Hello and welcome back to somatic training for leaders.
My name is Christopher Wilson.
I am a somatic psychology master's degree student at California Institute of Integral Studies and I am an integral development coach.
Today is session two of three of our three by three check-in training.
By now,
You should have listened to training number one for the three by three check-in.
This means you would have had an opportunity to practice the three by three check-in one,
Two,
Or three times a day.
As you move through the default flow of your work and life,
You may have shared the three by three check-in with somebody that is important to you,
Someone that you collaborate with as an invite for them to participate with you in slowing down and developing a posture of practice and a more attuned relationship.
In today's training,
We are going to be building on the three by three check-in practice from level one.
In level one,
We learned the script and we learned to perform the three by three check-in for our first time.
In that training,
I pointed to what we were going to discover in today's training,
Which is going over formative language and our relationship with language and how we relate to our experience inside of our body and outside of our body.
But just to recap on the three skills that we are developing as we start to develop embodied leadership.
The first one is the physical sense of tapping into or turning on our sense of interoception.
The second one is the ability to self-regulate or to regulate and respond to what's happening in the environment inside my body or to the challenges that I'm experiencing in my work in life.
And to do that,
To learn how to self-regulate,
We have to develop a sense of practice.
And number three is we're developing emotional fitness or emotional elasticity.
Okay,
Let's begin today's training.
I am going to do the check-in again,
But this time I want you to bring awareness to the language that you use to relate to your experience.
And this is what's called formative language.
And this is a mindfulness tool in order to develop embodied mindfulness,
Which is very,
Very important.
It's not simply just mindfulness,
We're developing embodied mindfulness skills.
And language is one of the primary tools that we use to describe what's happening for us or how we're relating to the situation,
Whether we're talking to ourselves in our heads or we're speaking out loud.
So let's become mindful of the four different types of formative language.
We suppress,
We express,
We judge,
And we tell stories.
An example of suppression is I might say,
I feel a little sad.
It's a very different experience to say,
I feel sad.
I notice I'm feeling kind of frustrated.
I feel frustrated.
It's a very different experience to simply be frustrated.
Or I feel very angry.
Or I am extremely annoyed.
Notice how we suppress and we express different forms of amplification of our experience.
Next is we judge.
I notice a really messy office.
I amplified the judgment of the quality of the office.
It's really,
So I amplified it and I judged the quality of it.
It is messy.
Notice that there's nothing wrong with suppression,
Amplification,
Judgment,
Or stories.
It just is.
What's important is that we start to become aware when we're doing it so that we can attune to our experience more acutely.
And finally,
We tell stories.
I notice an Ikea bag in the corner of my office.
I bring that Ikea bag with me every morning when I go to the pool.
It carries all of my equipment for the pool and has plenty of room for my towels and sometimes my wetsuit.
Notice that when I noticed the Ikea bag,
There was an automatic story,
A cascade of a story in my head that I was telling about the object that I was noticing.
And this happens very often non-consciously.
So what we're practicing at level two of the three-by-three check-in is becoming aware of our tendency to suppress,
To amplify,
To judge,
And to tell stories while we're doing the check-in.
It's not to not do it.
This is why in our level one training,
I wanted you to just let yourself do the three-by-three check-in three to five times a day for a week on your own to get a feel for what is it like to check in.
Now at level two,
I want you to become aware of your tendency to suppress,
To amplify,
To judge,
And tell stories.
And as those moments of suppression or amplification or judgments or stories roll off your lips or pop up in your mind,
I want you to choose whether to use them or not.
And when you choose not to use them,
I want you to notice how much that shifts or changes the availability of the direct experience to be felt on or in your body.
The reason why this is so important is because oftentimes we think that when we are more descriptive,
We are able to connect to the experience more.
When in reality,
The more we alliterate our experience,
The more we separate from the felt sense.
Because we're using language to describe something that can only be directly experienced on or in the body.
This is incredibly powerful when we learn it for ourselves,
But also as we relate to others.
And so that's what we're doing in the level two training.
So here we go.
I'm Chris,
And I'm checking in.
I notice a pair of sunglasses on the desk,
And I got those sunglasses online.
And I'm noticing the story in my head pop up about those.
I notice a piece of the rug on the hardwood floor,
And the shadow that it creates,
The fuzz creates on the hardwood floor.
And as I do that,
I'm noticing the story in my head about the rug.
And I noticed that the light in the room just shifted,
And I noticed the trees outside are blowing in the wind.
Physically on or in my body,
I notice a slight tingly sensation on my right knee.
I notice the tingly sensation on my right knee.
I notice the smile on my face just relaxed.
And I can feel my heart beating in my chest.
Emotionally,
I feel sensitive,
Very patient,
And goofy.
I feel patient.
I'm Chris,
And I'm checking in.
Okay.
So I'm doing my best in this exercise to just allow myself to do the check-in without modifying or changing what's popping up for me.
What I want you to do is to check in with yourself and see,
Was I able to notice the amplification,
The suppression,
The judgment,
And the stories that automatically popped up as I was performing that check-in?
So now is your turn to go.
Go ahead and give it a try,
And then press pause on the recording.
I'll be here when you're finished.
Okay.
Good to be with you.
Welcome back.
How was that for you?
Were you able to notice amplification,
Suppression,
Judgment,
And story as it automatically popped up,
Either in the words you used out loud or the story in your head,
The words in your head?
So your stretch this week is to continue to perform your 3x3 check-in,
And this time bringing that attunement or that awareness of your awareness to the amplification,
The suppression,
The judgment,
And the stories,
And see if you can choose to not use it at certain times in order to tap into your experience or purposefully use it and notice how that changes your experience of it.
All right.
May your practice continue for the good of yourself and all things,
And may you get what you're looking for.
I'll see you back here soon for session three of three of the 3x3 check-in.
In that session,
We're going to be learning to use breath,
Posture,
And movement as we get even more out of our heads and into our bodies.
In session one,
We learned the script and how to perform the 3x3 check-in for the first time.
In session two,
We became aware of formative language,
And then in session three,
We are going to bring breath,
Posture,
And movement to the practice.
