Tara: The great novelist D.H. Lawrence wrote bodily the human race is dying. It’s like a great uprooted tree with its roots in the air. We must plant ourselves again in the universe. As we mindfully experience the actual sensations in our body, we're planting ourselves in the universe. In the last session, you began exploring feeling the body from the inside out. So today, we’ll do a mindful survey of the body getting a sense of where it’s easier to feel sensations and also those areas where you might think of it as our roots are in the air. The areas that feel more inaccessible. When we're primarily living in our mind, we tend to observe our physical form from a distance. You might remember that quote from James Joyce about his character who lived a short distance from his body. So, at these times, we’re typically unaware of bodily sensations. At most, we're feeling only the sensations on the surface of our body.

So, when we're out of touch with a more full felt sense of our body, there are several consequences, and I want to name them for you. One big one is that we're unable to tune into the intelligence in our body that actually lets us know how to take good care of ourselves. Scientists tell us that the brain is connected to huge networks of neurons in the heart and the gut. So, we don't think only with our head. There’s critical information in the whole body that we can pay attention to and learn from.

There’s an essay I’d like to read to you that I feel illustrates this in a really powerful way. “I am the pain in your head, the knot in your stomach, the unspoken grief in your smile. I'm your high blood pressure, your fear of challenge, your lack of trust. I’m your hot flashes, your fragile lower back, your agitation, and fatigue. You tend to disown me, suppress me, ignore me, coddle me, condemn me. You usually want me to go away immediately, to disappear, to slip back into obscurity. More times than not, I’m only the recent notes of a long symphony. The most evident branches of roots that have been challenged for seasons. So, I implore you. I'm a messenger with good news as disturbing as I can be at times. I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself. The place where you can hold yourself with compassion and honesty. I may ask you to alter your diet, to get more sleep, exercise regularly, breathe more consciously. I might encourage you to see a vaster reality and worry less about the day-to-day fluctuations of life. I may ask you to explore the bonds and wounds of your relationships. I am your friend, not your enemy. I've no desire to bring pain and suffering into your life. I’m simply tugging at your sleeve too long immune to gentle nudges. You are a being so vast, so complex with amazing capacities for self-regulation and healing. Let me be one of the harbingers that leads you to the mysterious core of your being where insight and wisdom are naturally available when called upon with a sincere heart.”

So, the first consequence of being disconnected from our body is that we can’t listen to the messages that are essential for our wellbeing. This disconnection from our body also limits our ability to sense and comprehend what’s going on in others. The mirror neurons that enable us to be attuned to others are only activated if we have a degree of conscious connection with our own sensations and emotions. So, mindfulness of our body is essential in being empathically connected with others.

Finally, when we're disconnected from our bodies, we don't feel a visceral sense of belonging to the natural world, to the elements, to the land, to other creatures. So when our roots are in the air, we end up not only not taking good care of ourselves but also not taking good care of our larger body, our planet. Pulling away from the body means that we’re pulling away from the domain in which we feel love, joy, empathy, creativity, intuition, empowerment. All the experiences that are most central to living a full life. We need to plant ourselves again and again in this living universe. As you awaken your capacity to feel that aliveness that flows through your whole body, you’ll experience a natural love for life, a celebration of life.

Eduardo Galeano puts it this way: “The church says the body is the sin. Science says the body is a machine. Advertising says the body is a business. The body says I am a fiesta.”

Okay. Let’s practice together deepening mindfulness of the body. Please find a comfortable seated position and close your eyes. Take some moments to adjust your posture so that you have a sense of sitting upright and at ease. You might take a few full breaths releasing any tension with each exhale. And now, allow the breath to be natural. Relaxing with the inflow and outflow. Invite yourself to be right here at home in this breathing body. Take a moment to imagine your body as a house. And sense with curiosity where you’re primarily living. Is it up in the attic in the mind? Or is there some strong discomfort drawing your attention to a particular room?
Maybe your lower back or belly?
Imagine you could descend from top-down bringing your attention gently to any area's attention has accumulated. You might feel through the head and face. Soften the muscles around the eyes. The root of the tongue. Notice if you can feel your face. Feel your mouth. Feel down into your throat and neck. Notice the sensations there. Allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck loosen and relax. Can you feel the sensations inside your shoulders? Softening the hands. See if you can feel sensations inside of your hands. Continue to notice what parts of the body/house are easy to access and what are more difficult. Feeling the chest area. Can you experience sensations inside the chest and the heart? Softening the abdominal area. Seeing if you can feel inside the belly and experience what’s there.

Continuing to scan down the torso, breath and see if you can feel the life through the pelvic region. How accessible sensations are in this part of the body/house. And allow the attention to move through the legs. The soles of the feet. As you’ve surveyed your body in this way, did you notice any areas that feel particularly alive, easy to feel? Any areas that are difficult to contact?
You can trust that with practice you’re experience of your body will become increasingly direct, refined, and vibrant. Now widen the attention to feel the whole body. How is your body feeling right now? Is there a sense of aliveness? Sluggishness? Buzzing? Achiness? Pleasantness? Flow? Without judgement, simply survey the field of bodily experience with mindfulness. Simply breathing and noticing the quality of changing sensations and letting them be just as they are.

For the final moments of this sitting, bring your attention back to your anchor of the breath. Or if you’ve like to choose an alternative home base, sense where sensations in your body are easiest to feel and are either pleasant or neutral. As we’ve explored, typically this might be your hands, your feet. Or you might have as an anchor combining the breathing with sensations in your hands. Rest in the sensations of your home base while including the background field of sensation with a calm, easy presence.
© Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield
Reprinted by permission.