Connecting with our self

The stresses and worries of life can lead us to live more in our mind than our body. Feelings of shame, embarrassement, or guilt about something in our past, or anxiety and fear about something in our future, can take powerful hold of our mind, and over time bring our system off-balance. If the situation lasts we may become habituated to it and spend our entire existence off-balance to a smaller or greater extent.

Re-establishing our perception of ourself as a complete being - mind and body working in harmony - is essential to restore balance. The good news is that our system - especially our central nervous system and brain - has a natural capacity for self-healing. A way to activate that capacity is to use our own touch to re-establish connection with our physical self. It's a powerful technique which I often incorporate in my teaching.

We place our hands somewhere on ourself - for example, on our belly - and bring our attention to what our hands are sensing. What temperature do we feel our belly to have? What is the consistency of the surface of our belly - soft or hard, or something else? What movement can we feel our belly make with the action of breathing? This may be a tiny movement, but hands are sensitive and will detect what's there, if we give it time. This is a process, it doesn't happen all at once, so it's best to enter without any specific expectation but with curiosity about what we might find. Are the left and right sides of our belly the same in shape, elasticity, movement? What about the upper and lower parts of our belly?

And of course we can place our hands elsewhere on ourself, even hold our own hand, in this process of reconnecting with ourself. This is about observing ourself as we are, as a neutral and curious observer. We observe a place while it's interesting, and when we our interest wanes we move on to observe another place. With practice it becomes possible to sense our self from the inside, without help from our hands.

We are complex beings and there's lots to discover. This process of discovering more about ourself is essential to reconnect mind and body, to learn to manage stress, and to widen our repertoire of movement and behavior. It's a necessary element in acquiring new skills. It's why the Feldenkrais Method is an ideal discipline to help maintain balance in our system, so we can consistently be the best we can be.

How do you experience the connection between your mind and body? Please leave a comment.