What Does It Mean To Listen To Your Body?
If we view the body as a either being relaxed and alive with energy moving, or as being tight and contracted, one way we can define listening to the body is as the skill of awareness about what’s happening on a sensation level, moment to moment. For example, I may be very relaxed in my face and chest, but I can still be holding tension around my belly. Alternatively, I may be feeling acutely aware of the sensation of heat or tingling around my chest, but I may also be numb to any sensation in my legs. If we are listening to our bodies, it means we are aware of where we are more contracted and where we are more relaxed and where energy (sensation) is moving throughout our entire body. This is an ongoing practice of body awareness, and one that most of us have to return to many times each day to cultivate as a skill.
Trying to think our way to solutions
Most of us too have an interest in somatics precisely because we are aware of the limits of trying to “think our way out”. As we know well, the brain lies. Our brains may tell us we are not good enough to take the risk of asking for that promotion, even though there is no good evidence to support that assumption and perhaps evidence to the contrary. Our brains may tell us that we feel comfortable while we are having lunch with new friends, and all the while the stomach might be tight and our breathing shallow. Unlike the brain, the body doesn’t know how to lie. And so if we can’t fully rely on listening to our brains, it makes sense to get curious about how to better listen to the whole body. After all, the human organism is a body with a brain - not a brain that also happens to have a body.
Being heart-centered
Often seen as a solution to being “stuck in our heads”, we hear that we should listen to our hearts. Follow your heart, they say. And while it’s wonderful to be open-hearted and compassionate, when we follow our hearts what often happens is we stop moving from center. Instead, we are run by our empathy for others and our desire to comfort and care for everything that touches our heart. Again, this isn’t bad if it’s done with choice, but more often than not it’s done automatically and at the expense of being truly connected to what’s best for us.
Listening to the whole body requires being centered
The practice of centering, discussed in other blogs, invites us to drop into that place where our length, width, and depth all converge. This is that place below the belly button, between front body and back body. It is our gravitational center when we are standing, and it’s where we get our power from. Whether you practice dance or martial arts or golf, power always comes from center.
A practice of listing to the body means a practice of dropping our attention and awareness down to this area of the body. It also means noticing if we are holding tension elsewhere in the body or numbing our sensory experience. In short, it means (as best as possible) feeling sensation in the entire body.
Listening to the body when making decisions
If we have a decision to make, we want to know what’s happening in our body while we are deciding. Do we want to make a decision while we are disconnected from our belly center, holding our breath, numb to the sensation of our feet on the ground? Most people would say no, which is why it is so important to feel your body and listen. Bringing your attention into your body, you might just hear a different, deeper voice within yourself instead of being solely focused on what your brain or your heart is communicating.
Ready to explore the possibility of a somatic coaching session to learn the nuts and bolts of a centering practice? Schedule a free consultation. I’d love to hear from you!