Tuning in
Noticing is the first step to shifting patterns that don’t serve us. To practice noticing, we’ll use a free yet powerful tool we all have at our disposal: our imagination.
Have you experienced pain and tension in your body that mirror stress and tension in your workday?
For most of us, this is so common we might not even notice that it’s happening.
Work often creates or worsens pain in our body.
Why is this?
It boils down to one thing. Thinking is a physical act.
There’s a lot to unpack about why our our workplaces are destructive to our well-being.
For now, let’s simply become aware of how our thoughts can affect us.
Noticing is the first step to shifting patterns that don’t serve us.
To practice noticing, we’ll use a free yet powerful tool we all have at our disposal.
Our imagination.
Here’s one of my favourite practices. It takes just a few minutes to do, and can be done any time during the day. It’s a particularly helpful way to shift feelings of being overwhelmed.
Click play to experience a short guided practice.
What did you learn from this practice?
Were you able to notice a connection between your thoughts and how these thoughts were experienced in your body?
Perhaps you noticed that some parts of your body’s musculature were triggered by just imagining your work task.
Gaining awareness of our patterns is the first and necessary step to changing how we respond to stress.
Many of us have spent years tuning out our physical sensations as a way to disconnect from pain or discomfort. This tuning out may have served us in the short term to numb or ignore physical sensations.
However, to live with ease and freedom in our body, we need to learn to tune in… or tune back in.
Healthy habit
Be your own detective
Throughout the day, especially when you feel stress or feelings of overwhelm, bring your attention to your body. Get quiet and notice what parts of your body might be trying to help you.
Are your shoulders creeping up toward your ears? Maybe one side of your pelvis is being retracted into your body.
Notice if your physical response is occurring on one side of your body or differently on each side (asymmetrically) or on both sides of your body (symmetrically). For example, if you tend to arch your back, are both sides of your spine equally tight, or is it primarily in one side.
Noticing ourselves from the inside out is the first step to making lasting change and finding a way out of pain.