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The Belief in Your Body

Writer's picture: Billy DanielBilly Daniel

Updated: Jan 21


“If we want to know what we are holding in mind, all we have to do is look at what is going on in the body and observe its behavior, which tells us what we believe.”

~David Hawkins


I regularly meet with people who express challenges with what Buddhists call, “Monkey Mind.” Like Martha in the Gospels, we are all distracted by many things. We bounce around from thought to thought, from task to task. How do we, with Mary, attend to the one needful thing—Jesus?


One of the things that has led to much growth in my own life is being courageous enough to ask myself honest questions, and then to respond honestly, without hiding anything from myself. The question I have learned to ask most deliberately is this: What is the function of “this” in my life? Another way to ask this question would be to ask, What purpose is “this” serving for me? Or, “What is the reward I am getting from “this”?


“This” can be anything. Maybe it’s a habit or pattern, such as working late, sleeping in, snacking, alcohol, social media, shopping, and so on. If we take the story of Mary and Martha in Bethany when Jesus and the disciples come to visit (READ full text HERE), we gain insights into how our bodies manifest what we believe. For Martha, this is her many tasks, which serve only to guilt and shame her sister, so that Martha is the victim of her dutiful responsibility as a homemaker. Mary wants to hear what Jesus has to say. Mary realizes that the food and preparations can wait. Right now, Jesus is teaching, and she wants to feast on the bread of life that leaves her no longer hungry.


The dynamic between Martha, Mary, and Jesus is such that Martha sees her task of hospitality as Mary’s task, which Jesus is to honor and make Mary understand. What Martha is doing is meaningful; however, Martha appears only to believe her task to be meaningful because it’s something women do, not as something she wants to do. Mary recognizes that she, with the other disciples, wants to listen and learn from Jesus. This is her task. She will not be guilted into doing Martha’s task for her. Why? Because Martha’s real task is not hospitality. Martha’s real task is to let go of others’ expectations, so that she might be present with Jesus in the way that, like Mary, honors the truth of her heart’s desire.


Martha could not see that her behavior was revealing what she really believed about herself—that she was unworthy to sit at Jesus’s feet. Mary, sitting at Jesus’s feet, was so attentive to Jesus and his teaching that any thoughts of unworthiness had no power to distract or interfere. Her gaze was fixed on Jesus; she knew herself as she is known by God.


What is the task that is yours that you may be neglecting or projecting? What is its function in your life? What is it doing to keep you from being present with Jesus and knowing who you are as you are known by God?


If you can name what “this” is, you can attend to the underlying task or tasks requiring your attention, realign with who you are as a child of God, and take an important step into deeper aliveness.



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