We're going to be looking into the sensations in our body.
Before we start any practice,
We check in to see that we're here and how it is that we're coming into the practice.
You could look around,
We could use our eyes to locate ourselves in time and in space.
This is one of the most important things as we're doing any kind of work with stored trauma,
Which is sensations and energy in our body.
And then we have associated thoughts and memories.
Even just thinking about something that's difficult will often bring some kind of a sensation in our body.
So one of the things that we do then is that we really settle into this awareness of what's happening in our body.
And we can use our eyes to notice that we're here in this moment.
Our nervous system's always looking around,
Making sure we listen,
We look,
We use our senses to notice if there's something off or if this is my usual location,
I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be safe here.
So we're always checking to make sure our body's safe.
We can look around as well and notice that with our eyes,
Directly communicate to our nervous system.
There's no danger here right now.
And then as we're doing this practice of working with sensations and energy in the body,
We can have our eyes open at times or open your eyes if you notice things are getting kind of intense.
We just anchor back in to this moment in time and to the location that you're in.
This is one of the real foundations of healing trauma.
We are here in this moment in time and our nervous system is aware that we're here in this moment in time.
Notice your body.
Notice if your body could be a little bit more comfortable.
Notice right now I'm here in my body.
We could also take a few breaths.
Let yourself kind of settle into that.
And as we inhale and exhale,
Let our breath be a signal.
We signal danger when we hold our breath and we signal safety when our breath is smooth,
Continuous,
Diaphragmatic,
Which feels like our stomach area is softening as we're breathing out.
Check in with what's happening in the energy field,
The energy in my body.
There might already be something there that's kind of attracting our attention.
Sensations and energy in our body have a lot of ability to get our attention.
So one of the things that you could do right now is to notice the location.
We get kind of scientific about this in order to help ourselves remain as a witness to what's happening in our body.
So we might notice that our body's supported,
That we're breathing with more ease,
And then we go into the inner experience.
And sometimes that's physical.
We might notice that we're clenching our teeth or our shoulders up around our ears.
We could work with that as well.
Whatever energy is here,
Sometimes there's not a lot of energy in the body.
Sometimes that's because we're kind of numb or checked out.
Sometimes it's because there's not that much going on.
Bring something to mind.
Maybe bring something nice to mind.
And then let's start with that.
Or if there's something that's a little bit more difficult,
We could also start with that.
This is really a listening practice,
Somatic mindfulness listening.
We're noticing the energy in the body.
And whatever it is you brought to mind,
You might also notice there's some images there.
Maybe you're bringing to mind somebody that you really care about,
Or maybe a favorite place where you go.
Most energies or sensations have a finishing point.
Most of them also kind of taper off.
So if you were to notice,
For instance,
A warm feeling in your heart area as you're thinking about this person or that place,
Notice that there's a center usually,
And then it gets a little bit more diffuse.
It tapers off.
If you're feeling a sensation in one part of your body,
Notice a space all around the sensation.
So if it's in your heart area,
Does it go up into your head,
Into your arms,
Into your stomach,
Down into your feet?
Does it go right to the edges of your body?
Just notice what the location is and where are the edges.
There's no right or wrong answer,
Of course,
To these.
We're just noticing.
And then you might also bring in,
Or maybe something has come in that's a little bit more difficult.
If you wanted to do this as a practice,
You could maybe bring forward or bring up something that's a little bit more difficult.
It might be somebody at work or in your social life or at home.
We might not wanna go with a 10 out of 10,
But just something that would evoke a different kind of energy in your body where we feel a little bit more uncomfortable.
Continue to breathe.
Continue to be aware of your physical body.
And if you notice your body's tightening up,
Then you could let that release a bit.
We have this sense now of maybe the energy has changed.
Maybe it's a little bit different.
We're going from something that's real positive.
We're probably going into something that feels a little bit more intense if we're getting into something negative,
Scary or uncomfortable,
Or it's a memory of some time when we felt afraid maybe.
Maybe we're angry and we have that energy in our body.
Notice what's here.
