That Small Quiet Feeling

I’d like to awaken you to very small feeling. It’s so quiet. Like a Who from Hooville calling out from their microscopic world on a flower petal, it just can’t compete with all the loud horns and bright lights. The sound of our breath or the touch of clothing on our skin is loud by comparison. No matter how much it calls out, for many of us it has a hard time breaking through.

Get quiet, close your eyes, and send your focus down into your body. Your somatic wisdom is down there somewhere. I imagine a magician pulling a kitchen sink and a racehorse out of their bag of tricks before they can find what they are looking for. It’s so quiet and small. You may have already caught glimpses of it, but once you know how to feel for it, it’s yours forever.

Even though it’s subtle and may be somewhat like a Monet painting in your body, the feeling I want you to focus on is relatively straight forward. When you think of a person, a situation or decision, see if you notice a subtle feeling of expansion or contraction in your body.

Try this simple exercise: Let the cast of characters in your life slip through your mind like a slide show and with each individual just see if you notice a shift. As you flip through the various personalities, do you feel slightly more open or closed? Or perhaps jump back and forth between two people that inhabit opposite ends of your own personal spectrum and feel the moment of transition between them.

One of my best friends, feels like a subtle expansion in my throat. Another friend feels like a light pressure pushing outward around my heart. I feel some friends higher in my body and others deep in my center. A certain politician makes my belly button ache and pucker.

Everyone you meet, every turn you take, every choice will create a feeling imprint in your body. The trick is to tell your mind to look for it. All very subtle. All invisible to the naked eye, but this sense is there none -the-less. Expanding or contracting. Shouting at the top of its tiny voice He’s not for you! Or take a left! Or have the fish!

When my mind says one thing and this somatic sense says another, for me there is no arguing. Unless I feel expansion in my body, my mind can just talk to the hand. This feeling of contraction or expansion points to the deep sense of truth that our bodies are holding for us and our paths. In this way, our subtle senses are often our very best friends.

Always there. Always on our side. Can you feel it?

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