Where do you feel those breaths in the body? Learning and tuning into this simple awareness practice has the ability to deeply transform your life.

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A note from the writer : Many of the teachings from this blog come from my undergraduate and masters studies in psychology, in my clinical practice as a mental health practioner, in my meditation courses + daily practices and from the teachings from Anodea Judith in Eastern Body Western Mind. Happy reading!

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Begin with this meditation and then read. Or read and then meditate. Which one do you want to do? Listen to your body!

If we are not trained in mindfulness, where we are connected to our bodies right here, right now, sometimes it can be hard to feel where exactly in our bodies we can feel the breath move in and out. Or maybe we think that feeling the breath is not important, asking ourselves, why does it matter anyway? Or maybe our breath feels as if it gets trapped somewhere with constriction. Or maybe we understand the value of consciously breathing deeply and we can follow it through the nose, throat, lungs and belly with ease and trust. No matter where we are in our mindfulness journey, I hope this blog provides some insight into the complexities of the Western colonized culture and the value of staying connected with the Earth. I will share some take home practices to support you to connect into the language of the body. Integration of mind, body and energy makes healing possible and creates the changes we seek in our lives.

To put it bluntly, we’ve learned to devalue the body. Anodea Judith explains how Western medicine treats the body as a machine, repressing our aliveness. In many religions and cultures across the world, we are told not to listen to our bodies, and to shut down our feelings - especially sensual, sexual, and painful ones. Some religions say the body is the root of all evil, while others say the body is an illusion and to be transcended. In school, we are asked to sit still for days, months, years, ignoring our bodies needs and training for a sit-down job. We do not go outside barefoot to connect with our Mother Earth. Our instincts become disconnected from the bodies desire to move, imagine and create. We are told to fit into society and do not question authority. Even standard psychotherapists completely ignore the body as a part of the system of health and teach us the “mind-over-matter philosophy.”

We forget that the body is the vehicle for the soul. It is no wonder we ignore the Earth and have literally lost our ground. When we are disconnected from the ground, the Earth herself, we are disconnected from our first chakra, the root, our “right to be here,” which Judith calls the foundation of our survival and security. We are told to ignore sensations and emotions within the body, to be disconnected and shamed for the very foundations of what makes us human.

Anodea Judith writes, “Separated from the experience of our bodies, we are separated from our aliveness, from the experience of the natural world, and from our most basic inner truth... Disconnected from our body, our actions become compulsive - no longer ruled by consciousness or rooting in feelings, but fueled by an unconscious urge to bridge the gap between mind and body at whatever cost.”

However, in many Eastern traditions, we learn that our wisdom lives in the body. The body has a profound way of communicating with us: through the interconnection of our emotions and our subsequent physical sensations that arise - once we feel the emotions, we tap more acutely into the body. We have the invitation to refer to ‘our’ bodies as ‘the’ body because we are more than the body - we are a soul that inhabits this body during this time and space to have a human experience on this Earth, right now. The body is the home of the soul and the spirit. We need this integration for a healthy human existence.

In short: we are actually given these bodies for our souls to experience the full spectrum of life! That includes what we perceive as “pleasurable”, “painful”… and all that comes in between.

I’d like to make this blog interactive… Go ahead and grab a piece of paper or journal and answer the following question:

What are the ways that the body communicates with you?

A powerful therapeutic practice that I study and use in my private practice, The Makaranda Method, is called Somatic Therapy. Somatic Therapy is a discipline where we work with more than just our mental or cognitive aspects - instead, we practice quieting the mind and listening to the messages of the body. Somatic Therapy’s main ethos lies in the mind-body connection - a much more holistic approach to therapy and a nod to the interconnectedness of self.

Somatic Therapy has a varied history and many disciplines underneath, but the central theme relies on the idea that as humans, inherently biological beings, interpret and store our emotions, generational wisdom and trauma within the body - when we enter “fight, flight or freeze” mode. The energy can get trapped in our bodies and needs to have a way to move it. We can also have a deficiency or an excess of energy within the body itself and we need to build ourselves up, restoring our energy centers, the chakra system, for a healthy, balanced life.

The theory behind Somatic Therapy is that our past mental and emotional patterns disrupts our autonomic nervous system, that “fight, flight or freeze” mode. In this hypervagilent state, we can have a hard time coming back to the here and now, where we have agency to choose our responses as to whether or not our safety is actually threatened. Somatic therapy operates on the basis that our bodies hold onto these emotional experiences and traumas which can manifest later as physical symptoms such as digestive issues, physical pain, hormonal imbalances, sexual and immune system dysfunction, or mental symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders (just to name a few).

According to Psychology Today:

“Somatic therapy emphasizes helping [clients] to develop resources within themselves in order to self-regulate their emotions or to move out of the fight/flight/freeze response and into a higher-functioning mode where they can think more clearly. Through developing awareness of the mind-body connection and using specific interventions, somatic therapy helps to release the tension, anger, frustration, and other emotions that remain in a [client’s] body from these past negative experiences.”

