BODY LISTENING: MY PRIMARY PRACTICE
CONTEXT
I honestly have a lot of ‘favorite parts’ when listening back to my latest podcast conversation with Josephine Ley, so I have decided to begin transcribing some of them for you here. If you prefer original audio to text, this first byte can be enjoyed here, starting at a time stamp of about 19:50.
TRANSCRIPT
TIM: There was an inner shift that occurred - an inner shift that allowed me, for the first time ever, to begin sensing into something greater than my own mental calculation. This was it. It was as if I had, for the first time in my life, actually grasped the thread of my own destiny. And now it wasn’t about me making something, it was about me following something that really wanted to make itself through me. As you might imagine, this was a massive, massive distinction for me. The initial shift that I’ve described was only just the beginning of a process that continues to this day - a process that I remain actively involved in moment by moment. The whole thing is extremely intense, and extremely intentional, and it honestly never ends.
JOSEPHINE: So how do you practice that, if there is a practice?
TIM: There have been many practices. I have tested many things. And one thing that I’ve noticed is that there is no single thing that’s right for everyone. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that every-one goes through seasons. So, certain things make sense now that will not make sense a month from now, or even tomorrow. So there’s this quality of adaptability that needs to be developed in a person: it’s an openness, not only to change, but to self-honesty - to recognize when a particular process that has proven helpful might have served its purpose or might need to kind-of be set aside for a period of time.
My primary practice has been a very very constant attention to the physical form itself, to my body. I’ve actually learned how to listen in to the sensations of my physical body, and I’ve learned how to read what those sensations are communicating - to understand what they are communicating. So this is actually something that I help people to begin working through for themselves, it’s a practice that I call Body Listening.
I actually believe that our Greater Intelligence is held in the space of the body. There’s a Witnessing Intelligence up here in the space of the mind; but there is a Natural Intelligence - a special sort of intuitive wisdom - that’s built into the space of the body. Unfortunately, most of us having given all of the authority over to our minds. We’ve grown accustomed to mental decision-making.
And this is why so many of us have felt so all-over-the-place + so confused + so uncertain (and ultimately so unfulfilled). It’s because we’re mentally trying so hard to figure life out. So, for me, connecting to some Greater Story has really been a matter of grounding my attention in the physical body itself, turning that beautiful mechanism of the mind inward.
And this is where we circle right on back to these themes of introspection + the introverted process. Because now, we’re inside. And it’s this turning of our attention inward that allows us to mine whole new realms of creativity that simply do not exist up here, in the conceptual space of our busy, anxious minds.