Our center is mostly felt in the head. By feeling the aliveness in our body, we shift our “felt center” into our whole body. In doing so, our perception changes. We feel alive, centered in the moment and present.

The Separation of Mind and Body
We live in a culture in which the body plays an important role, especially in terms of fitness and appearance. But our relationship with the body is primarily a top-down relationship. We are a head possessing a body. “I think, therefore I am.” This statement by the French philosopher Descartes from the 17th century is emblematic of the separation between the "I" that thinks on one hand and the body as matter on the other hand. This idea is still relevant today. We define ourselves by our thoughts. I am what I think. And I have a body.

As a consequence, our "felt center" is mostly in the head and we create our identity through thinking. A story that describes who we are and where we come from. In doing so, we detach our thinking mind from the rest of the body. We leave our body - the very vehicle for our journey here on earth - to stay one-sided in thinking. We give up ever knowing the wisdom that we can draw from our body. We cut ourselves off from a part of ourselves and fail to hear the language coming from our body -- our feelings, emotions, sensations, movements. Like thinking, they are part of us. They are a part of our body-mind-unity.

Cut Off From a Part of Yourself
So we live mostly in our own virtual “head world” cut off from the rest of the body, cut off from the rest of the world, cut off from a direct, essential experience of being. This unilateral “being in the mind” leads us to feeling alienated from ourselves, not feeling centered and grounded. We don’t feel whole, difficult feelings are threatening and we distract ourselves endlessly to be able to endure “being in the mind”. We are looking for wholeness, mostly in the outside world.

If we succeed in shifting our “felt center” out of the head and into the whole body, our perception changes, our sense of being changes. Returning to our whole body-mind-unity again, our thinking changes as well. It becomes calmer, there is more space and we connect more and more with our inner wisdom.

To Feel the Aliveness on the Inside
I invite you to feel the aliveness within your body – in your hands, your feet, in your whole body. Sensing this aliveness brings you out of your head into the presence of the now. It will start to dissolve the separation between the mind and the body. Feeling this aliveness in our body brings us back to “being” in the body and we deepen the contact with ourselves.

If we open ourselves to somatic awareness, then we feel and sense the body, the emotions, and the aliveness within. We begin to live in our body again, gradually approaching a sense of wholeness. We become conscious and not only tap into the wisdom of our body-mind unity, but we feel alive, centered in the moment and present. Space arises and we are less entangled in our thoughts. We feel more clearly what we want and what is good for us. We are grounded.

And that’s why I invite you to feel the aliveness on the inside. Again and again. Not just existing as a head with a body, but as a body-mind-unity. For me, being completely in my body is equivalent to setting an anchor in this life. To be here completely. Present in my own life. Connected.

July 2022