You: Body of Work

You know that sneaking suspicion that you would be more productive, successful, happy if your body were healthier? How about that?

These bodies are pretty amazing. Sometimes infuriating, but amazing. They are designed to persist, to be our transportation and our experience of this life.

It is a truth I return to often, "we are our bodies" (Maurice Merleau-Ponty).

This isn't philosophical, it is as material as one can get. The flesh that carries you around is you, it is your ability, it is your thoughts -- There is nothing that is you that isn't your body.

Where this gets complicated for most of us is that we live in a society that ignores the body for the most part. It is interested in the aesthetics of the body, certainly. And the dysfunctions of the body, of course. But many of us put off daily maintenance of the body. We'll ignore the function of the body altogether if it doesn't break something to get our attention.

We complain about our weight or our energy levels. We may even try spot treatments for these things. But, at the end of the day, we don't try to actually help the body function better. Or even try to understand its functions. It gets pushed off until we have more time.

Okay Gina, but why are we discussing this on the communication blog?

Because none of your thoughts can enter the world without your body. You need air and electrical impulses to make connections with other humans. These do not work in isolation.

So when we start talking about embodied communication we are not in a dream-state, waxing poetic. We are finally getting real. Re-finding the most basic of things so that we can function to our best potential.

Hence the new focus on the Monday blog. Mondays will now be all about You -- all of the things that help your body make your best connections in human spaces. Office Space will move to Wednesdays, and Sing will continue on Fridays.

I hope you will join me.