1.5: Rapid Resets Pt. 2 -- Body Felt Sensations
Updated: Jul 24, 2021
Our fifth meeting: Part 2 of Rapid Resets as we shelter in place.
With their focus on neuroscience, the Resources for Resilience™ folks say it clearly:
“The survival brain only understands the language of sensation.”
Paying “attention to sensations or physical feelings in the body… is the core resiliency tool… ‘Sensing-In’ is used with every other tool... It is the way we talk to our survival brain so that all the other tools can work.”
The Resources for Resilience™ folks are not alone. --- Body Felt Sensations are core to The iRest Program for Healing PTSD and folks who do the Super Coach Program naturally tune into their Body Felt Experience through each day.
We get the most out of Body Felt Sensations…
When we allow ourselves to feel them for a few breaths, for about 20 seconds or longer if you want… Then they signal to the survival-brain/amygdala “Hey amygdala, this human is safe. This human is okay. For right now, it’s okay to ease up a bit on your looking-out-for-danger gig.”
The Rapid Resets focus on Body Felt Sensations that arise in response to positive or neutral experiences… which include:
Good memories, times when we have been touched, times when we have been inspired, times and we have enjoyed something or person.
Anything that’s even a little bit interesting… that catches our attention in the moment. For instance, noticing a crack in the sidewalk that is the shape of the state of North Carolina… or noticing (at a stop light) how the rain has made a crazy little figure on your windshield.
Nature often calls us back to our calmer self… Walking in a forest, witnessing a sunset, noticing a Bald Eagle flying over Lake Fontana, etc.
When we see other people genuinely enjoying something… whenever we notice another person taking a sigh and relaxing… or whenever we notice a person who, in a warm and open way, is enjoying …a bite to eat, a conversation, a breeze, some music, a great hug, etc. As we take it in, our mirror neurons can do their thing and give us that Body Felt Experience too!
Our sense of touch and our inner awareness of our musculoskeletal system… as when we lean against a wall, take a nice shower, pet a dog, feel the warmth of the sun on our arms…
Our sense of taste when we enjoy a piece of cherry pie…
And also our sense of smell when someone has just made a big vat of chili… or poured a cup of coffee…
We also have sensations in our guts, bones, joints, and muscles.
One way or another these are physical/proprioceptive/energy related sensations.
And, as the Rapid Resets remind us, they also involve muscles being tense or relaxed… breathing being deeper or shallower, faster or slower… the heart beating faster or slower.
An example.
When I saw this as the Sun rose…
In my body I noticed:
I couldn’t help it, I let out an “Ooo…” - And noticed in my body: a warmth in the area of my heart… a gentle lightening of the energy throughout my body… especially my chest.
A short list of body felt sensations…
Vibrating Pulsing Stillness Quiet Enlivening Feeling-Energy-Moving Easeful Bubbly Light Flowing Solid Near-the-surface
Cool Floating-up Sinking-in Pressure Spacious Deep-within
Tense Relaxed Alert Smooth Holding-on Letting-go
Balanced Wobbly Compressed
May we do what we can for those in our care…
and find life in more and more moments of each day.
yrs, Peter Buck