the language of the body

The body speaks in sensation, and it’s language is one of resonance. The body does not judge, it senses, and when we start to listen we also start to notice the resonance of what is for us and the dissonance of what is not. Growing our ability to perceive this alignment and misalignment often leads to rapid change, as the discomfort of pushing into or staying with what is dissonant becomes increasingly intolerable. 

This type of sensation based listening is like a muscle - the more we practice using it, the more natural it becomes and the less concentrated effort it takes. Most of us are familiar with the notion of a “gut feeling,” and the sensations of the digestive tract are a great barometer for practicing this type of listening.

Imagine eating a meal that is delicious, nourishing, and just the right size - it feels good all the way from your mouth down through to your belly, from the first bite to the last, and leaves you feeling satisfied. That is the sensation of resonance. Dissonance can make itself known anywhere along the path - a bad taste in the mouth, a gag reflex, a constriction of the throat, the sensation of heartburn, a tightening or souring of the belly. (Some examples: taking a bite of something that has gone bad or that you don’t like the taste of; swallowing without chewing enough; overeating/ the discomfort of being overfull.)

I refer to this particular type of listening as the gut compass. To use the gut compass effectively, it has to be calibrated to get underneath all the layers of our conditioned physical responses. (More on this in a future post.) To do so, take a moment to ground, root, and center. Sitting or standing (if possible) pause and take a couple of deep breaths. Notice the solidity of the ground beneath your feet, the weight of your pelvis, and how these two together support the lengthening of your spine and (perhaps) the lightness of your skull.

Practicing checking in with the gut compass for low stakes decisions (like whether to have an apple or an orange for a snack, or which path to take on a walk through the park) helps us to become habituated to noticing the bodily signals and sensations that indicate resonance or dissonance. In this way, we learn how listen for the body’s wisdom when it comes to higher stakes situations and decisions in our lives - big stuff like relationships, work and jobs, or where we live.