The main goal of Somatic Therapy is to help free ourselves from past events, so we can become more present, fully engaged in our lives.

Through meditations like ‘body scans’, we can tune into the body to receive the messages before they get so loud, we get sick. Meditation gives us the space to check in with ourselves and our bodies on a daily basis to respond to the wisdom from within.

For example, if the muscles and tendons have something to say and we are not listening, they will just get louder and try to get your attention in many ways. Perhaps, if a part of your body receives a lot of vibration or energy while sitting in meditation, you can spend some time breathing into that area. Or maybe, if it feels comfortable you can place your hands there and can give ourselves a loving massage, touch, or physical connection.

In the 8 limb path of yoga, asana (movement) comes before samadhi (awareness) so allow yourself to move to open the body into relaxation. In Sanskrit, ‘soma’ is directly connected to water and means to ‘distill’ and is ruled by the moon - just like water and just like our emotions. In Greek, ‘soma’ means ‘body’ - it is with this world that we can tap into the body and learn to flow like water with its ebbs and flows.

Sometimes, it feels that there is simply no way we can relax. Part of the training in yogic philosophy is to find the space between comfort and discomfort… we allow the signals of the body to be loud and then, we listen. When doing this, notice just how kind we can be to ourselves and the body in this space. Especially when the body is in pain. Many of us take pills or try to think or ‘busy’ our way out of it. This can make the body feel ignored and it will often rebel. One of the most important things we can do is to offer the utmost compassion to ourselves and the body, being really kind and attentive with what comes up, while also welcoming whatever is arising with an open heart.

Sometimes the body speaks to us in way of sensation: through goosebumps, the eyes start to water, the body might get a tickle in its throat. Most of the time we chalk that up to just a “bodily function”, and think nothing more of the sensation. However, today, we invite you to get really curious in these moments. Maybe these functions are not just random, but are here to tell you something!

One simple way to listen to the body is to take a few breaths in meditation. Closing the eyes and taking a few deep breaths. If it is comfortable to you, drop inside and notice where in your body you can feel movement. Ask the body part kindly that is speaking through vibration, to communicate with you. Feel the movement, the energy, the sensation of that part of the body, clearing the mind of all thoughts with each out breath. Simply stay in the sensations in the body with as much compassion as possible. Know you can always come out of the meditation by simply looking around or feeling your feet on the ground at any time.

After practicing to speak and understand the language of the body and you learn to listen to the body in silence. You can even try asking your body, “what do you need?” The brain typically responds right away. Slow down and first relax the body, then quiet the mind and listen. The body can take about 90 seconds to respond. So if the answer comes right away, you can usually tell it is from the mind. Be patient and ask again, and listen to the feelings in the body. You might not be able to understand the body at first, but over time you start building a relationship between the brain and the second brain, the gut, where you can learn to strengthen and trust your instincts.

You know how sometimes you just get a gut feeling about something, where you just know what is the best choice for you! This is where the phrase of the “gut feeling” comes into play: “The gut, the digestive system is possibly the oldest system in the human body, predating the more sophisticated neurological, immunological, and hormonal systems. The human gastrointestinal tract harkens back to the cylindrical body of a worm! Earthworms have been active on this planet for 120 million years, and their fundamental digestive structure is an inherent part of our anatomy today.” - Tias Little, Anatomy of the Subtle Body
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​How cool is that? Earthworms are our ancestors! I even have a worm bin that is my compost in my backyard in Mexico!

I learned from Tias Little that the gut also houses the emotional center that monitors feelings far below the radar of the rational, thinking brain. What makes listening to the body and these gut feelings so complicated is that the “new brain” - the rapid-fire neocortex - can override the impulses that pass through the gut much slower than the high-speed connections made by the brain. The same is true for the rest of the body. Before we can even finish feeling - the brain tries to rationalize, categorize, synthesize, and understand.

​This is why we practice mindfulness meditation. To stay long enough within our bodies for the mind to get quiet and the wisdom buried deep within the body to speak its language. From this space of deeper wisdom and insight from the body, can we separate our thoughts, anxieties, emotions, worries about the future, and regrets about the past, from who we are in the present moment. It is only in the present moment, that we become more aware of our physical sensations, become embodied, allow for non-judgment and allow ourselves the space to process and take intentional action from a place of groundedness and safety.

Here are some key aspects of Somatic Therapy. As you read, write how YOU experience each of these techniques in your life. Why do you want to learn the language of the body? What language do you feel most fluent in when it comes to the sensations you feel? What is the body’s clearest message to you? Hint: use the senses like sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing… and SO MUCH MORE, read on to learn more about your own language of the body!

A step into Somatic Therapy when you’re triggered, feeling a rush of energy. When you’re in a space of overwhelm or feeling triggered/flooded with sensation could be a great place to practice.