Body Awareness: Oh Body, Where Art Thou?

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A Simple Exercise For Reconnecting With Your Body And Dissolving Stress in the Digital Age

Possibly the biggest problem we have in modern life is that so many of us are running around like a giant head...and not in our body.

What do I mean by that odd statement?

In our modern lives we are spending unprecedented lengths of time looking at screens. We’re scrolling on our cell phones. We use computers for work and entertainment. We binge Netflix. And while we gaze into these glowing rectangles, we tend to ‘leave our body’. Awareness shifts into the visual senses, and everything else falls away.

When we’re not fixing our attention on screens, we still seem to get lost in the moving picture show of our thoughts. We practically ‘live in our heads’, thinking about things and reacting from there...a recipe for anxiety run amok.

The solution to this pesky modern problem is body awareness. It’s the instant antidote to stress that you can use to get grounded in your body and eliminate the anxious tension within it. Awareness is a powerful force - once you learn to recognize tension in your body, you’ll be empowered to instantly eliminate it.

So today, I’m going to invite you to depart your head and reconnect with your body by sharing an exercise that makes it easy and fun. I encourage you to try it and make it yours!

A Simple Body Awareness Practice: Observing and Addressing Sensations

Observing The Sensations

To start, set aside three minutes when you’re by yourself. In this exercise, you’re going to be talking to yourself out loud, so privacy is your friend here.

Take a deep breath and begin to settle yourself. Quietly start observing the sensations in your body. Then, begin naming what you notice out loud, like...“Oh, my back is hurting a little, yes.”
“Oh, I can feel my breath moving through my lungs pretty easily today, yes.”

“My fingers and toes are cold right now, yes.”

I suggest adding the ‘yes’ because it serves as a small affirmation of what you’re saying. Just spend a few minutes going through any sensations available for you to notice right now - both good, bad, and neutral. You might notice that you revert to daydreaming rather than to a sensation in your body, but gently refocus yourself with each mindful breath. You will get better with practice.

Addressing The Sensations

Just the simple act of connecting with sensations in your body is powerful. But, what will you do with that new information? You can increase the stress dissolving power of this practice by taking cues from your body and caring for its needs.

Feeling a stiff pain in your upper back? Take it as a sign to get up and stretch. A tightness in your jaw? Take a few slow, deep breaths to release this common anxious tension. Perhaps that irritable feeling was just the hunger pangs from a skipped breakfast, not the email from your boss. When you tend to your body, your entire being becomes more resilient to unnecessary anxiety.

Doing this exercise for just a few minutes each day will get you back in the habit of feeling your body. The more deep breaths you take and go inside and explore, the more places in your body you will become familiar with.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking, “oh, it’s probably been years since I released the muscle tension right here...and now I can do it with just a few deep breaths!” Practice this, get good at it, and it will change your life!