Understanding the body not only allows us to know its needs but also opens the door to an internal space in which it is possible to find oneself.

Our body has secrets that help us to be present in life, to go through it leaving the traces of a path in which health, tranquility, freedom of movement and, ultimately, the ability to live and love are found. To discover and know them it is necessary to establish a dialogue with the body.
The first thing that this approach needs is what any conversation requires: attention. It is about listening not only to the signals sent by the body, but to spend a minimum time getting to know it, learning and receiving its support, because this listening will help us when we are in another task.
The body is so grateful: we recognize and understand it, and it continues only its work activating its mechanisms to help us, although our consciousness is already in something else.
“ATTENTIVE LISTENING IS NOT ONLY WORTHWHILE, IT IS ESSENTIAL”
There is nothing more effective to connect with the body, show respect and gain well-being than listening to it. Even sometimes problems that we experienced and that only demanded attention are solved. In any case, listening is not only worthwhile, it is essential. But doing so can be just as difficult as solving problems.
WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO LISTEN?
- First, concentrating only on the body and, if this proves difficult, accepting the thoughts that distract us to bid them a polite goodbye and continue listening.
- Second, taking stock of what is heard, even if it is little.
- And third, exploring with love, with the feelings and thoughts of which our body is also composed.
Then the longings that beat in its depth will appear, and flavors, aromas, textures, sounds and spaces will appear to our senses. You don’t have to prove anything but know what’s going on. We must also remember that listening is not judging; In listening, there is no need to take any action or make decisions.
This listening must also be nourished with patience and love. You pursue a goal, but you try to enjoy and not lose sight of the road.
CONNECTING WITH THE EARTH
To begin with, we accompany the body in that which is essential to it, without which we could not live. Humans can go several weeks without eating and some days without drinking, but only a few minutes without breathing. The breath is essential, it binds us to life and, when it ceases, separates us from it.
However, the body has a second essential relationship as important as the first, which is born and disappears with us: we need a surface to which to give weight, on which we can relate to the earth. If you take a baby in your arms and rise in volands to pick it up right away, the baby either laughs or cries, but does not remain indifferent.
We all have an innate sense of knowing when we lacka surface to lean on. Relating to it is another way to enter our essence, to expand and perceive it, and invites us to relate better to the environment.
PERCEIVING THE BREATH
When listening to the breath we must try not to influence it: we want to approach the breath as we approach a child who plays absorbed and whom we do not want to distract. If we judge it, we will try to manipulate it and that manipulation will never be satisfactory.
Try this exercise to become aware of your breath:
- Try to feel the breath in the front of the torso, then in the back and sides.
- Notice that there are parts of the trunk that move and feel invited to breathe and others that do not, and that the former make up a space.
- With one hand draw that space, which can be shaped like a circle, pear, cone, cylinder, drop of water … There are many possible ways, depending on the position we have, what we have done, our emotions, etc.
- Breathing is changeable and adaptable.
CREATE INTERNAL SPACE
After a first listening, we went on to take the initiative, to expand the breathing space and give it freedom and silence, remembering that wherever attention is placed, energy flows.
Another exercise that can be of great help is:
- Put the palm of the right hand under the left armpit and imagine that the air we breathe in is directed to that hand.
- Then imagine that when exhaling it is directed from there through the ribs to the lungs, and from these through the airways to the outside.
- We repeat it over seven breaths and notice how the respiratory space expands on the left side.
- First visualizing and then listening to the change.
- At the end we will feel that the breathing space has become enormous and the breathing is long, silent, calm and deep, and our mood will have improved.
It can be practiced throughout the trunk: putting the hand under the right armpit, on the clavicles, on the diaphragm or below, on the kidneys …
The respiratory space is the most intimate space, which no one but oneself can enter or influence. Expanding that space expands our essence and renews us.
LISTENING TO ONE’S OWN WEIGHT
In the second part of the body dialogue, we must perceive the body from the ground to the sky in everyday moments: in the supermarket queue, waiting for the train, when driving or at the computer.
This exercise can help you:
- Standing, we bring attention from head to toe, dwelling on every part of the body that comes to our mind and its impact on contact with the ground.
You should observe:
- How the feet rest on the ground and whether there are differences between them.
- If the knees are fully straight, slightly bent or relaxed.
- Where the hip tilts and curves the spine.
- In case of holding a bag, if the shoulders are relaxed or tense, if they tend to rise towards the neck or not.
- Where the gaze is directed and what happens when you change it; what aromas come to us; what sound from the environment stands out; Where the breath is directed.
- How much well-being comes from the body, if our mood has changed.
UNLEASHING MOVEMENT
After seeing how the body is, you can introduce a small change and observe. The body responds differently to each change and in that process not only becomes flexible, but also informs us of the positions and movements with which it feels most comfortable.
The changes should be small, because the body understands them better, and be made slowly and attentively.
Try these moves:
- We pass, for example, the weight from one foot to the other, from the tips to the heels, or we stand on tiptoe.
- We can also leave the body on one foot and look at how the other parts of the body change. We modify them if necessary and choose the way to place ourselves that requires less effort.
- Then we cross the feet and shift the weight around the contour of the plants. Three times in one direction and three times in the other.
- We reverse our feet and repeat.
- We uncross our feet and observe that the plants seem to have expanded: we will have better support and even breathe better.
Our relationship with the air and the one we have with the ground influence each other: if we expand the first, we will have more freedom in the second, and vice versa. Then, we will perceive that both the body, as well as the thought, the emotions and the perception itself have been accommodated to a new situation.
FEELING UNITED TO THE UNIVERSE
Once you have heard and accompanied the body in its becoming, you can try to talk to it with images, through visualizations. The body welcomes images especially well.
At any time of the day, put a smile on your cells, for example on the soles of your feet, palms and fontanelle. Thinking that they smile will relax us, produce a sigh that will open and massage the diaphragm. It is also useful to imagine how light circulates through the body, always starting in the area between the navel and the pubis.
Connected with weight and breath, we also visualize the place where we are, the earth, the sky. And in all our movements the whole universe will accompany us in this way.
TAKING A BREAK
Sometimes the body talks to us and asks for help because it does not know how to continue. At such times the breath demands attention.
Note:
- Standing, sitting or lying down, it is observed if pauses are made between breaths, or inspiration and expiration, which phase is longer and which parts of the body participate.
- Then the breath is stimulated to unlock it and give a boost to the mood that allows you to continue relaxed with the daily work. To do this, the expiration is lengthened until the lungs are emptied; Count to four and let the air cascade into the body.
- It is repeated four times and the breathing is allowed to continue on its own.
- Breathing is observed again. We will see that we have gained breathing space, that the air flows better, that there are pauses and, what is better, that our mood has changed.