On any given day do you know what your body wants?
Perhaps you can discern when you’re hungry, so you eat. You eat and then you’re not hungry any more.
Today in class I was speaking with a student. We were talking about the importance of paying attention to her body and learning what feels good and what doesn’t. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Right now as you sit here can you sense what feels good in your body? Now, can you sense where you feel discomfort? Maybe it’s not so cut and dry. It could be more of a blurred line between the two.
If you’re in pain the biggest noise (pain) gets the attention. The comfortable part becomes unnoticed. However, the comfortable part is what your body wants to feel.
In Awareness Through Movement® class we develop and refine the ability to feel our body. You become more and more aware of how you feel as you do a movement and learn to do what feels comfortable. It takes practice. For example, you do a movement maybe large at first and that doesn’t feel good so you make it smaller until you discover yes, that’s much better. All sorts of strategies we use in class to help us refine our movement so it feels good for us, not the person next to you.
Whether you’ve experienced it or not your body wants comfort and ease. And it’s available to you. You find that by developing the ability to pay attention to how your body feels. Giving it focused attention and a kind attitude. (Not pushing through pain that’s what I mean by kind attitude.) Then you can hear what your body is asking for.
This skill developed in class morphs into your daily life. You experience more clearly how you feel when you move and you spontaneously stop the downward spiral into that very loud and lousy noise, pain.
If you’re not in class or doing 1:1 with me how can you practice on your own?
Here are some tips:
Spend a moment during your day and find a place where you can stop, maybe on a park bench or your car before you get on the road. Sit there and feel your butt on the seat, your back against the chair. And notice how you feel. This simple step of noticing what you feel gives your body system the ability to move toward comfort. I’m pretty sure that includes a deep breath.
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