Feeling into the body

Maria Arpa

26 August 2020

This week

Feeling into the body

Plus…

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

and

The Wednesday Whisper

Getting grounded

Last week I was watching a tense thriller on TV and I noticed how tense my body had become tense without actually feeling it. Often when I’m sitting in front of the TV, I do some eye exercises and slow, deep breathing so that I can remain in touch with my body. On this occasion I noticed that the suspense in the film I was watching had gripped me to the point of tensing my muscles without feeling it until I made a conscious effort to get in touch with my body. That’s what prompted this week’s blog post. I was thinking about the practice of landing back into my body and hope this might be some use to you.

For quite some time now, several times a day, I have practiced getting back in to my body. It’s a simple exercise that anyone can do. Like any simple practice, it does require a conscious effort to begin with until it becomes a habit. So, at first I would make a point of remembering at least 3 times a day to do what I am going to describe, then after a while it became part of my day naturally. It’s been especially useful now that we are doing more things online.

I begin by working out where my attention is. I do this several times a day. If I’m engrossed in something I can find my attention is in my head as I’m concentrating. The next thing I do is change my gaze by looking somewhere else and raising my eyebrows to open my eyes wide.

Then I take some deep breaths and do a quick body scan from the feet up, noticing each part of my body, releasing any tension and then feeling into each part. As I complete this I land myself back into my body and, on a good day, remind myself how glad I am to be alive and on a difficult or annoying day, remind myself that I have the power to change my response to what is happening by giving myself empathy.

Doing this regularly reminds us of how important it is to be truly alive and conscious of how we are leading our lives. It helps us make the small adjustments which prevent things from spiralling or escalating.

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

This week I was thinking about how this practice helps me and what it would be like to teach this to children from a very young age as part of their education. In the Dialogue Road Map Peer Mediation training we do an exercise of stopping and listening where we just sit and breathe. Some children have never experienced this and it is a revelation.

The Wednesday Whisper

How do you land back in your body? Do you notice when you are not in your body?

Does this blog have any resonance for you?

Would you be willing to share this blog and repost it?

6 Comments

Paul Crosland
Posted 4 years ago Reply

When you imagine today to be the anniversary of your death how do you feel in your body? Worse than Fargo? I didn’t start the series because Francis McDiarmond(SP?) as the woman
cop and the actor who played the car salesman in the film -and the Coen brothers’ direction- could not be topped IMHO. I’m in touch with my body whenever I remember the leg going through the wood chipper!
Footnote: Wish I had free access to her other films; notably “Three Billboards…”. Anyone else want to share moments from the screen (eg Psycho shower) and the bodily effect experienced or locked-in on a loop?
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 4 years ago Reply
  
  OK Paul, when I imagine today as the anniversary of my death, my body feels calm. I’m satisfied with the contribution I’ve made to life. Though, of course it’s twinged with a little discomfort at the thought that I wouldn’t have seen my grandchildren grow up.. I’ll look out for Three Billboards
Minna Bruce
Posted 4 years ago Reply

I am intrigued that you have written about this because I am often in a situation (usually while doing emails at my laptop) where I suddenly become aware that my shoulders are totally tense and the bit of the shoulder beside my neck is rock hard and raised up to the point that when I realise and purposefully relax the tension to lower them they literally drop by about 5 or 6 inches!!!
The worrying bit is that having done that and thinking to myself “Now I must stay relaxed”.. sometimes within 10 minutes I become aware it’s all tense again.. and occasionally to the point where my fingers go tingly and numb.

I also enjoy opening my eyebrows right up like you mention, because I find it can simultaneously loosen my ears and then my jaw and then my neck . It’s such a relief.. like diving into a cool swimming pool on a boiling hot day.. but without all the hassle of getting undressed.
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 4 years ago Reply
  
  Yes, I hear that within 10 minutes we can revert to tenseness. The practice I describe helps us reverse this… relaxed most of the time and tense occasionally.
Paul Crosland
Posted 4 years ago Reply

Thank you for reminding me to break offfrom my usual way of operating; like a brain on a stick! (These days an overweight stick). Before finishing your blog post I want to know the name of the thriller and then compare my memory of how I reacted to it; presuming I’ve seen it too. The ego-shaking advanced Buddhist Meditation called the 6 element practice is designed to connect us with the elements within us. The version of the meditation which came to me whilst reflecting on a rare walk was to replace the elements with checking in with my body as follows: “lower intestine(earth); bladder(water); heart(heat); lungs(air); & before getting to the reflection on consciousness, reflecting on the whole body in terms of the space I take up, which is not me, not mine and will return for others use today or a year from today or on a death day whose anniversary is on one of another 365 days.
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 4 years ago Reply
  
  Thanks Paul,
  I didn’t quite understand the last sentence of your post about the dates?
  The thriller I was watching was an episode of Fargo. Having enjoyed season 1 we started watching season 2 which was altogether different and I found it very stressful but having invested in the first couple of episodes decided to see it out – which was a mistake!! Maybe the subject of another blog – knowing when to quit!!
  Maria