9 Important Reasons To Learn Body Awareness

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

A person in a state of anxiety, as a rule, completely "leaves" attention from the body into thought processes or tends to focus on his unpleasant sensations

Both of them harm him, as it leads to an increase in the anxiety from which one wants to get rid of and worsens his well-being.

“The body is both the language of personal expression (“I feel tired”) and the language of interpersonal communication (“I show you that I am tired”)."

"The very process of observation starts the process of transformation."

Serge Ginger, French psychotherapist

A person in a state anxietyusually falls into two states:

Or completely "leaves" attention from the body in thinking and fantasies, to such an extent that he generally ceases to notice the fact that he has a body, and the body has sensations and natural needs.

Or he is inclined to focus on unpleasant sensations and, accompanying this concentration with a certain thought process, "get stuck" in them, increasing his anxiety and closing the possibility of transformation of these sensations and the transition to a state of relaxation and rest.

In fact , Body awareness- this is the process of included focused attention and observation of sensations that occur in the body in general and in its individual areas with the ability to give these sensations a name, describe, which as a result leads to a qualitative change in bodily sensations, emotional and mental state.

BUT body awareness skillhelps to analyze life experience, allowing you to create a real connection between bodily sensations, events and emotional and change processes.

As a result of this, the integrity of self-perception is restored and the possibility of adequate creative adaptation to the life process appears, that is, the organization of such behavior that is suitable for the implementation of the needs of a particular person.

Probably too difficult, huh?

I'll try to put it simply:

In a body awareness class, one learns

- Find out how he unconsciously treats his body? What permits him and what does not? What supports and what condemns, considers shameful, suppresses?

And how does this affect his life?

- Draws up his actual "map" of the body: where and how does he feel, feel, receive signals from his body? And where does he have "white spots" that he used to not feel or feel distorted?

- Learns to manage his psychological and emotional state through the recognition and naming of bodily sensations.

- Gains the experience of living and letting go of his anxiety through bodily sensations.

As a result of such training, a person

- Begins to focus on the sensations of his body and with the help of this understand what he really wants and what is not, what is good and what is bad, where there is a deficit, and where it is already worth stopping.

For example, he begins to understand with which people it is useful for him to communicate, and with which it is bad. What food is good for him and what is bad. How much physical activity or communication is still good, and when it is already enough.

- Mastering the basic skills of self-regulation, that is, ways to calm yourself and live your strong emotions environmentally.

- Develops his emotional intelligence - learns to determine what emotions he feels, what they are called and what they "signal" about.

- Increases self-sensitivity and sensuality, which improves the quality of bodily practices, including sex.

- Becomes able to detect the causes of his anxiety, which makes him more calm and balanced.

So, body awareness skill helps a person to master his mood, cope with anxiety, strong emotions - excitement, fear, anger, confusion, constraint, etc. and positively influences on the state of health and amoeration.

And an in-depth skill of body awareness, with the support of a specialist, helps to work with psychosomatic symptoms and recycle psychological trauma.

Maria Veresk, Psychologist, gestalt therapist.