Drop into whatever level of somatic meditation feels available, spend some time there.

When it feels right to continue: treat your body and its parts as something with personhood—allow them to communicate, pay attention to their “personalities,” their vibes and intentions, their desires. Spend more time “listening” than “speaking.”

Pursue the prompt in whatever ways feel right for you. Here are a few suggestions and fruitful lines of inquiry:

• “Listen” to the body part by part—left hand, right foot, throat, shoulders, etc. Follow these either in order or as they call for attention.
• “Listen” to different systems of the body, one by one: the circulatory system (heartbeat, the rush of blood, veins), the integumentary system (what is the “voice” of your skin?), the muscles, the bones.
  • Feel into the way that different systems have different voices, different felt senses, different agendas. Are there some that you “get along with” better than others?
• “Listen” to aspects of the body that aren’t physical, that don’t show up on anatomy maps. As you open up to them, what do you find? What do they say?
  • Eg- put your palms in front of you, about 6 inches apart. Feel the space between them. There are no nerve endings in the air between your hands, and yet—you can feel something, can’t you? A buzz, or a current, or a gathering of something. Follow that feeling. Are there other areas in/near your body with the same feeling?

Note: a helpful listening attitude is to act like you’re in the woods, listening for the approach of a friendly animal you want to see. An open, expectant, inviting awareness of the space you’re listening to; a total openness both to whatever you might hear, and to how it might approach.

Next Steps

Playground at the edge