interoception

Decades later, scientists are starting to unravel how our wet, spongy, slippery organs talk to the brain and how the brain talks back. That two-way communication, known as interoception, encompasses a complex, bodywide system of nerves and hormones. Much recent exploration has focused on the vagus nerve: a massive, meandering network of more than 1... See more

When you're busy enough, "boredom" isn't a thing - it just feels like a break. It's fantastic and rare. A chance to think, to put things together in your head, be intentional with moves forward, and actually really wonderful.

Let go of anatomical body maps, and simply let your body feel how it feels. No need for what you’re feeling to correspond to any organs, or even to be inside of your anatomical body. If you have a sense or impression of something above you or to your left, that’s valid. Just let it be, don’t try to make it fit a rational map of where it’s possible ... See more

In a phrase: somatic meditation offers depth. Spending time in the body without agenda or expectation, listening to it, sensing it, letting go of the habit of experiencing it as “it”—there’s something in the experience that builds over time, it grounds you into a firmness of being.

Feel into, interact with, and listen to everything in the felt-body, diligently and over a long period of time, in whatever ways feel fruitful. Patiently listen for physical sensations, emotional content, vague impressions, inchoate yearnings, long-forgotten memories, fantastic images—all of it. Get into the toes, the knees, the ulna, the space ove... See more

"Nobody is normal. What we call 'normal' is people whose collections of traits are statistically closest to what we've decided counts as desirable and healthy. There's no normal out there that you're failing to live up to." — Robert Sapolsky

Spontaneity is great but life is just easier and everything goes far better when we have protocols.