How (and why) to connect with your body now

It’s a catchphrase that often comes up in yoga classes and meditation recordings. Perhaps you’ve heard some version of “come into your body.”

If you’ve wondered what that means, fair question. At face value, it doesn’t make any sense. My husband has been baffled by this for years.

So today, I’d like to share how I think about this concept, why “connecting with your body” is more than just a meaningless cliché, and how to do it.

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The way I see it, we’re basically walking heads.

We’re so caught up in our own thoughts and narratives — totally absorbed in the content of our own minds — that we’re not actually conscious or present in our bodies and lives.

It’s like we’re on autopilot, going through the motions, doing the things, completely distracted and unaware of the vitality, possibility, and magic all around us — and within us — from moment to moment. “Coming into our bodies” means bringing attention down, out of our heads. It involves bringing awareness to our physicality, and in a nutshell, feeling sensation in our bodies.

By pulling awareness out of our monkey minds, we become present. I can’t be caught up in my mental dramas and feel sensation at the same time. Genuinely getting into my body requires getting out of my head. The presence and mindfulness this initiates does a lot of great stuff.

Here are four of the benefits that I find particularly cool:

 

We can have flashes of clarity and knowing

This isn’t an everyday thing. I can only think of one main experience for me, but it’s profound.

Every once in a while, when we’re really present, things click. Once fully out of our own way, we suddenly know or see things that we didn’t know or see before. This can be life-changing.

This happened to me once in a yoga class. It’s hard to describe, but I finally totally got out of my head and the narrative I’d been carrying for years, and the answers that had been eluding me were right there. I knew what I needed to do; it was crystal clear. The entire course of my life changed in an instant. Literally.

This isn’t something we can strive for, really none of these four things are, but it’s one very real thing that can happen when we get present, which getting into our bodies can help us do.

 

We can access valuable information

We’re often so absorbed in the noise in our heads that we miss the voice of our intuition/soul/spirit/heart’s desires, whatever you personally call it.

Our bodies cannot lie, deceive, or distract us (as our thoughts often do). Instead, they reflect that deeper wisdom through tangible physical sensations, which are sometimes obvious and other times quite subtle. I have a good friend who used to vomit when she needed to break up with someone. Usually, signs are less blaring.

In general, when we tune in and feel ease, a release or relaxation, openness, warmth, lightness, or peace (or anything in that vicinity), we’re on the right track. Our bodies are saying yes, proceed. When it’s the opposite, when we sense tensing (pursed lips, a furrowed brow, raised shoulders, etc.), constricted breathing, flatness, queasiness or any resistance that doesn’t also come with excitement or a genuine longing, something inside is saying “no,” or at least “pause here.”

Valuable information can be gleaned from tuning into our bodies as we encounter new questions, possibilities, and experiences.

 

We can consciously choose how we want to live

Getting out of our heads and into our bodies snaps us out of autopilot. Then we can make more conscious choices about what we want to do, how we want to do it, even which thoughts we want to listen to and/or ignore.

When I make it a point to stop running around and tune in with my body during the busy nighttime routine at our house (which tends to stress me out), I’m able to choose how to proceed. I can choose to have fun with the experience instead of tearing through it. (To be honest though, I’m usually so caught up — classic mindless autopilot all the way through — that it doesn’t even occur to me to do this).

Anyway….Reconnecting with our bodies also positions us to choose which thoughts to listen to and which to disregard.

When I’m present and mindful enough to catch the thought “I hate this bedtime routine and I’m a maniac and a bad mom,” I can flag that as unhelpful and choose not to listen.

 

We’re better able to forgive, let things go, feel peaceful, calm, and relaxed

When I arrive in my body, the first thing I typically do is relax all the excess tension I’m unconsciously carrying. This is one of the most obvious things that getting into our bodies does: it teaches us where and how to physically let go.

Physically letting go primes us to be able to mentally let go of grudges, stresses and all kinds of angst.

One example: I had an MRI the other week. They sent me into the machine feet first, so I assumed it would be like a previous MRI, where my head would still be in the open air. But no. this time, I slid all the way into that cold, tight, noisy tube and almost immediately started freaking out.

So, I closed my eyes, and focused on breathing deeply and feeling into my body. I repeated a mantra in my mind to help anchor my thoughts and kept the bulk of my attention on sensation. Moment by moment, I stayed checked into my body, and continuously softened muscle tension. This helped so much. I was able to loosen my mental terror as I loosened my body.

This comes up in so many different contexts. Getting into our bodies and softening is one of the best ways I know to come back to center and peace.

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There are a lot of reasons why getting out of our heads and “into our bodies” is worthwhile, so let’s talk about how to do it.

First, I have to mention yoga. It doesn’t have to be a super intense, hot, and sweaty class, either. Any kind works. Connecting with our bodies happens fluidly and naturally when various postures offer palpable sensations to feel.

But ultimately, no bending, stretching or moving at all is required to re-arrive in our bodies.

Try this with me now. Sit back and take three to five seconds to follow each of the following queues, fully experiencing each one before looking to the next line:

Take a deep breath.

Place a hand on the top of your head. Apply soft pressure and allow tension to melt in your head and face.

Release your hand.

Take another deep breath: belly rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale.

Relax all the muscles in your face, and your jaw, even more.

Notice your shoulders. Let them totally soften and fall away from your ears.

Breathe deeply.

Completely relax your belly… and then relax your belly even more.

Move your attention into your hips. Relax all around the joint, on both sides.

Release your pelvic floor.

Breathe deeply.

Feel your connection with the surface beneath you.

Feel your feet.

Feel your hands.

Take one more deep breath and pause right here until you feel one final release.

Now smile softly.

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How did that go? Did you feel anything?

You may not have felt something major in every part of that exercise, but did you notice anything? Maybe your shoulders relaxed, you took a solid deep breath, or you felt your hands tingle. This is a great start! This is how we tune in and get more and more connected with our bodies; it’s simply a matter of doing practices like this.

I have a free video on marcisharif.com where I walk you through this exercise, because reading it isn’t ideal. This mini-meditation and yoga are also big parts of Mindset Workouts, my virtual program which I’d love to have you join.

But however you go about it, there’s so much value in getting connected. We don’t get to spend forever in these bodies. Let’s use them and enjoy them while we can.