Hello and welcome to today's practice.
The title for today's practice is felt sense meditation and before we begin I'd like to give you a little bit of context,
A little bit of background.
So in body based therapy there's a term called the felt sense.
It refers to that subtle sometimes vague awareness you get when you pause and turn your attention inwards.
It's not always a clear thought or a defined feeling.
It can be more like a quiet voice that comes from within your body.
A knowing that perhaps hasn't fully taken shape.
A kind of vague sense with a fuzzy edge.
Psychologists and neuroscientists remind us that emotion often begins in the body through sensations that arise before we even have words for them.
These sensations move through parts of the brain that don't even process language like the brain stem and the limbic system.
The primal parts of our brain.
So that when we slow down to feel,
To truly listen inwards,
We create space and in that space we allow ourselves to meet what's already there.
And this kind of awareness can be profoundly regulating,
Healing and even insightful.
If you're not already there,
Begin by finding yourself in a supportive and workable position.
Something that feels right for this moment.
Whether that's sitting or lying down,
Supported.
Whatever allows you to feel a sense of comfort in your body in this moment.
Take some time deciding whether to gently close your eyes or simply soften your gaze.
Allow yourself to just notice how you are and how you've arrived in this moment.
How you've positioned yourself and maybe what you need.
Allow yourself to feel that kind of downward pressure where parts of your body meet the supportive surface beneath you.
Allow your breath to be easy,
Without effort,
Without trying to control.
Notice how the breath wants to move through you.
Perhaps there's a deeper breath that wants to happen.
Maybe it's a quiet,
Soft breath.
Perhaps you begin to notice little details of your breath.
The feeling of the breath as it flows through the nostrils.
And notice if you perhaps would like to take an exhale softly out through your mouth.
So soft breath in through the nose and a gentle breath out through the mouth.
Allow each breath to be a kind of welcoming.
Allow each breath to offer you something that you need.
A sense of space,
Softness,
Opening.
A sense of rest and allowing.
See if you can start to allow your awareness to drop down and down through the layers of your experience.
And in this moment,
Offering yourself permission to not seek for things that need changing or controlling or fixing.
Inviting yourself to become curious about what is already present.
Notice what you start to sense and feel around the fuzzy edges of your awareness.
You might notice initially those sensations that are with you on a more regular basis.
Those bodily conversations that are happening more at the forefront of your awareness.
Maybe it's a shoulder niggle or a knee pain or back pain.
See if you can give those there due attention.
Acknowledging.
But then see if you can go a little bit deeper,
More subtly.
Maybe you notice small pulsations that arise through your system.
Tingling sensations.
Places that feel warmer,
Places that feel cooler.
Perhaps you notice as well.
Places that feel a sense of heaviness,
Tightness and even places that feel really difficult to notice or to feel.
Almost as if there was a quality of numbness.
There's no right or wrong way to feel.
But as you move your awareness gently towards all of these sensations,
The small ones,
The bigger ones and even the places that are really quiet.
Ask yourself gently,
What's here right now?
Allow yourself to pause and notice.
Let yourself listen inwardly.
You don't have to push for an answer and if one doesn't arise that's also okay.
But if you notice something,
If something starts to gently tug at your attention or nudge its way to the forefront of your awareness.
Maybe you notice a flutter in your chest or a notch in your belly.
Allow your attention to go there if it feels okay.
Allow yourself to go towards those quieter voices.
Notice your breath.
Notice yourself staying with those quiet places and how that feels.
This is the edge of knowing.
A feeling that's maybe not quite a thought yet.
Maybe not even a nameable emotion.
Just a sensation that quietly wants to be heard.
You might ask,
What is this pointing me towards?
What might be underneath this?
You might notice a word comes to mind.
It might be a color.
Might be a shape.
Might be an image.
Again,
There's no need to delve into the story.
Just allowing whatever that naming brought forward.
Did it feel right?
Was it the right word?
The right image?
The right color?
And what did it feel like to acknowledge it in this way?
Did you notice anything about that felt sense changing or shifting in the process of acknowledging?
And then let it be.
No pressure to interpret or label.
Simply allowing that space for the light of your awareness to highlight that place where the quiet voice resides.
You might even take a moment to offer gratitude to that part of you that perhaps has been wanting to share something for a while.
You could let it know that you're always here and you can come back and open the conversation.
Once again,
Another time,
Whenever you need.
Begin to bring your awareness back to the more feelable sensations within your body.
Maybe you sense and feel those points of contact between you and the surface that you're sitting or lying on.
Maybe you feel once again,
That kind of downward pressure,
The sense of your breath moving in through your nostrils and noticing if you'd like to breathe out through your mouth,
Or take a deeper breath,
A longer breath.
Allowing your system to gently integrate what you've just noticed,
What you've just been practicing.
Even if that noticing was simply that it is difficult or challenging to hear or notice those more subtle inner voices.
The practice is in that inward listening.
As we begin to close our practice for today,
Start to bring more awareness back into your position,
How you've placed yourself.
Maybe taking a few deeper breaths,
Bringing in a little bit of gentle movements.
Maybe some shoulder movement if you're seated,
Or wiggle of toes or fingers.
You can stay resting for a bit longer if you have time,
Or gently start to prepare to open your eyes if they've been closed.
Notice the felt sense in your body in this moment.
Any shifts or changes in your energy,
Or any insights that this practice might have brought to your attention.
The invitation is to bring that trust in the quiet voice of your body with you into the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
Wishing you very well.
