Photo: Max van den Oetelaar
Whole Body Awareness brings you into this “now” moment and actually disrupts reactivity.
Whole Body Awareness is the practice I access most often to get present. It helps me to consistently disrupt reactivity. I use it multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times an hour.
Already today I have used Whole Body Awareness in the following situations:
- A conversation with my husband about his desire to work while we host twelve of our daughter’s friends for a sleepover
- In the kitchen as my son dropped his protein shake and it spilled all over the floor
- On my phone as I received a text from a team member that is no longer willing to work with one of our contractors
Whole Body Awareness is always available for me to practice. I don’t need a meditation cushion or a quiet room. It’s here for me in the grocery store, in the car, in my bed, or in the boardroom.
And it’s here for you too.
Here are 3 simple steps for how you can access Whole Body Awareness.
Step 1 – Take a deep breath and bring awareness to your body.
Take a deep breath. Bring your awareness to your body by noticing the sensations in your body. Use words that end in -ing to describe those sensations:
Do you feel a tightening?
A pulling?
A buzzing?
Bring your awareness to where in your body you are noticing those sensations?
Is it in your chest?
Do you feel it in your hands?
Do you sense them in your neck?
No need to justify or explain “why” you’re experiencing the body sensations you are experiencing.
Step 2 – What feelings are here, right now?
In your body, identify at least two feeling states.
Choose from these five core feeling states:
Anger
Sadness
Joy
Fear
Creativity
What feelings are here?
Now, drop into your body. Resist the urge to go to your mind. And don’t go rogue, stick to this list of five. Trust me.
Step 3 – What is your next thought?
Notice your next thought.
It doesn’t have to make any sense. Resist the urge to bring logic and reasoning to the practice. We’re just welcoming cognitive awareness to your body.
That is the full practice.
Notice your sensations, your feeling states, and your next thought.
Within those three steps is the wonder of Whole Body Awareness.
It is a simple, but holy practice that I bring to every setting in which I find myself teaching. I honestly cannot imagine my life without it. I started this practice with my good friend and mentor Jim Morningstar, a legendary breathworker in Milwaukee. I then deepened this practice during my work with The Hendricks Institute and Conscious Leadership Group. It has altered my day-to-day experience and all of my relationships.
If you are new to Whole Body Awareness, you might find it helpful to set a reminder for three random times throughout the day to prompt yourself to bring awareness to your body sensations, feeling states and next thought. We have long been trained to ignore the body and over value the mind.
After a week or so, you will find that it is a tool you reach for instead of reacting in situations.
After a month of practicing, it will become second nature to pause, breathe, and drop into your body for Whole Body Awareness.
With all that is swirling in the human experience, your ability to activate and access Whole Body Awareness changes your entire experience of life.
Go through the Whole Body Awareness practice with me in this free workshop.
Leave A Comment