Rediscovering the Lost
Body Connection
Chapter 1: Why pay attention to feelings?
The Hawk Story – California’s little lake
Invisible currents
that carry grace. Upward spirals.
Each of us has an inner world and a universe of unexplored
possibilities.
One has to lead the other to that current of grace.
An unrecognized capacity waiting to be found. We exist as part
of something greater, and our bodies want to connect with it.
Six Fundamentals of Body Knowing and Learning
Most people do not recognize when their feelings rise up
because they are too preoccupied with instantly reacting to them – especially when
the situations are difficulty, scary, or lonely.
These six steps will give you a body sense for how you carry
your feelings in your body.
1.
We all have feelings. Much of our ability to
know comes from our body’s ability to know, rather than the mind’s capacity to
think. We restrict our knowledge because we do not pay attention to what our body
tells us. We have to learn to listen to them.
2.
Every physical sport or activity knows that we
learn from the body feel of doing something correctly. A nice golf swing confirms
a good drive. An athlete learns from directly entering into the process of
learning from inside their bodies. We know it in the bones.
3.
The body’s way of felt-knowing is different from
thinking, analyzing, or reasoning. The body senses a relational whole of a
situation or experience, embracing the entire web of complex linking and
connecting. We have two complementary ways of knowing. We have to learn to use
both together in a balance interacting practice.
4.
Greeks had five different kinds of knowledge:
scientific knowing, wisdom, opinion, faith, and gnosis. Only scientific knowing
relied only on the mind; the rest depended upon the two parts interacting together.
These are: hunch, intuition, creativity, inspiration, revelation, and wisdom
that comes from experience.
Wisdom expresses
far more than information. Solomon, who asked the Lord for wisdom, drew upon a
deeper knowing, something beyond logic and law, analysis, reason, and
hard-thinking. The body speaks the truth when your mind cannot even begin thinking
about what to do or say.
5.
Everyday feelings, emotions, and physical sensations
represent the first step. All feelings, whether positive or negative, express
an important part of body intelligence because they introduce you to deeper
felt meanings.
6.
Most don’t realize how values, basic human
goodness, and a positive sense of self are learned and acquired through our
body. It arrives through our body’s ability to become aware of innumerable
connections. It also knows that each of us is part of a greater whole.
Developing Habits.
Feelings are like a ringing phone. A message is trying to get through.
They alert us that some information is waiting for us. Yet, when the feelings-phone
rings, we are in a habit of blocking them. Sometimes people escape, numb,
avoid, or substitute something they enjoy in place of what they perceive as
fearful or a hurting attack.
There is a difference between owning and processing one’s feelings versus
acting them out in a destructive way that demands intervention. Learning the
habit of noticing and nurturing important feelings is the first step toward
processing destructive feelings.
The
growth moment is when a person can process one’s feelings that allows the inner
felt meaning to unfold and to be heard. Feelings are neither good nor bad. They
simply happen. Acting out destructively harms the self and others. There is
another way forward.
Invite people to listen to their important feelings.
By noticing important feelings and to
learn how to care for them, a person can embark upon a discovery trip inside
themselves. Feelings can express themselves like stories in a book when more
pages can be turned, and new discoveries are made. We have to notice and nurture
these positive feelings. It motivates learning and results in a development of
a lifelong learning.
We can
develop a patient, listening, and caring attitude toward how our bodies carry
feelings, especially when there is a lot unreconciled within us. Feelings need
to be heard, then they change how we carry them. It frees us from the prison of
old, stuck patterns that obstruct wholeness.
Our bodies
are teachers, not enemies. Experiencing this inner resource generates courage,
self-confidence, and a creative human spirit. We can feel good about who we
are, no matter what our feelings may be or what crisis may swirl around us.
Feelings are only the tip of the iceberg and there is a deeper, richer story
waiting beneath every feeling.