Notice that there are thoughts about it as well as the sensation.
So now if you have a feeling,
For instance,
Of fear,
Where is that in your body?
Or it might be kind of an uncomfortableness or anxiety.
Is it in the same location?
It might be.
It probably has a different felt sense to it though.
So we could notice the edges as well.
And anytime it's getting too intense,
We could take our awareness out to the outside of the energy.
Notice that there's space outside of the energy.
And then we come back a little bit more closely into the energy itself and notice the qualities.
Is it moving?
Is it still?
Is it pulsing?
Is it hot or cold?
Staying aware now that we're witnessing the sensation.
We're noticing the qualities of the sensation,
The size,
The location.
Notice if you have an image of the sensation.
Some people do,
Some don't.
If you do,
You could put that image up on the wall on the other side of the room,
Put it into a frame.
That's an image of a sensation.
And come back into the feeling of the sensation again.
The basic practice of what we're doing is we're noticing our body and our breath.
We're using our eyes and our touch and different things to stay regulated so that we're aware that right now we're in this moment,
Not in the past or the future.
And we might be taking some deeper breaths,
Letting ourselves feel more regulated.
And then we're noticing sensation in the body and also that we can manipulate that in a way.
If we think about something really nice,
Then we have a different kind of sensation than if we're thinking about something that makes us uncomfortable.
So now let's get into wondering and inquiring into why this is here.
One of the ways that our unconscious mind communicates with us is through sensation.
The unconscious mind and the nervous system,
Our protective mechanisms are very much linked.
If we have some kind of an edginess or some kind of uncomfortableness,
It's quite often from hypervigilance in the nervous system.
And it's interesting for us to see as we're talking about stored trauma as well.
Anything that happened to us when we were a child or 10 days ago or two minutes ago is stored in our body.
It's stored in our nervous system.
It becomes part of our memory,
Our life experience.
When we're going into sensations in the body,
Oftentimes there's something there that relates to the past.
Let yourself really go into paying attention to that sensation.
Sometimes people are able to go right into the center like you're experiencing the sensation from the inside.
Sometimes it's like,
Nah,
It's not a good idea.
I'm gonna just stay outside a little bit.
I'm gonna be connected with it,
But not in the middle of it.
So we're also noticing the space around the edges and noticing where it is.
And then as if you're talking to the sensation or that energy,
One thing you might do is start by welcoming it.
Even though it makes us uncomfortable,
This is our experience,
Our stored trauma.
And we do want to be present with it.
We want to know ourselves.
We want to not have this hidden from us.
So as though you're talking to that sensation,
You might just say,
You know,
You're really welcome to be here.
I'm doing this practice.
I'd like you to let me know a little bit more about why you're here.
And then we listen.
The conscious mind might go,
Well,
You know,
That was this and this and this.
And that could be true for sure.
But we listen to the sensation and thoughts will come in.
And then we just notice the thoughts.
So I have this feeling of doom in my stomach.
And then here comes this memory of whatever that is.
So there's a lot of associated thoughts and we're just going to pay attention to them for a little bit,
See what's here.
You might want to keep your eyes open.
If you find like you're getting too intensely involved in the thoughts in particular,
If there's a traumatic memory,
Maybe.
And you could keep your eyes open to help yourself remember that you're witnessing.
And if it helps to have your eyes closed,
That's fine too.
Remain aware that you're here.
Notice your body and your breath.
And we're interested in knowing what's going on.
Why do we feel this particular sensation right now?
So one question that is helpful to look at is,
Is this sensation trying to hurt me?
Sometimes sensations can be very intense or painful or the energy is really moving.
It could feel kind of overwhelming.
Sense into,
Is there a malevolent intention?
Does it want to hurt you?
Is that why it's here?
Because it wants to hurt you.
And if there is a sense of,
Yeah,
Then you could look at how you know that.
There must be some kind of thoughts.
What we always come to is,
Actually know it feels intense or whatever it is that you're experiencing.
And it's not actually here to hurt me.
So then why is it here?
