Hello. I feel like I’m not in my body most of the time and if I am, it’s not fully. Not being in my body means also not being in my being?

John: Not being in your body means that you’re dissociating from your self. It’s a defense against experiencing your self.

If you have unfavourable experiences of your self, you can avoid that, you can avoid the discomfort of that by dissociating from your self, but that also takes you out of just really being in your body. That doesn’t mean that you’re doing something that’s bad. You’re doing something that you don’t need to do.

Being in your body means that you will feel your self; you’ll feel what your self is like. You may not like the experience of that. It can make you feel uncomfortable in your self, shy in your self, not capable in your self, not in control of your self. But whatever your self is like, whatever condition your self is in, it’s important that you be in that just the way it is. It doesn’t need to be different. Being in your self doesn’t mean that you need to change your self. You don’t need to change how you feel in your self.

When you’re in your self, you’re present in your body. You’ll be present in the level of your body that your self is. While you’re present in your self and therefore present in that level of your body, you’re able to be in your heart. Despite whatever you’re experiencing in your self, you’re able to be in your heart while you feel uncomfortable in your self, while you don’t know what to do with your self, while you feel incapable in your self.

When you are open to being present in your self, when you are open to being in your self, that openness is deeper than what your self is, so when you are open to being in your self, your heart is opening. When you are open to being in your self, you are being in your self and in your heart.

The openness to be in your self, that openness matters more than your self. That openness is greater value than your self. When you’re open to be in your self, you are opening past your self. Being in your self doesn’t need to feel safe. Being in your self is safe. Feeling vulnerable doesn’t mean that you are vulnerable to something hurting you. Feeling vulnerable doesn’t mean that you are vulnerable to something bad happening to you. Feeling vulnerable in your self is okay.

When you’re open to feeling vulnerable in your self, you’re opening to your own heart while you’re in your self. That puts you in the body of your heart while you are present in the body of your self. There are levels to your body. When you’re in your heart, you experience your body differently than when you’re in your self.

It’s important for you to be in your body. Being your self is a level of your body. Being in your heart is also a level of your body; it’s a deeper, quieter level of your body. You need to be in both levels of your body: you being in your self and you being in your heart.

When you’re being in both levels of your body, when you’re not only just in your self but while you’re in your self you’re also in your heart, that brings the level of your heart up into the level of your self. It enables you to be present in your heart while you’re in your self. When your heart is brought into your self because you’re being in your heart while you’re in your self, that opens up your self to a deeper level of your self, so the deep in your self opens and what you are accustomed to of your self changes. Instead of having a fearful self, you begin to have more of a relaxed self even when you’re under pressure.

When you stay in your heart while you feel shy or uncomfortable in your self, when you remain in your heart while you experience a social discomfort, you accomplish a deeper presence in your self, a deeper level of your self than what you’re accustomed to. When you open to not running away from feeling shy, that is you opening to be in your heart while you feel shy. You stabilize your self by being in your heart regardless of how you’re experiencing your self.

Openness has to do with your heart. Your openness matters more than anything that you can experience in your self. Your openness matters more than what’s happening in your self. Give value to that openness. You give value to it by living it, by being in that openness. You being that openness, the openness to be present in your self regardless of what you feel in your self, is you coming into the real value of your own heart. That brings you into a deeper level of your body, a quieting, nurtureful level of your own body.

You’re not really able to do anything wrong in this. You’re able to be incorrect in this. When you’re being incorrect in this, what you experience is that you won’t function very well. When you’re being correct in this, you come into your function, real function in your self and a deeper function of being in your heart, while you’re functioning in your self.

When what you’re in is correct, the way that you are in your form allows goodness to move. It allows goodness to flow, with that flow not being dependent on how you feel in your self. It’s not dependent on how you experience your self.

There is the flow of goodness when you open, because openness is goodness.