So,
Hi everyone and thank you for joining me.
Today we are going to explore something that may change your relationship with yourself,
Which is the lost art of listening to your body's wisdom.
So,
Let me ask you this,
When was the last time you truly listened to your body?
Not just when it was screaming in pain or exhaustion,
But really listen to the subtle messages it's been sending you all day every day for your entire life.
Most of us have been trained to live up from the neck up,
To think our way through life,
To override our body's signals,
To push through when our body says rest,
To smile when our body says I'm not safe here,
And to stay even when our body says something is not right.
We've become masters at ignoring the very system that was designed to keep us alive,
Healthy and in alignment with our deepest truth.
Here is something that I've learned in my own personal experience.
Your body is constantly communicating with you,
Every moment it's sending you information that your environment,
Your relationships,
Your choices,
Your needs,
It's like having a wise elder inside of you,
Speaking in a language older than words,
But we've just forgotten how to listen.
Your body also knows,
As an example,
When someone is lying,
Before your mind figures it out.
It knows when you're in the wrong job,
Before you can articulate why.
It knows when you need to rest,
Before you burn out.
It knows when something is good for you,
Before you can logically explain it.
We learned to distrust this wisdom.
We were taught that thinking is more valuable than feeling.
Logic is more reliable than intuition.
Mind should control the body,
Rather than collaborate with it.
Your body holds an intelligence that is profound,
Ancient and completely trustworthy.
It's been listening to you,
Caring for you,
Protecting you and guiding you since before you took your first breath.
And it's been waiting patiently for you to remember how to listen back.
Now,
This journey is not about becoming overly focused on every sensation.
This is just about developing what we call somatic literacy,
The ability to understand your body's language,
So you can live in partnership with your own wisdom.
So today we are going to reawaken your capacity for deep somatic listening,
Not as a technique or a tool,
But as a way of being that will connect you to your most authentic self.
Now,
Let's begin by exploring how your body actually communicates,
Because most of us have never been taught this fundamental life skill.
If this resonates with you,
Find a comfortable position where you will not be disturbed for the next few minutes,
And where you can just be open to listening and receiving.
Sitting down,
Lying up,
Or another position,
Whatever works for you,
To feel comfortable,
Safe,
Open and receptive.
Now,
If your body allows,
Place one hand on your heart,
One on your belly,
And just feel life moving through you right now.
Your heartbeat,
Your breath,
And the subtle energy that animates every cell.
Just feel that now.
Now the body communicates through what we call,
What science calls,
Interception.
Your ability to sense your internal landscape.
Now,
This includes obvious things like hunger and thirst,
But also subtle things.
The slight tension that arises when someone lies to you,
The expansion you feel when you're truly aligned,
The contraction that happens when you're around draining energy or draining people,
The way your breathing changes in different environments,
And the gut feeling that guides your way or towards certain choices.
Most of us learned very early to override these signals.
Maybe you were told to hug relatives that you didn't feel safe with,
Just an example.
So you learn to ignore your body's no.
Maybe you were forced to eat when you were not hungry,
So you stopped trusting your appetite cues.
Maybe you were told your emotions were too much,
So you learned to numb your body's emotional expression.
Your nervous system adapted by becoming less sensitive to internal signals and more focused on external cues.
What others wanted,
What was expected,
What seemed right according to outside authorities,
Parents,
Rather than your own inner wisdom.
In somatic work,
We understand that this disconnection from your body's wisdom doesn't just affect your physical health.
It affects our ability to know what we want,
To set boundaries,
To recognize what's true for us,
And to navigate relationships authentically.
Now the most beautiful thing here,
Your body's wisdom has not left.
It's been there all along,
Waiting for you to slow down enough,
To get quiet enough,
To become curious enough to listen again.
So let's explore that today.
We are going to practice the deep art of somatic listening,
Not thinking about your body,
But listening with your body.
Close your eyes if it feels comfortable,
Or you can simply just receive my words.
And let's begin with what I call landing in your body.
Now this is different from relaxation.
This is about arriving fully in your physical experience.
Starting from the top of your head,
Slowly move your attention down through your body now.
Instead of scanning or analyzing,
Simply land your awareness now in each area.
Feel your scalp,
Your forehead,
And the space around your eyes.
Just notice what's happening there without trying to change anything.
Now move to your jaw,
Your neck,
And your throat.
What's the quality of aliveness there?
Is it tight,
Soft,
Warm,
Cool,
Buzzing,
Or quiet?
Then move to your shoulders,
Your arms,
And your chest.
Let your awareness settle into these areas like you're visiting old friends you haven't seen in a while.
Your heart,
Your lungs,
Your upper back.
Notice not just tension or relaxation,
But the subtle qualities of energy,
The way each area has its own unique presence.
Moving down now to your belly,
To your lower back,
And to your hips.