Often there's some element of warning.
It wants to warn me that something's not right.
This feeling of uneasiness is pay attention.
There's something you're not seeing.
There's something that's dangerous here.
It might be trying to warn us,
To protect us.
Our body,
Our nervous system is always on our side.
It's always trying to do its best for us.
And so we do this opening,
This practice of being welcoming.
I'd like to know more.
If you're here to let me know something,
What is that?
Sometimes there's a sense of an age.
Maybe you're having a memory come up from when you were in grade three or when you were 25 or whatever it is.
So notice what's coming up.
Thoughts that are associated,
The memories that are associated with the energy.
We're just giving them some airspace.
We're giving them a chance to come forward.
And if it's a younger self,
Sometimes there might be an opportunity there to connect in.
You might see an image of yourself at that age or maybe an image of a house that you lived in at that time or something.
And could you connect with that younger self to say,
You know,
I'm happy that you're here.
If there's something you'd like to tell me,
I'm listening.
You're not alone anymore.
I'm an adult now.
Continue to be aware of the energy,
The sensations,
And that you're here in this moment.
Sometimes there's kind of an image that goes with that or some words,
And sometimes it's more of a felt sense of connection.
What is it that you'd like me to know?
What is this sensation here for?
And as you're breathing in and breathing out,
Notice your whole body.
Notice the sensation,
The space around the sensation.
We're listening.
There's no particular thing that has to happen.
We're here,
We're paying attention,
We're open.
If you find that you're getting kind of dragged back into the past,
Particularly into traumatic memory,
Open your eyes.
There's images,
Put them in a frame on the other side of the room,
Like you're looking at a picture.
Images are colors and shapes that our mind interprets.
If it's quite intense,
You could notice the image,
The frame,
The space around the frame,
The space between you and the wall.
And then take your eyes around that empty space a couple of times in one direction and then a couple of times in the other direction.
And then you might look back into the frame and notice what the image does now.
Is it the same?
Has it changed?
Sometimes we do that two or three times with a really intense memory.
We're breaking the trance.
We're not actually back in that time.
That's not actually happening.
Right now,
What we're doing is we're witnessing.
We're here,
Aware of sensations,
Energies,
Associated thoughts.
Anytime we want,
We can pause or pull back.
Notice the space around the sensation.
Use our eyes again to locate ourselves here in this time.
Let yourself breathe.
Come back again into noticing what's here.
So often these sensations are linked,
Energetic and physical.
Like a heartache feels like there's something in our heart that's broken,
Heartbreak.
Or if we have a sensation of fear,
We often feel like there's something going on in our stomach,
Some kind of movement of energy there.
So this is a mind-body type of connection.
We can notice my heart is really racing and then that causes concern and then that takes us down a certain path.
And then we can come back and we can notice,
Well,
Right now what I'm noticing is I'm having this experience,
Whatever it is.
I can come back into this moment.
And is it okay with me that my heart is feeling sore or there's a physical sensation in my heart?
Then we can bring our hands to our heart if we wanted or someplace else on our body,
We could hold our hand.
We could give ourselves some comfort.
This is courageous work to come into our body and be present.
And to let all of these sensations and energies be here,
That we're witnessing them,
We're aware that we're here and that this is what's happening in our body.
And that we actually do want to know.
And we can offer comfort.
So if a memory comes up,
We could offer ourselves compassion that,
Ooh,
That was a hard experience and I'm not in that situation anymore,
I'm here.
And I could offer myself kindness.
I could be patient with my body.
I could stay connected.
We could offer that to ourselves through the day,
Whenever we stop to do a practice.
And this is the way that we heal stored trauma.
We pause,
We go in,
We pay attention.
We listen,
We welcome.
And we stay in awareness that we're here and that this isn't the past or the future.
This is this moment in time.
And what we're experiencing is the history of our life in our body.
And we can be present with an open heart and compassion to ourselves,
To all of these elements of ourselves,
Including the somewhat uncomfortable sensations in our body.
And we can welcome all of ourselves to be here.
