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?

 

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