Your Body As A Self-Awareness Partner
Here is an illustration of how an Executive Director of a non-profit learned how to “listen” to what his body was telling him in order to improve his self-awareness.
I was the founder of a non-profit organization for 10 years. There were times when my business partner and I saw eye-to-eye and other times when we were on different pages entirely. In the course of working with her, I realized that there were many times when I saw a scenario differently, but I didn’t have the cognitive awareness to know what was going on in my mind. However, my body did. One time I remember her introducing a future initiative where we would host a training for people from low-income communities. She said, “Clearly this is an initiative that we wouldn’t charge for.” Consciously, I became reactive, frustrated and dug in my heals opposed to her idea, but I wasn’t clear why.
She took a moment and asked me what was going on internally. My voice had grown softer and there was a little twitch in my lip. I realized that what was so challenging for me was that I was scared we might run out of money and by launching a volunteer initiative, that fear was triggered. Mentally, I wasn’t self-aware enough to know what was going on within me, but my body was. As soon as I shared where I was coming from, my business partner was much more understanding. However, if she hadn’t taken a pause and invited me to listen to my body, I never would have discovered that rationale that lay just under the surface. Ever since that experience, I now look to the feelings in my body to help guide me to deeper understanding when things feel off.
Have you ever noticed your body trying to tell you something that your mind wasn’t ready or able to let in? Did you feel it in your body? How did it show up? Did your chest tighten? Did your hands clench up? Did your lip quiver? Often times your body is tuned in on a frequency different than your mind and if you can learn to listen to your body in tense moments, it may have clues that let you to pause and check in with yourself to see what’s going on at a deeper level.
EXERCISE
Take 15 minutes to journal about a time when you felt a strong emotion such as anger or fear, and how it showed up in your body.
