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Whole Body Vision
Why it matters?
We often compartmentalize work from the ‘rest of life’ and reserve a mode of operating (and even speaking) that fits within that work paradigm. This dissociation can be useful in creating healthy boundaries, but can also cut us off from an ability to fuel our work from a place of authenticity, connection and compassion.
These three modes of showing up are not conceptual — but wholly embodied experiences. Quite opposite to the mechanical doing and indifferent limbo (or body in immobilized suspension) that allows us to either get through the day or get off the hook. Though a useful tactic in some cases, prolonged limbo’ing or half-engaged ‘work mode’ can drain us of energy, because we’re not tapping the deep sense of expression that lies internally to drive us towards our desires. Once you show up with this expressed “whole body vision” — that energy accumulates and then has a direction to help you flow.
Our bodies, through millennia of evolution to sense our surroundings for danger, have an inherent mechanism to hear a ‘no’ or a ‘yes.’ In situations that don’t involve danger, these no’s and yes’ are much harder to hear and require practice. Most of the no’s just feel like flatness in the body with zero arousal. Yes’ however, spike a sense of warmth/safety, curiosity, intrigue, arousal or excitement — also subtle but very different to the non-responsive no’s. Caveat: these are true for larger visions, not necessarily the mundane tasks that are necessary to get us there (and often feel like ‘no’s!). Pay attention to the intelligences that are outside of your intellect.
How it works?
First we calibrate:
- Close your eyes. Bring to mind an experience from the past that was extremely important to you – where you felt seen, safe or “in your element.”
- Go back into that scene and see images of that scene: see your environment, hear the sounds, and feel how your body is vibrating. Is there a quality or direction of that vibration? Is there a temperature or sense of pressure in the moment? Is there an emotion or mood? Does it feel alive?
- Take a “somatic snapshot” of that signature vibration as a “whole body yes.”
- Now do the same with an experience that felt really incongruent for you. Nothing traumatic or heavy, just something that happened where you knew in your cells that this was NOT aligned with who you are. It didn’t serve you and you wish not to ever repeat it. What happens now in the body?
- Take a “somatic snapshot” of that signature vibration as a “whole body no.”
- Now do the same with an experience that felt just “meh.” Something that happened recently where you felt indifferent or detached. Where you didn’t care what the outcome was going to be but also knew you weren’t at all invested in putting energy into it.
- Take a “somatic snapshot” of that signature vibration as a “limbo body no.”
Then we apply to our Vision:
- Bring your vision into your mind’s eye: see your environment, hear the sounds, and feel how your body is vibrating. Is there a quality or direction of that vibration? Is there a temperature or sense of pressure in the moment? Is there an emotion or mood? Does it feel alive?
- What did you notice on terms of the “somatic signature” of your vision? How could you make it even MORE of a whole body yes?
Examples
Instead of falling back on ‘it’s just work’ or ‘I don’t know (or care)’, formulate a whole body vision of what you actually want.
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