A Practical Guide to Mindfulness (Tessa Watt) / quote 9 of 9
Listening to the body from the inside
When we go running or to the gym or to pilates class we may push through pain to exert our control over the body. When we eat, how often do we find that ‘our eyes are bigger than our stomach’ or that we are satisfying cravings that have little to do with what the body really wants or needs? In mindfulness, we practise feeling the body from the inside and listening to the messages it sends us. All of our experience is registered in the body – the experiences we like, and those that we don’t. Our body is constantly clenching, bracing, releasing, opening, softening and closing as we react to our experience in each moment. We resist feeling things that are difficult, and this repeated tightening and bracing can create chronic tension in parts of our body – sometimes in more obvious parts like the shoulders or jaw; sometimes deep in the belly, solar plexus or chest. Often we are unaware of how the body is registering the story of our life and our experience in each moment.