Feeling Tone With Tension & Relaxation
Inspired by Dr Ann Saffi Biasetti This practice is meant to offer some physical release while at the same time allowing your mind to notice what is ACTUALLY happening in this moment rather than on an evaluation of what is wrong, or associations and memories of the past, or what we should do about it in the near or distant future. With practice, it can help disentangle the thoughts and emotions of the pain story from our actual physical sensations by noticing the feeling tone. Explore what is surprising and allow this to plant some seeds of curiosity.
Transcript
In this practice the intention is to really heighten awareness in parts of the body through tensing and releasing and noticing three things only pleasantness,
Unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant in the body sensations.
It's deliberately a reasonably quick practice.
It offers some physical release while at the same time because it's quite quick your mind will notice what is actually happening in this moment rather than have too much time to go into thoughts of what's wrong or right or associations or memories or what we should be doing about it.
It can really help in the untangling of the thoughts and emotions from the pure noticing of our feeling tone of our physical sensations.
It's probably easiest to sit in a chair with your feet on the ground for this practice but you can sit on the ground if you prefer.
Nice to have some support on your back.
Settling in to your chosen posture and start by taking a few releasing breaths.
Actually lifting the arms up to your side right above your head on the inhale and releasing on an exhale and again lifting the arms up on the inhale and releasing on an exhale and one more time lifting the arms up on the inhale and with this release you might even have a little bit of a sigh with the mouth open and gradually drawing attention to your physical body.
So starting with attention to your feet and all four corners of the feet.
Each side of the balls of the feet and the heels.
Starting off by pressing your feet into the ground a little.
Just lift your toes up and then put them back down.
Rolling your feet from side to side.
Press a little into the balls of your feet.
Lifting your heels a little and then pressing into your heels by lifting the balls of your feet a little.
Now turning your attention just to your right foot now and moving that around a bit.
You might again lift your toes,
Roll your feet,
Pressing into the ball of the foot and the heel of the right foot.
Now pressing that foot down and noticing the sensation that develops in the foot,
Ankle,
Maybe even lower leg,
Maybe tight or tense.
Holding this and simply labeling internally as pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now releasing and again no need to think,
Just noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Now pushing into the left foot,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neither and release it.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Trying this again on each leg now,
Perhaps pressing a bit harder so you feel the sensation higher in the legs.
So maybe the right leg,
Pressing a bit harder,
Checking out the thigh and noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither as you hold the pressure.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither as you release.
And on the left,
Pressing a bit harder,
Feeling the sensation higher in the legs,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither as you hold and pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither as you release.
So moving the right leg around a bit now,
You might like to bend and straighten the knee and then really straightening that right leg out and flexing the foot back,
Feeling that pressure build in the right calf and hamstring.
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Noticing that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And moving now to the left leg,
Bending and straightening the knee a little bit and then straightening the left leg out,
Flexing the foot back,
Feeling the pressure build in that left calf and hamstring.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Now back to the right leg and point the foot this time,
Hold that,
Notice sensations in the shin,
Maybe foot.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Now straightening that left leg out,
Pointing the left foot,
Hold,
Noticing sensations.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving your attention now up to your bottom,
Hips and pelvis,
Perhaps just moving them all around a little,
Like little sitting hula hoops.
And then pressing hard into your seat,
Really holding,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing that.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Maybe one more time,
Pressing the bottom into the seat,
Holding that.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving your attention up to your lower back now,
Perhaps doing some sitting cat-cow kind of stretches,
So arching and rounding your lower back a little and then arching it the other way.
So going back to the pressing your lower back into the seat,
Hold that,
Notice tension in the belly,
In the back,
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And this time arching the back the other way,
Noticing the tension in the lower back,
Holding,
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving to your belly now,
You might even like to wiggle your belly a little.
Stick the belly out and in,
Jiggle it around a little bit.
