2.3 – Accessing inner safety in the body (suggested & recorded practices)

Increasing our capacity to be with our bodies

The energies of our exiled parts / trauma / energy blocks are often experienced as sensation.

This week, we’re learning to increase our capacity to stay with our sensations without leaving or numbing.

The more we can do this, the more we can be sensitive to our unhealed parts, stay with them, see them, love them, and eventually integrate them.

Paired with the intention to stay with ourselves and our sensations, these practices are highly effective in helping us feel safer in our bodies and the world:

  • Body scans
  • Stretching with intention and attention
  • Breathing into different areas of the body
  • Slow movement
  • Massage (from self or others)
  • Bringing our attention down into our pelvic bowl, bum, legs and feet
  • Consciously releasing your pelvic floor
  • Imagining your body like an astronaut suit, using your breath to fill up every part except the head

At first, these practices can bring up a lot of feeling and discomfort (or nothing at all). Remember your intention to STAY with yourself. With time, real spaciousness and capacity emerges.

Recordings

Body like a mountain

Stretching meditation to come back to the body (10-min)

Body Scan (16-min)

Body Scan to Become Unconditional with Yourself (21 min)

Body Scan with a Beginner’s mind (6 min)

Scan the body with your own healing presence (15-min)

Other micro-practices to try:

  • Whenever you’re stuck in a thinking loop, cue yourself to curiosity. Interrupt the pattern and ask yourself: “what happens in the body s I think these thoughts?”
  • Whenever you’re stuck in a thinking loop, but don’t have enough bandwidth to cue yourself to curiosity, try bringing your attention into the body in some other way: watch your breath for a few seconds, feel your feet on the floor, notice the sensation of your clothes…
  • When you listen to someone in their heads, try to feel your heart and hands as you listen to them (and get out of your own)
  • When getting into bed at night, take a moment to feel your body releasing into the mattress
  • Play a game with yourself: How long can I tolerate being with my sensations before I leave? Approach this with genuine curiosity.