03/19/2026
If you’re looking to deepen your bodily awareness, a simple question you can ask yourself is “what tells me that?” Let me explain why that’s helpful.
When we aren’t used to noticing the body or sensory information, we tend to observe our experience from a place of logic or rationale. If someone were to ask, “what tells you that you’re feeling upset right now?” or “how do you know that you feel upset?” you might say I just do! Or I’m pi**ed. Or something bad just happened, of course I’m upset. And in this way, we stay somewhat removed or distant from our somatic experience. Nothing changes.
The trouble is, when we are stressed, our survival brain is in the driver seat. And our survival brain doesn’t respond to logic or rationale. Our survival brain responds to experience and sensation.
So the next time you notice that you’re feeling anxious or mad or down (or any other feeling) ask yourself “what tells me that?” or “how do I know this to be true?”
Let’s take this a step further and look at an example. If you wake up feeling anxious for what feels like no reason (again!), ask yourself what tells you that you’re anxious. Your response might be something like my chest is tight. If you continue to sit and ask you might also notice that your shoulders are tense and hot, your breathing is shallow, and you can’t really feel your lower body. Now we’re talking speaking the language of the survival brain.
And if you find the sensory input to be overwhelming, you can explore the following practice. 👇
1. Ask yourself what would the opposite of this anxious experience be. Maybe it’s spacious and grounded. Go with the first thing that comes to mind.
2. Ask yourself if there is anywhere in the body that feels like that. If so, let yourself notice that spacious and grounded place. If not, you might think of an image that equates to that feeling and visualize that.
Staying curious in these ways, even for short periods, will increase your somatic awareness with time. And the more we can hear the whispers of the body, the more we can give ourselves what we need. 💚