Don’t rely on the mind to tell you you’re OK or talk you off a ledge. Let the body lead the way.
Next week is the last week we spend on Everyday Mindfulness, Step 2 in the Freedom from Chronic Stress Program.
Before we move on, I want to give you an experience of connecting with your body through mindfulness meditation.
Many of my clients say their mind is way ahead of their body. The mind is always racing…like it’s in another time zone because it moves so fast.
This is why learning to safely live in your body, also known as embodiment, is important to your freedom, and a key pillar in the program.
How much time do you spend in your head? Thinking. Ruminating. Worrying. Wondering. Planning. Probably a lot. Name the percentage of the time. 90%? 80%? 100%? You’re not alone.
On the flip side, how aware are you of your body sensations throughout the day?
<hmmmm, what does this mean?>
How aware are you when you’re holding your breath, clenching the jaw, tightening your shoulders, or chest?
How aware are you of your body posture and gestures? How quickly are you talking, walking, or eating?
Can you identify where you experience a sense of well-being in your body instead of areas that experience discomfort?
Developing body awareness is a powerful skill to integrate your mind and body. Your mind lives in psychological time. Your body lives in real time.
Sit still without any stimulation and do no-thing for one minute and you’ll experience real time.
It’d be pretty cool for the body and mind to live in the same time zone. When the body and mind integrate, you feel less rushed and don’t react to a false sense of urgency.
By learning to live in your body – not just your head – you learn to easily self-regulate your stress level, emotions, and actions.
You become a master of yourself, instead of trying to ‘manage’ the stress around you.
I want to give you an experience of what it’s like to connect with the body so you can strengthen your embodiment muscle and live in real time.
You start by learning to recognize the sensations (not a feeling) of spaciousness versus constriction in the body.
This is an inquiry, an experiment, a practice…not something to fix or achieve.
Remember, meditation is not about relaxation. It’s about waking up and increasing your awareness muscle so you have full access to choice.
How do you take this meditation practice and use it in daily life?
You purposefully check-in with areas in your body – forehead, jaw, throat, chest, belly – and notice with compassion where you are on the continuum of spaciousness to constriction.
Then you choose to soften or tighten.
More often than not, you’ll want to soften the body. Softening the body signals safety to the nervous system and reduces physical tension.
Don’t rely on your mind to tell you you’re OK or talk you down off a ledge.
Let the body lead the way.
Practice the meditation here:
Enjoy!