Now these areas often hold deep wisdom about safety,
Sexuality,
Creativity,
And power.
Just listen to what they have to say.
Your legs,
Your feet,
And your connection to the earth beneath you.
Feel how your body knows it belongs here,
How it's designed to be in a relationship with gravity,
With the ground,
And with the physical world.
At this stage you may be feeling a little bit of heaviness,
You may be feeling some sensations,
You may be feeling some tingling.
All of that is welcome.
Nothing has to change.
You're just checking in with your body and allowing whatever shows up.
Now comes the crucial skill,
Learning to distinguish between your body's actual wisdom and your mind's interpretation of what your body is experiencing.
From this state of body awareness,
As you are landed into your body now,
I want you to think about a decision you need to make,
Or you made recently.
Nothing too overwhelming,
Just something you've been thinking about.
Maybe it's about a relationship,
A work situation,
Or a life choice.
First let's notice what your mind does with this decision.
What thoughts arise?
What analysis,
Pros and cons,
Shoulds and shouldn'ts?
Just notice how thinking about this decision affects your body.
Does it create tension,
Agitation,
Or a sense of spinning in your head?
Now instead of thinking about this decision,
Let's listen to it somatically.
Place the option that you're considering gently in your awareness.
Not as a problem to solve,
But as something your body can sense into.
How does this possibility feel in your body?
Does your chest expand or contract?
Does your breathing deepen or become shallow?
Does your energy rise or drop?
Does something in you lean forward with interest,
Or pulls you back?
This is your body's wisdom speaking.
It's not based on logic or analysis.
It's based on your body's deep knowing about what serves your well-being,
What aligns with your truth,
And what feels life-giving versus life-draining.
Your mind might argue with this information.
It might say,
But logically it makes sense.
But this is what I should do,
And that's fine.
Your mind has its own intelligence,
But your body has a different kind of intelligence.
One that includes your nervous system's vast capacity to sense what's truly nourishing for your whole being.
Now let's deepen our somatic listening by exploring how emotions actually live in your body,
Rather than just in your thoughts.
Most of us have been taught to think about emotions,
To analyze them,
Categorize them,
And maybe to try and change and control them.
But emotions are actually somatic experiences first,
Mental interpretations second.
Bring to mind a recent situation that brought up an emotion for you.
Maybe frustration,
Sadness,
Joy,
Anger,
Or anxiety.
Don't think about why you felt this way or what that means.
Just explore this emotion in your body.
Where do you sense this emotion in your physical experience?
Is it a tightness in your chest?
A heat in your face?
A sinking feeling in your belly?
Tension in your shoulders?
Maybe a buzzing or a sense of expansion or contraction?
Now instead of trying to change or understand this sensation,
Simply listen to it.
What is this emotion trying to communicate?
What information might it be offering?
Now anger often carries information about boundaries that have been crossed.
Sadness might be pointing to something that deeply matters to you.
An anxiety could be your system preparing you for something or signaling you're not feeling safe or supported.
Now whatever experience emotion has shown up for you right now,
Without trying to analyze it,
Let's speak directly to this emotion.
I am listening.
What do you need me to know?
I am listening.
What do you need me to know?
I am listening.
And just notice that when you listen to your emotions somatically rather than trying to think your way out of them,
They often have important information to offer.
They are not random or irrational.
They are your body's way of communicating about your environment,
Your relationships and your needs.
Now one of the most profound applications of somatic listening is in relationships.
Your body is constantly giving you information about the people and situations around you.
Information that your mind might miss or override.
So let's think about someone in your life.
Someone you spend time with regularly.
And without analyzing your relationship,
Thinking about your history,
Just bring this person to mind and notice what happens in your body.
Now does your nervous system relax and open in their presence?
Become alert or guarded?
Feel energized or drained?
Sense an expansion or a contraction?
Now this is your body giving you information about the energetic quality of this relationship.
It's not making judgments about whether this person is good or bad.
It's simply telling you how your system responds to their energy.
Now think about someone who feels nourishing to be around.
Someone whose presence allows your nervous system to relax.
And just notice how different your body feels when you bring this person to mind.
Your body knows the difference between people who support your nervous system and people who dysregulate you.
It knows who feels safe and who doesn't,
Who is genuinely present,
Who nourishes your energy and who depletes it.
Now this doesn't mean you cut off relationships based purely on how your body responds.
But it does mean you can use this information to make conscious choices about how much energy you invest,
What boundaries you need,
And how to protect your well-being while staying connected.
Now let's gently explore how traumatic events affect our ability to listen to our body's wisdom.
Because understanding this can help restore somatic sensitivity with compassion rather than force.
Now when we experience an unpleasant event,
Whether it's a single overwhelming event or repeated experiences of feeling unsafe,
Unseen or unloved,
Our nervous system makes a very intelligent adaptation.
