“Your brain is a liar. It makes assumptions not rooted in fact, draws conclusions that are more about fear than any kind of logical argument, and has insights often manipulated by the media and other compelling stories.” — Christine Fonseca
Many of us have been taught to trust our thinking mind above all else. We believe that if we just think hard enough, analyze carefully enough, or plan thoroughly enough, we will find the answers we need.
Yet some of life’s most important wisdom does not come from thinking. It comes from listening. Our bodies often know things before our minds catch up.
Think about learning to drive. A new driver is constantly thinking: How far do I turn the wheel? Am I centered in the lane? How much pressure do I put on the brake? The mind is working overtime, and often overcorrecting. But after years of driving, the body knows. It navigates turns and curves with an intelligence that no longer requires conscious thought.
Trust Your Body's Messages
The body is often smarter than the mind, yet we tend to trust our thoughts more than our direct experience.
Our bodies are constantly sending us information if we are willing to listen.
We’ve all had the experience of walking out the door and feeling that something isn’t quite right. We stop and wonder, “What am I forgetting?” Sometimes we ignore the feeling and continue on our way, only to remember halfway to our destination that we left something important behind.
Or perhaps we’ve reached for a chocolate or a treat because we are bored, and somewhere inside there is a quiet signal saying, “You really don’t need this.” Yet the mind quickly responds, “It will be fine. Just this once.” But just this once happens almost every day.
Your Body Speaks Softly
The body often speaks softly. The mind tends to shout.
Many of us also carry emotional tension in our bodies. Worry, fear, anger, grief, excitement, and joy all have physical expressions. Tight shoulders. A clenched jaw. A fluttering stomach. A heaviness in the chest. One of my teachers, Jonathan Foust, says, “The issues are in your tissues.”
Are You Disconnected?
When we are disconnected from our bodies, we miss these messages. We become lost in our stories about our experience rather than experiencing life directly.
The problem is that many of us, like Mr. Duffy in James Joyce’s novel Dubliners, live a short distance from our bodies. We live from the neck up, lost in our thoughts. I most certainly was disconnected from my body. When I took the MBSR class, I really hated the body scan. Me who never got headaches, got a headache each time I practiced the body scan.
But over time, something shifted.
Being Present
I discovered that the body scan wasn’t really about the body. It wasn't giving me a headache, it was allowing me to feel a headache I had been ignoring. The body scan was about learning how to be present.
The body is always in the present moment. Thoughts travel into the future and the past, but sensations are happening now. When we bring attention into the body, we have an anchor that helps us return to the present. When we reconnect with our bodily experience, we reconnect with ourselves.
Awareness of our body sensations helps regulate our nervous system. Simply bringing kind attention to our experience can help calm stress responses and strengthen feelings of safety and well-being.
As we become more familiar with our bodily experience, we begin to recognize signals that indicate alignment and signals that indicate caution. Sometimes there is an unmistakable feeling of openness, ease, and expansion. Other times there is contraction, tightness, or unease.
This doesn’t mean every sensation contains a profound message. Rather, it means that by listening more carefully, we develop a deeper relationship with our own inner wisdom.
Cultivate Awareness
One of the most effective ways to cultivate this awareness is through a body scan.
A body scan develops concentration, flexibility of attention, and acceptance – all at the same time.
As we move through the body, we practice letting go. We may encounter pleasant sensations and want to stay there. We practice letting go and moving on.
We may encounter discomfort, tension, or pain and want to escape. We practice staying present until it is time to move on.
In this way, the body scan teaches both acceptance and non-attachment.
We are not trying to create a particular experience. This is important because many people assume the purpose of a body scan is relaxation. Relaxation may happen, and if it does, wonderful. But relaxation is not the goal.
The goal is awareness.
We are learning to meet whatever is present with curiosity and kindness.
Sometimes we feel warmth, tingling, pulsing, heaviness, or ease. Sometimes we feel discomfort. Sometimes we feel nothing at all. All of these experiences are completely normal.
The invitation is simply to notice.
Notice
- What is present without needing it to be different.
- Sensations without immediately creating a story about them.
- Areas that feel alive and areas that feel numb.
- Pleasant sensations without grasping.
- Unpleasant sensations without resisting.
Again and again, we return to direct experience. Over time, this simple practice can profoundly change our relationship with ourselves. We begin to trust our experience more than our assumptions.
We learn that difficult sensations can be felt without immediately reacting to them. We discover that thoughts are not always true. And perhaps most importantly, we learn that wisdom is not found only in the thinking mind. It is also found in this living, breathing body that has been quietly speaking to us all along.
So today, as we move into the body scan, I invite you to approach it with curiosity. There is nowhere to get to and nothing to achieve. Simply listen. Your body may have something to teach you.