Following A Trail Of Crumbs: Connect To Somatic Intelligence

A somatic practice that guides you to connect with your body's wisdom and deepen your self knowledge. This process can be a supportive resource in moments of strong emotion or when you feel stuck in the repetitive loop of an unhelpful story about yourself, a situation or a question. Or it can simply be a gentle but deep meditation to connect more deeply to your embodied, sensing self.

Transcript

This is a practice called following the trail of crumbs. It's a practice of tuning into the wisdom of your own body, Of your own system. Most likely, If you're of the species of the common human, You spend a lot of time living in your head. You probably notice that we get very busy up there thinking and planning, Trying to control things, And that we often miss the aliveness, The wisdom, And the happening elsewhere in our being, Particularly in our bodies. So it can be a good idea to practice bringing our attention down from our heads and inward into our bodies and into connection with the expansive and ever-changing landscapes that are inside of us. At the risk of conjuring up images of Hansel and Gretel going through the forest, I decided to call this practice following the crumbs, As it's a way of following the trail of signposts that our bodies offer us, Which allow us to access the intelligence of our system, Of our soma, Of the life force that lives inside of us. Seeing it as following a trail of crumbs might feel appropriate, Because it leads us deeper into the landscapes of our bodies without knowing in advance where we're going. It might take us to a beautiful clearing, A place of spaciousness in ourselves, From which we can see much more clearly what's going on, Or where we have the space to respond with more kindness, More compassion, More intention, Rather than just simply reacting to the story in our heads. So this practice can be an ongoing journey of exploration, It's not really a destination, You do it once and then it's done. The more you do this, The more you'll notice the habit of tracking the sensations of the body and getting in touch with what's inside of you. As we follow the crumbs, We also gain a little bit more freedom of choice. So like on a trail, When you're arriving at a junction where other paths branch off and you get to decide what feels like a good direction, You get a little bit more breathing space, A little bit more time to decide, Is this story, Is this feeling something I want to follow in this direction, Or is there another way to respond? You can use this as an anytime practice to deepen your self-knowledge, You can use it as a way of resourcing yourself in a moment of strong emotions, You can use it as a way of inquiring into something that's going on, And when you feel stuck in a repetitive loop of an unhelpful story about yourself, Or about the world, Or a situation, Or a question, It might also come in really handy. If you are finding yourself in a really highly activated state of overwhelm and anxiety right now, Then this might not be the best practice for you, And I hope you find something that brings relief and soothing to you in this moment. You can do this practice sitting, Standing, Lying down, In whatever way feels good for you, There's no right or wrong. So let's begin. Start by slowing down and simply noticing what is going on for you, How you're feeling. I'm tired, Or I'm overwhelmed, I'm upset, I'm nervous. You don't have to have a neat label for it, But just notice a general sense of what's going on. A general sense of how you're feeling. Now, Sense deeper into the body. Where in your body do you feel this feeling? What do you notice in terms of your posture, Your breath? How is your throat? Your belly? What are your arms and shoulders doing? What's your connection with the lower part of your body, Your hips, Your legs, Your feet? And if there's a place where you're connecting strongly with the feeling, Where you can sense the presence of this feeling, Then let yourself ask, What is this? Is this a tension? What's the sensation? Is it spacious? Is it dense? Does this feeling have a texture, Temperature, A color or a shape? And is this sensation moving or still? You let yourself linger sometime to notice, To describe, To track what it is that's going on inside your body. And then when you feel ready, See if you can give it a shape. All this information that you've gathered about this feeling inside your body, Is there a way to shape this with your hands, Your arms, Perhaps with your whole body? Don't overthink this. Just let it come from inside the body. What is the posture? What is the shape your body wants to take in this moment? Give yourself time to explore. And feel into this shape. Give it breath. Let it be like a sculpture, A creative project to make this shape congruent with how you're feeling. And then bring some curiosity to this shape. What happens when you're in this shape, When you're in this posture? Where's your attention? What's your relationship to the world around you? Notice what you can and what you can't see, What you can or can't do in this shape. Notice if there's a particular impulse or action that wants to arise from this shape, This sculpture. It could be an impulse to move, To reach, To punch, To hide, To shake. It could also be an impulse to make a sound, To speak, To breathe differently. It might be an impulse that is just a movement with your hands or a movement with the whole body. Whatever this impulse is, Let yourself follow it. Let yourself make that movement. And you can imagine that you have a volume control on this impulse, On this movement. So you can experiment with turning the volume up or down, Letting this movement become more small and slow and quiet and inward. And then other times turning up the volume and making this a stronger movement, A stronger expression of what's inside. And as you do that, As you turn the volume up and down, Notice what happens in these different places, In these different variations. Either use your curiosity, Sense of playfulness, A sense of, I wonder, A sense of, I wonder, A sense of, I wonder, A sense of, I wonder, A sense of, I wonder. In this practice, There's nothing right or wrong that you can do here. There's nothing to get other than what's there, Noticing the small details. And then listen for when you sense that the movement, This action, Is complete. If you can, Notice how you know it is complete. How does it feel that this is the point where it's complete? Give yourself a moment to simply rest. Feel again the contact of the body with the ground. Again, The contact of the body with the ground. And to help yourself land, You might want to bring your attention into your feet or whatever parts of your body are touching something solid, The ground, The chair, The sofa, The bed. And then you might like to make contact with the solid earth of your body by placing a hand somewhere where it feels good, Maybe your heart, Maybe your belly. Or perhaps you'd like to wrap your arms around yourself in a tender hug. And before we close this practice, Simply notice how you feel right now. Thanks for practicing today, And I hope that this practice offered you some meaningful insight, Some wisdom from the depths of your body.