It prioritizes survival over sensation.
If your body's signals were not safe to feel or express,
If your needs were not met even when you communicated them clearly,
If your boundaries were not respected even when your body said no,
Then your system learned to numb out,
To overwrite signals and to focus on external cues for safety.
This is why so many of us feel disconnected from our bodies,
Why we struggle to know what we want or need.
Why we overwrite our hunger cues,
Our fatigue,
Our gut feelings about people and situations.
Now we know this disconnection was protective.
Your body was not betraying you.
It was keeping you safe in the only way it knew how.
Here's the beautiful thing.
As you create more safety in your life,
Through healing relationships,
Supporting environments and nervous system regulation,
Your body's natural sensitivity begins to return.
You don't have to force yourself to feel more unsafe.
You don't have to feel or be sensitive.
You just have to create safety that allows your natural somatic awareness to emerge.
Now let's explore how to integrate this deep somatic listening into your daily life so it becomes not just a meditation but a way of being.
Throughout your day,
Your body is constantly giving you information.
The key is developing the habit of checking in,
Pausing to listen before making decisions or reacting to situations.
When someone makes a request of you,
Before you automatically say yes or no,
Pause and notice.
What does your body's response tell you?
Does it expand with a genuine yes or contract with a no?
When you're choosing what to eat,
Instead of eating according to rules and habits,
Just pause and ask your body,
What would actually nourish me right now?
What am I truly hungry for?
When you're in a conversation that feels charged or difficult,
Instead of staying stuck in your head,
Drop into your body.
What is my nervous system telling me about this interaction?
Do I need to step back,
Slow down or set a boundary?
When you're making bigger life decisions,
Include your body's wisdom in the process.
How does this possibility feel in my system?
Does it align with my deeper knowing?
Or does it feel like something I should do?
Now,
Let's expand our somatic listening to include the wisdom that flows through your lineage,
The intelligence that your body carries from all those that came before you.
Your body doesn't just hold your personal experiences,
It carries the resilience,
Survival strategies and the wisdom of every ancestor who lived long enough to pass life on to you.
Now for this part,
Place both your hands on your belly,
The place where life was first nurtured within you.
And as you breathe and listen deeply to the belly,
Feel the connection to your mother,
Through her to her mother,
And back through the generations of women who carried and gave life to your family.
What wisdom does your body hold about survival,
Nurturing,
About the fierce love that kept your lineage going through challenges that you can't even imagine?
Feel in your hands now,
The hands that carry the skills and knowledge of countless ancestors who worked with tools,
Who healed with touch,
Who created beauty,
Built homes and held babies.
Your feet that carry the memory of walking on earth,
Migration,
Moving towards new possibilities.
Your heart that beats the rhythm of all hearts that came before you,
That carries the capacity for love that survived war,
Loss,
Displacement and still chose to create new life.
When you listen somatically,
You're not just accessing your personal wisdom,
You're tapping into the vast reserve of ancestral knowledge that lives in your bones,
Your blood and your nervous system.
Now,
As we prepare to complete this journey of realignment and deep somatic listening,
Let's create a simple practice you can use to stay connected with your body's wisdom.
Each morning,
Before you check your phone or engage with the external world,
Place your hands on your body,
Maybe on your heart and ask,
What does my body need me to know today?
And listen not with your mind,
But with your whole being.
Maybe your body needs more rest,
More movement,
More nourishment.
Maybe it needs you to slow down,
To pay attention to something you've been avoiding or to honour a feeling that you've been pushing aside.
Throughout the day,
Whenever you notice tension,
Discomfort or a strong emotion,
Pause and ask,
What is my body trying to tell me right now?
Before making decisions,
Big or small,
Check in.
How does this choice feel in my body?
What does my somatic wisdom say?
End of the day,
Thank your body for all ways it supported you,
Protected you and communicated with you.
Thank you for carrying me through this day.
Thank you for your wisdom and guidance.
Now just take a moment to feel yourself here in your body in this moment.
Feel the incredible gift of being alive and having this wise,
Responsive,
Communicative system that is your body.
Your body is not just a vehicle of your consciousness,
It is consciousness itself.
It holds the wisdom that connects you to earth,
To life,
To your ancestors.
And when you deeply listen to your body,
You're not just improving your health or reducing stress,
You're reclaiming your birthright as a fully embodied being of light.
You're remembering how to live from your whole self rather than your thinking mind.
Your body may have been waiting patiently for you to remember this conversation,
This partnership,
This deep listening that is your natural way of being in the world.
From this day forward,
You are never without guidance,
Your body is your constant companion,
Your wisest teacher and your most faithful friend.
All you need to do is listen.
Welcome home now to your body's wisdom.
Welcome home to deep listening that is your birthright.
Thank you very much for joining me today and Namaste.
Namaste.
