The Body as Sanctuary and Truth-Teller

Mirabai's bhakti was insistently embodied: dancing, singing, moving through her body as a form of prayer and knowing. She refused the disembodied rationalism of much religious practice of her time. For those holding anticipatory grief, dissociation is a constant danger—we abstract the crisis into data points or ideology, or we disconnect from the body entirely into anxiety loops. The bhakti practice of returning to the body—feeling our feet on the ground, the breath in the lungs, sensation in the hands—provides an anchor in the present. The body knows truths the anxious mind cannot access: whether we are truly in danger right now, what we actually need, what brings relief. The body can also process grief directly through movement, breath, or simply through being held. In times of civilizational crisis, the body becomes a sanctuary—not an escape from the crisis, but a reliable place of presence and reality. It reminds us that we are here, alive, capable. Returning to the body repeatedly throughout the day becomes a practice of sanity, stability, and embodied grief.