As mindfulness starts with the body and is about expanding our conscious awareness, the FEEL activity is great for bringing the body and mind together, and highlights clearly, I think, the link wise attention has to seeing with the heart; that is, without prejudice or personal bias to bring about inner peace.
Mindfulness starts with the body. What I mean by this is that while Mindfulness is about expanding our conscious awareness, connecting with ‘what is’ in the here and now, it does so as experienced through our body.
There are usually seen as three ways to see;
1. with the eyes,
2. through our reasoning,
3. and with the heart.
In ‘The Wise Mind Model’, which I first encountered through my ‘Master Mindfulness’ course, Kane Ramsey refers to the crossover point between unconsidered observation (seeing with the eyes), rational thinking (seeing through our reasoning) and perceiving without prejudice (seeing with the heart), as the point of discernment where wise attention sits.
Mindfulness is giving wise attention and is therefore well and truly situated in the body.
But, how do we bring wise attention to bear on the body?
There are lots of different approaches and techniques, but one I particular appreciate is a slightly adapted version of the FEEL model, which I first came across in Liz Hall’s book Mindful Coaching.
This model covers four aspects: focus, explore, embrace and then letting go.
We focus our attention onto our bodily ‘sensations’ (observing our thoughts and feelings as they come and go – but not holding onto them).
It is worth remembering that we perceive the world through our senses and their corresponding sensations. Consider, then, the five main senses, and the mind;
1. Ears - Hearing – How does what you hear feel in the ear? Are there vibrations? Can you feel your hairs move? Are there pressure points?
2. Eyes - Sight – How does what you see feel on the eyes? Can you feel pressure? Twitching? Are your eye lids and eye lashes heavy or light? Warm or cold?
3. Mouth - Taste – What can you taste as you focus your attention on the mouth? What sensations do you feel on your lips, tongue, gums, and cheeks? Do these relate to the taste?
4. Nose - Smell – What smells come to you as you focus on the nose? What sensations do you feel in the nose; itching, hair movement? Do these relate to the smells?
5. Skin - Touch – What are you feeling on the skin? Is what you are feeling on one part of the body different to what you are feeling on another part?
6. Mind - Perceptions (of the inner world of the body – known as Interoception) – What is your sense of the body itself (the whole rather than the parts)? What are your bodily states (often referred to as knowing the wisdom of the body)?
We focus on each to develop what is called ‘attention control’.
We then expand our focus to include exploration. We explore what arises in a curious, open manner. We do not analyse. We simple explore, being open to new information and new insights.
As Liz Hall clarifies, this is to activate our approach system. By this she means the behavioural activation system first highlighted by J.A. Gray in ‘A model for personality’. This is when we approach something with feelings of curiosity, hope and joy.
This allows us to embrace whatever arises with a feeling of compassion (not judging as far as possible, and not avoiding). We can label whatever arises, eg, anger, sadness etc, but without becoming identified with it. We do not criticise. We hold it gently, but with a helpful distance.
From this perspective we are then able to let it go. Not holding on too tightly. We are just witnessing what arises; pleasant or unpleasant. We don’t try to hold on. We don’t try to chase after it. We don’t try to avoid it. We simply embrace it gently and then let it go.
It is interesting to note that this activity is useful for various stages of our development.
If we consider a tantric view (especially useful for men who love men who are already well aware that gender and gender identity contains elements of the masculine and feminine), this allows us to experience a broader range of sensations which might be seen as the ‘norm’. It enables us to see how sensations come and go as we give attention to them. That way we can better see how our world is a mental construct, around our bodily sensations and experiences, which at later stages on our spiritual journey allows us to more easily dis-identify from the Ego (letting it go).
Bringing it all together
As mindfulness starts with the body and is about expanding our conscious awareness, the FEEL activity is great for bringing the body and mind together, and highlights clearly, I think, the link wise attention has to seeing with the heart; that is, without prejudice or personal bias to bring about inner peace.
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Email me direct if you are interested in mindful, trauma-informed, intimacy or spiritual coaching, or if you would like to join my new Pink Tantra Towards Awakening group for chat rooms, video channels and in-person workshops around tantra and intimacy practices robert.pinktantra@gmail.com
See my personal development / personality profiling book DISCover the Power of You published through John Hunt Publishing Ltd, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-78535-591-2
And for a bit of light reading, see my first historical fictional novel Fermented Spirits published through Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022. ISBN-13: 978-1398437159