Using your the “felt sense” (touch) in meditation
In mindful movement meditation, we infuse our “experience” (thoughts and body sensations) with awareness and equanimity in real-time. Body sensations include each of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch, including the breath. Here I will discuss using the “felt sense” of touch.
Physical Touch and Reverberations
Body sensations also include physical touch: the touch of your clothes against your skin, a pain in your knee, or the feeling of a full bladder. A warm sensation in your chest, growing as you see something beautiful, or a cold prickle of fear if you hear a wild animal rustling along the trail are all body sensations. Any “feeling” in the body is a body sensation. Your skin, with 1,000 nerve endings every square inch, and your feet, with 200,000 nerve endings each, offer endless opportunities for body sensation focus. These include the sensations at the bottoms of your feet, the shifting of your weight from side to side, and the way the air temperature feels against your skin.
Felt sense includes anything you handle in your movement practice, anything you feel such as the grip of your tennis racquet or golf club, your hand inside a glove, or the texture of a basketball. If you don’t use equipment, use your awareness of anything else in your body.
I do “left foot” meditation when I walk or run. There, I’m using “touch” or “felt sense” as my object of meditation. I attend to the sensation of my left foot placing itself on the ground, lifting off the ground, and hanging in the air in between. When my mind wanders, I gently bring it back.
Work with attention skills when you’re getting to wherever you’re going to exercise. Feel your hands on the steering wheel of the car, your grip on the pole or handle of the bus, or your hand turning the door handle as you walk out your front door. That preparation tunes you into the moment before your workout begins.
Felt sense also includes reverberations within the body that occur from an experience that comes in through one any of the sense gates. For example, if you see a beautiful flower through the visual field, you might also feel the edges of your lips turn up or the sting from a tear. Those reverberations are also “felt sensations.” You feel them in your body in real time. If your mind wanders or thoughts intrude, use the noting and labeling technique I explained before. Note the sensation you experience and label it.
A word for people who are not naturally proprioceptive (i.e., folks who live in their heads): This practice could be a revelation. The unfamiliarity might also bring up uncomfortable sensations. Not to worry. Recycle that discomfort. Please be patient with yourself. Practice with slow movement first. Be gentle with that part of your mind that freaks out when it feels your left foot for the first time. I promise it won’t kill you.
YOUR TURN: FEEL TOUCH
The next time you’re ready to begin your favorite movement form, before you start, choose some aspect of physical touch that’s readily apparent to use as your object of meditation. Begin to move. During the move, focus your attention on the touch sensation you chose. Don’t think about it or imagine it. Experience it from the inside. Get curious about it. Let your attention spread over it and sink into it. Is any part of it pleasant? When your mind wanders from that felt sense, gently bring your focus back to that felt experience. Do this exercise for whatever interval of time you choose.
YOUR TURN: NOTING AND LABELING PHYSICAL TOUCH
Doing the same “Feel Touch” exercise, if your thoughts distract you, give your chosen aspect of physical touch a label. Remember that “noting” is being aware of the touch, while the label is the name you’ve given it. For my left foot meditation, the sensations are anything in the foot, and I usually label them “foot” or “left.” When you select a sense of touch you’d like to work with and have chosen your label, start your activity. As you move, whenever you experience that particular felt sense, label it. “Grip” or “touch” or “left” or “shift” or “slide” or “bend” or “twist”—the options are endless. Do this exercise for whatever interval of time you choose.
I have included more than twenty “Your Turn” exercises in the book Make Every Move a Meditation.
This excerpt is from Make Every Move a Meditation by Nita Sweeney which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.
