The Primal Body

By: The Lightbarian

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The primal body within me seems old… Ancient even. It's this wild thing that seems to breathe before I think, reacts before I am able to analyze. It seems to sense the truth before I have any logic to explain something. It's so powerful that I have even witnessed it move energy before my mind has a chance to name it.

This Pre-conceptual intelligence… This Knowing…. It lives and breathes within all facets of my physical body. It speaks through my nervous system, my facial network, it's in my gut and my limbic brain. It surges energy into my every instinctive survival circuit.

This would explain why certain aspects of life are able to bypass thought and logic entirely. Those things that feed my soul like music, dance, animals, breath, rhythm, physical touch, nature, and ritual.

As I quiet and listen, my primal body seems to communicate that there is something beyond intellect. It's a deeper intelligence. One of my very favorite ascended masters I follow speaks to this perfectly. Sadhguru says there is a difference between intellect and intelligence.

 “Human existence is phenomenal intelligence. We can't make our heart beat or kidney or liver work with the thought process. The thought process is important for certain aspects of life, but it is entirely unsuitable for other aspects of life.”

Intellect is a thought process. Intelligence is the life force that be.  It’s the natural process of growth, life, and death, without any precognitive explanation of how to. The plants don’t watch “How to” videos on the steps to grow and flower. They just… BE! That same intelligence lives in us on a cellular level. This Roots class has shed light on this concept for me with new lenses. 

My transformation is really a system update. I am shifting from Cognitive Knowing to Embodied Knowing. My mind pesters me for explanations, but my primal body wants integration. I think this is why when symbolism shows up it's important to pay attention. Maybe it's a recent call to a certain movie, a specific animal, a book or a poem, a painting you can't stop looking at, numbers you keep seeing- it is all symbolic language. Our bodies don’t speak English. It speaks in animals, weather, movement, sensation, dreams, and symbols. That song!  That movie! That poem, not the just words, but the tone and emotion behind the way it was written or read. These things move us because they speak to our soul. That primal body is the “body” that the soul feels most at home in.

As I give space and compassion for the primal body it occurs to me that humans today live a very modern life that overdevelops the thinking mind and not only suppresses, but agitates the primal body. We live in chairs, screens, artificial light, and an almost constant over stimulating stream of information. This is why our primal body gets hijacked.

 Our bodies are receiving messages of danger and dis-ease, but our cognitive minds override these indications as logically no physical harm is detected (lions, tigers, and bears, oh my.) This is confusing to our primal bodies. Well, to our bodies in general. In fact the same nervous system hijack patterns that play out in “big T” traumas are the same patterns playing out in a daily scenario. Fight, flight, freeze, faun, and please, play themselves out on a daily basis. However, on a micro scale like this we oftentimes just chalk it up to it being Monday. 

Modern day Nervous system hijack is really any time that your body is organizing around protection rather than presence, even in everyday life.

Here are some indicators that your primal body may be experiencing agitation in the form of nervous system hijack:

 Fight:

• Irritability over small things

• Being short with others

• Perfectionism

• Arguing in your head

• Controlling tendencies 

• Getting defensive when receiving feedback

Flight:

• Constant business

• Needing to always be productive

• Overscheduling

• Jumping from task to task

• Anxiety that gets translated into motion

• Feeling like if you stop than something bad or uncomfortable will catch up

Freeze:

• Procrastination that feels heavy rather than lazy

• Doom scrolling

• Brain fog

• Couch lock

• Indecision

• Avoiding simple tasks because they somehow feel enormous

• Watching, researching, planning, but never doing

Fawn:

• Saying Yes when your body is saying No

• Over explaining

• Picking up what’s not yours

• Managing other’s emotions

• Chronically saying sorry

• Softening or withholding your truth so no one is uncomfortable

• Becoming the helper and fixer while sacrificing self

• Consistently wondering what others think of you

Please:

• Turning yourself into what is easiest for others to receive or digest

• The “good girl” or “good boy” energy

• Suppressing anger when it feels dangerous or unattractive

• Trying to be low maintenance

• Performing calm while internally feeling overwhelmed

• “I must remain pleasing to be loved and remain safe.”

Our primal body was evolved for movement, sunlight, tribe, and nature rhythms. When the primal body is ignored, it screams through symptoms such as chronic anxiety, hormonal imbalance, burnout, body tension, and emotional overwhelm. This does not mean your primal body is broken, It only means that it is under-listened to. When we give compassion to our nervous systems and find ways to regulate it throughout our day, we will begin to feel more connected to our primal body. Our primal body can protect us from the very things it's getting hijacked and dysregulated by when we simply stop ignoring it.

I recently experienced a very deep process, where in which I had a vision of my Grandmother. In my vision, I was aware of my auric field full of energy and different colors. My Beautiful Grandmother walked up to the edge of my field and in almost a dream catcher like pattern sewed a little yellow bird bead into my auric field. I always admired my Grandmother and she had an affinity for birds. I have many memories looking at bird books and looking out her window at all the beautiful winged visitors she would have on her patio. My intuitive take on my vision was that the bird represents my voice, but even more profound was the action she was showing me herself. Sewing. Intuitionally the sewing action to me symbolized integration and embodiment, as if her message to me was that it was important to stitch instinct back into my identity. It’s not about becoming less intellectual, but becoming more embodied.

As embodiment comes and you listen to your primal body, you will begin to feel it awaken. Here are some indications your primal body is awakening:

• Stronger intuition

• Sensitivity and awareness to environments

• Desire for nature

• Body releasing stored emotion

• Dreams becoming symbolic

• Animals appearing repeatedly

• Deeper connection to rhythm and breath

These indications are not just progress, but represent an integration of ancient intelligence. Your primal body is the most ancient and the most intelligent system you have. Your mind wants to believe it runs the show, but in reality your body detects safety first. Your body regulates emotion. Your body has a natural intuition and your body decides before the mind ever has a chance to explain. We just don’t realize our own power. When we listen to our primal body we are creating a clear channel to receive communication straight from our soul. As another soul I follow on Youtube once said: “Follow the nonresistance of your soul, which usually involves resistance from the mind.” That is the balance between intellect and intelligence. Your soul knows, and it’s calling for something lighter.  The primal body like our mother sister Jaguar from the West will lead you straight home. Home to the sanctuary of your inner most light.

So… What does your primal body want that your thinking mind has been overriding?