And then drawing your belly at the level of your belly button,
Perhaps with a breath in,
Hold,
Really noticing that tension,
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Noticing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And one more time with your belly,
Breathing in,
Drawing the belly in,
Really tightening that belly,
Noticing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving now to the whole back and the length of your spine and you might like to move your back around a bit,
Just moving that back,
Giving it a bit of a stretch.
And now really sitting upright and reaching that crown of your head towards the ceiling,
Feeling the tension in your back,
Holding,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Relaxing the head down,
Rounding the back,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Do this a couple more times,
The reach of the crown of your head,
Noticing and then releasing,
Relaxing,
Rounding the back.
One more time,
Reaching that head up,
Building the tension in your back,
Holding,
Noticing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Relaxing the head down,
Rounding the back,
Noticing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving the attention to your chest now,
Lean forward and let your shoulders round forward and then straighten back up,
Drawing your shoulders back down and away,
Pulling your shoulder blades together,
Holding,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And again,
Shoulders rounding forward and then straightening back up,
Drawing your shoulders back down and away,
Shoulder blades together,
Holding,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and noticing the release,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
You might like to move your shoulders around a little bit,
Loosen them off and then see how it is to pull your right shoulder up towards your right ear,
Holding that,
Noticing,
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing that,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now the left shoulder up towards your left ear,
Holding it,
Noticing pleasantness,
Unpleasant or neither and releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Moving now to your hands and arms,
So maybe opening and closing your hands a couple of times,
Might like to rotate the wrists one way and then the other,
Might like to straighten and bend the elbows.
And now moving to your right hand,
Making a fist with your right hand,
Noticing,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Making a fist with the left hand,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Now straightening that right arm and bending back the hand,
Really noticing that tension,
Holding it there,
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing that,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now straightening the left arm,
Bending back the hand,
Holding that,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing and noticing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Noticing your neck now,
You might want to just move your head around gently,
Loosening the neck off a little.
And now slowly moving your right ear down to your right shoulder until you feel a stretch in the left side of the neck,
Holding,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Then slowly moving your left ear down to your left shoulder until you feel a stretch in the right side of the neck,
Holding that,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Draw your chin down towards your chest now,
Feeling that pull in the back of the neck,
Noticing,
Holding it,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now lifting your chin up and holding that,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neither and releasing gently,
Is that pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
So moving the attention up now to the head and face and moving the mouth around a little,
Actually opening it,
Moving the jaw,
Maybe pursing the lips,
Blowing out the cheeks and then noticing how it is to clench the jaw tight,
Feeling this in your cheeks,
Holding it,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neither.
And repeating that,
Clenching the jaw tight,
Noticing and releasing and noticing.
Now scrunching up the eyes tight,
Holding them,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and now releasing those eyelids,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And raising the eyebrows up towards the forehead now,
Really notice that tension in the forehead,
Holding it there,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
Perhaps just spending a minute now,
Noticing if perhaps there's an area of the body that would like a bit of extra attention right now.
Perhaps it might be holding some extra tightness or tension.
You could simply drop the question into your body,
Where am I holding tension at the moment?
And if you find the area,
You might like to repeat the practice of tensing it a bit further,
Holding it,
Noticing pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither and then releasing,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither.
And now letting go of the practice and just taking a little while to reflect on what you noticed.
It can be quite common to be surprised at what you discovered.
It can be interesting to notice some shifts in sensations that you felt were really quite fixed.
And another very common finding is that some areas of the body are really difficult to stay with,
This is normal and it will also change with practice.
How was it to notice sensation over thought?
To notice that feeling tone is different from the thoughts that come in afterwards.
If you keep practicing this,
You may really come to know deep inside that thoughts and emotions about body sensations are different from the actual sensations.
And finally,
Just noticing areas of the body that perhaps have released a little tension,
Perhaps there's a bit more ease or pleasantness or a move from unpleasant to neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
And perhaps taking your attention to your breath,
Just noticing a few breaths.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes and move the body how it needs to be moved before you go about your day.
