I have heard this phrase, " I am not the body", many times from Yoga teachers and various religious figures. It always felt wrong when I heard it. The longer I practice Yoga, the more I feel like I am the body and the split apartness is the problem. Feel free to disagree with me. 
And what do you mean by split apartness, apartness from what?
Hi Lalow, agree with you about the body. I would even say that yoga revealed my body to me, after 40 years if disconnection between me and my own body.
Put in another way: if yoga means āunionā, how could yoga create a separation between me and my body? Or even between me and anything.
I am the body, and not the body. I am the mind, and not the mind.
Nestled in between, encompassing all angles, beyond all angles, I find myself. I am where I need to be, want to be, have to be. In short, I am.
Non-identification is not anti-identification. Falling back upon the witness does not have to include disconnecting from what is witnessed (though certain teachers spin it that way).
I applaud your identification with the body. I, too, see my body as an extension of myself, and therefore part of me, but perhaps not wholly me.
I can not say I am the body, I have a body.
Edit: I will not try to explain, but I am in and outside the body at the same time. Not that that is constantly the experience during daily life, but it becomes easier to experience during practice.
Hi lalow, I couldnāt disagree.
It seems to me the body is like a portal - you go in deep before you go out. The way out is through.
It is rather counter-intuitive (stands for you have to experience it to believe it, I guess) - the more I anchor myself in the body the more I feel one with everything, so the more I feel āI am not this bodyā. A bit circular but there it is. 
This is my kind of topic!
Iām 5ā8" on a good day, a sprinter way back in high school that gave me legs like crab apple tree trunks. Forward folds and most floor poses are the bane of my being; youād think ten years worth of asanas would have loosened something. Iām a Ken doll on top and GI Joe on the bottom; I can swivel at the waist 
.
AYP practice led me to recognize how disconnected Iād become from my legs. To get requainted, I gave myself the 5 Minute Intention: devote five minutes daily to folding forward, or two songs on Pandora, to be with them, how do they look, feel, smell. I learned to better employ my bandhas, that Iām sweetly sensitive in my knee crease, that my shins need daily lotion, that my feet are a beautiful expression of how far Iāve tread. Now that I have active kundalini, I easily spark arousal which, of course, fills me with love all the more. And yes, I have loosened my hamstrings somewhat over the course of five months, enough to know my devotion is paying dividends. That gash at my midsection is healing over
As Bodhi suggests, we are the body, less and more. The whole point of practice is preparing the body so we go beyond.
Hi Lalow,
I am this body and more. The āmoreā part Iām discovering everyday.
Five years ago I went through emptiness for months to a year (canāt remember exactly how long). The mind was silent and great. But nothing compared to being in the body. Silence and bliss in transcendence but ecstasy is felt in the body. Itās only when we embrace the body we come full circle in life.
Sunyata
And what do you mean by split apartness, apartness from what?
Good question. I don't really know. Just felt like I was divided into different parts. I'm not sure that I was ever my body. Sure I had reactions to things that happened. With Yoga, I was watching the body and had fewer and fewer reactions. Now, I feel like I am my body. It was simple, subtle but what a relief! From my perspective right now, it is so natural to be a body. I've had lots of out of body experiences; I've been shooting prana, astral traveler, even a tree! I've witnessed myself across from myself. So now I'm a body, too. I didn't expect this. I'm surprised anyone agreed with me. :heart:
I teared up reading this post. I know what you mean. I think you get what Iām saying.[OM]
This thread fits equally well in the illuminated poetry for me
Hi lalow,
Good to hear that your are experience yourself as a body.
But if you say that there is a split apartness there has to be more? Or is this gone at this moment?
English is not my native language and if I say I am my body, it feels not good, as if I am only that body. If I say I have a body that means that I am more then the body.
Funny is that in all these posts, I read with my Dutch eye that you also all saying my body, so that means in my reading as Dutch that you all say I have a bodyā¦
So I do not know if we mean the sameā¦I like posts like this !
I experience myself in this body, grounded, stable, but at the same time as I am practicing, I feel myself at the same moment grounded in the body, but also without boundaries.
I am always connected can grow or shrink but always, always grounded.
Before yoga came into my life, I had neck and shoulder problems, there was a physiotherapist who gave me therapy and said to me, you are really so disconnected from your body, he showed me a human skeleton, explained, did all to make me awareā¦It was such a deep shock for me that after that, I went on this yoga journey. Forever I am grateful to him.
Hi Chaliedog,
Iāll try to explain. Example: I used to watch myself vibrate ( I can feel energy). Sometimes it was with attachment, sometimes not. Now, I am vibrating. I feel more alive! Itās subtle. Maybe it can be grounding in the body. I donāt know. I feel like Iām the body.
I still feel a split with the mind. Iām not really working on it. Just doing my practices.
Practice, experience, and enjoy !
For me it has been quite important to realize āI am not the bodyā.
However, it is possibly just as important to realize what a magnificent gift the body can be, when we truly appreciate it and use it as one of our best resources on the spiritual path. It is a temple for the divine, and is not separate from the divine, but the divine does not consist of the body alone. So we need to honor the body for what it is, and no more. We neednāt identify our āSelfā with the body.
love
parvati
I understand what you are saying and appreciate your point of view. Iām not great at explaining things. I donāt feel like the body is a temple. I just feel like I am the body. Itās simple and amazing at the same time. It is backwards from most things Iāve read, but thatās what is happening. I didnāt expect it. Itās almost anti-spiritual. I know that attachment is ābadā. Why do I feel so much better?
I donāt feel like I have layers or koshas or anything like that. Just am one whole body. I donāt have blocks. Itās just me being tight. 
. What a relief!!!
Put your awareness in your body.
Bring up an emotional upset.
Feel the energy feeling of that upset in your body. In your heart.
Residing with that feeling will help integrate those attachments and bring one to the present moment.
When you talk to people but your awareness in your body and feel the emotions as they come Ianās go within your body.
It is all energy. This is a powerful method of experience ecstatic energy and realizing that everything is within us.
Right now I donāt feel a separation of awareness and body. I canāt put my awareness in my body, if that makes any sense. Itās hard to describe.
Can you feel your right big toe? Can you relax your feet, calves, then your thighs and then everything below your waist.
If so you just did it.
Every thought has an energetic feel to it. The energy feels a certain way. Disappointment, feeling lonely all have a feel to them. It is this energetic feeling that our mind uses to create mind stories.
Learning to reside in that energy stops the mind stories and helps one to become present.
It is a powerful technique by Michael brown of the presence process.
When you get this down you will understand what it means to not be this body. Or what your body really is.