One of the most important chapters in my book is about feeling, noticing, and sensing.
The mind body connection is limited until we sense or feel what is going on internally.
I never realized just how much I was not feeling, noticing, and sensing until I was paralyzed and in the hospital from conversion disorder. As the days progressed, it became abundantly apparent that I did not feel or sense much in my body.
The Body – Shut Down
At one point, the doctors took a pin and pricked the bottom of my foot, but I could not feel that. My entire body was shut down. Normally, I would be very ticklish on my feet, but I did not even know what they were doing.
When I first started to see Dr. Canali, I had been through massage school and I thought I really did notice, sense, and feel much of my body. It didn’t take long in the first few sessions with him to begin to realize just how shut down my body was.
It helped going through Trager(R) training because it began to help me learn to feel and sense. In fact, Dr. Canali noticed it after I completed one training. He could tell and so could I that I was beginning to feel so much more at a deeper level.
Feeling, Noticing, Sensing
Dr. Canali asks the following question when first going into a healing session with him: “What are you sensing and what are you picking up in your body?” While the story of the day is helpful to what is going on in the body, we’ve discovered and learned that the more you can connect internally, the further your healing and awareness travels into consciousness.
Too many of us think that to notice, sense, and feel is a mental exercise. While the mind is a big part of what is portrayed in the body, we should focus on the body. The more we are shut down, the more difficult this part of the process is. It is the key to opening a gateway to a moment of greater healing.
Quote
This is a very good quote on the felt sense or the ability of feeling, noticing, and sensing.
What is split off, not felt, remains the same. When it is felt, it changes. A few moments of feeling it in your body allows it to change.
Eugene T. Gendlin, Focusing
In Chapter 6 of my book, Overcoming A Mysterious Condition, I talk in greater depth about what it means to notice, sense, and feel.
Regardless of where you are in your healing journey, the body offers so many keys to our continued growth. Never stop giving up on discovering those things, as painful or difficult as they may be. As I’ve found, the more you
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