Intimacy and harmony both start with self-awareness. You can’t share or resolve with others what you’re not willing to admit to yourself. And what’s going on for you is actually far more physical than mental. Another way to put this is that mastering your life has less to do with understanding it than with simply being willing to experience life as it comes. This is something we do physiologically, not just psychologically.
As you deepen into self-empathy, being more present to your own experience, you learn to notice what is actually happening in your body. We call this Somatic Awareness (drawing from Eckhart Tolle and Peter Levine’s work). Noticing what you’re feeling, you simply allow it to be, and this alone dramatically reduces your suffering. It’s that simple. Here’s why:
All suffering comes from resistance. And the only thing we are ever resisting is a feeling in our body. Whenever you’re angry or afraid, it means you don’t want something to happen. And if you don’t want something to happen, it means you don’t want to experience how you will feel if it happens.
Most of the time, what we’re avoiding is not physical pain. It’s the pain of aloneness, of uncertainty, of rejection, etc. But such situations need not be painful — unless you resist them. To not resist something doesn’t mean you don’t do anything to change it. It just means you’re not afraid. You’re not afraid of anything when you’re not afraid of your feelings.
To get past fear, you have to be willing to feel the fear itself. “The only way out is through.” Whatever the situation, honestly feeling what you’re feeling, without resistance, is the place to start. Only when you can accept what you’re feeling, i.e., the sensations that are actually happening in your body, are you free to address a situation from a place of clarity and choice. Only when you approach something outside of you from a place of peace inside of you can you really begin to change it.
Being nonviolent wth yourself in this way may be the most helpful thing you can ever do for anyone. Every peaceful person in the world is a living example to others. We will be using this “cardinal tool” of Somatic Awareness to address our own real-life issues, supporting each other to heal and to blossom.
For more about Somatic Awareness, see here.
REALationship 101, 201, and 301 are prequisites for this course.
$175/person or $275 with two one-hour phone coaching sessions. For dates, times, and location, see our Calendar Page. To register, click here.
