Sensation

Horace Daukei, the traditional Kiowa Indian doctor who mentored me once said "…I’ve given you a portion of power that I work with …and I’ve walked you through the processes that you need to do as you work with people …I can’t tell you everything that you need to do. This power is going to work differently for you than it does for me. You need to just start working with people. These powers will then reveal themselves to you …and they will show you what to do."

Horace worked primarily with his own native people. American Indians didn’t have access to all the modern medical interventions. They had to rely upon other forces and beings to facilitate healing within the body and mind. Much of this understanding is being lost with each passing generation. Yet people from the various ancient cultures still have an openness and receptivity that makes them much more responsive to healing.

I tried to follow the example given by Horace as I first began to work with people. But I found that people living in our fast paced modern world are not quite as receptive. Very few have ever experienced the kinds of forces or beings that ancient people relied upon in their everyday lives. Many of us are just so stressed out because we’re under a great deal of pressure. We’re not really digesting our thoughts, feelings and life experiences. The residue of all these undigested stresses and emotions accumulate within our body and that makes us less responsive to healing.

I usually begin the individual healing sessions by inquiring about a client’s needs, issues or other areas of concern. I then ask the client to notice how they feel physically or emotionally as they bring these issues or concerns to the forefront of their awareness. I ask them to note where the feelings are located within their body. And then I’ll have the person I’m working with breathe softly and deeply as they focus their attention in the middle of these feelings, emotions or physical sensations.

We go through so much over the course of our lives. Many of the issues are never resolved. Feelings such as hurt, frustration, fear, anger and disappointment are often pushed down inside of us. These unresolved feelings and issues continue to operate outside of our consciousness awareness. They exert a powerful influence over the way that we think, feel and respond to what’s happening in our lives.

A vast internal universe begins to open up as we breathe into our feelings and sensations. Deep core issues and the emotions that have held them in place for so many years are brought up to the surface. Our self-awareness deepens and our range of perception expands as the deeper layers of feelings, issues and themes are brought out into the open. We gain tremendous insight into ourselves as we begin to clearly see and understand the emotionally charged issues that have been running our lives. We experience a greater sense of freedom as our feelings and emotions begin to soften and diffuse and the issues sort themselves out. This practice also stimulates the creative problem solving parts of our mind. Solutions to life’s problems will often present themselves to us as we continue to work with this practice.

People who have learned to shut down emotionally often find it very difficult to access their feelings and emotions. Self awareness diminishes as parts of the body and mind’s sensory capacity or consciousness begin to shut down. Feelings and bodily sensations may not even register within the individual’s conscious awareness.

I watch people react to situations and it’s obvious that they are anxious, upset and stressed out. I’ll ask them where they feel it in their body, but they often do not know. At other times I’ll ask "...What do you feel in relation to…?" and they often reply by saying "…nothing" or they start talking about what they’re thinking.

Many of us have a tendency to conceptualize everything and that disconnects us from our senses. Our conceptualizations are representations or interpretations of reality. They often distort what we actually see. Our conceptualizations rigidify over time and we begin to live in an intentional reality of our own making, which leaves us further removed from our day to day experience.

Shutting down emotionally can cause us to become very disconnected and to lose touch with parts of ourselves. This inability to access feeling can make it very difficult for us to register or attend to our personal needs. A narrowing or deadening takes place within our consciousness and that reduces our capacity for awareness. This makes us less cognizant of what’s going on around us. That’s why some of us lack the empathetic capacity that is necessary to be really present in a relationship or to understand how our actions are impacting the lives of others.

Most of us are very sensitive as children, but we begin to shut down emotionally for all kinds of reasons. Some of us grew up in families where our feelings and perceptions were denied and there was very little healthy expression of feeling or emotion. Some of us were subjected to physical, sexual or emotional trauma. Many of us were forced to hold everything inside, because we felt that there was no one that we could turn to for support. We may have felt so overwhelmed by the intensity of our feelings and experiences, so we learned to shut down our feelings and perceptions as a means of survival.

Many of us are faced with so many stressful situations in our lives and we find ourselves becoming very desensitized over time. Our feeling response to what’s happening in our lives can become very uncomfortable, so many of us refuse to allow ourselves to feel. Some of us have become so afraid of our emotions and feelings. We fear that they will overwhelm us and that there will be no end to all the pain if we ever let it out. The problem here is that all that all that unprocessed stress and feeling accumulates within the body and mind. Parts of our consciousness freeze up and that makes it very difficult for us to change or grow.

People who shut down emotionally usually change at a much slower pace. Buried emotions can act like cement and sometimes create an impenetrable wall that will prevent some issues or parts of the body from healing. Conditions that are normally very responsive to healing may not respond at all.

I do everything I can to help people to access their feelings and emotions. And then I walk them through a process that will enable them to digest whatever comes up. This can take an incredible amount of effort on my part, especially if the person is in any way resistant to their feelings.

I’ve learned to take an alternate route to help people to reawaken their feeling senses. I do that by having the person I’m working with direct their awareness to any tension or other form of discomfort that they may be experiencing in their body. I can help a person to relax different parts of their body by having them breathe softly and deeply while focusing their attention on any sensations of tension or discomfort. Breathing into tension or other bodily sensations helps to break up and dissolve the density that makes us so numb. This makes it possible for us to access feelings, emotions and issues that have been trapped within our body and mind that we would not otherwise access. And this will help to awaken our body-mind consciousness.

The beings that work through me facilitate healing by repairing or constructing the sensory faculties within the body and mind. This makes it possible for an individual to experience a greater range of feeling awareness. I can readily observe these changes taking place as I notice how the people I work with conduct themselves. Many of these individuals begin to function at higher levels in their lives. I can see these changes as I look into a person’s aura. What’s most immediately noticeable is that these individuals exhibit a greater lucidity. Their self-awareness increases and this makes it possible for them to take better care of themselves by addressing their needs. They become much clearer about what the real issues are, and they feel compelled to take whatever action is necessary. I’ve also noticed that many of these individuals develop greater depth become more insightful in ways that allows them to better grasp the complexities of life. And they also become much more present and engaging in their relationships.

Most of us do not completely shut down our ability to feel. But many of us are under a great deal of stress. Most of us have never learned how to digest our fears, frustrations, disappointments, hurts, feelings of anxiety, overwhelm or the day to day stresses. Undigested stresses and emotions continually accumulate within our body and may eventually manifest in some form of physical pathology. This is clearly evidenced by the neck, shoulder and back pain, digestive and respiratory disorders, heart disease and a wide range of other conditions that many of us suffer from.

We sometimes find ourselves doing things that hurt others or we sabotage ourselves in various ways. We may become very critical of ourselves. We try to shut the critical voices out but they force their way back into our awareness, and that can generate more of the same painful feelings. Some of us attract partners who are not capable of loving or being present with us. Our partners may also abuse or abandon us. And it seems that no matter what we do, we cannot get to the source of the problem and effect real substantive change in ourselves or within our lives.

Most of us are only aware of a very limited range of our selves, because we tend to operate at the surface most levels of our consciousness. Whole bandwidths of our consciousness are sometimes frozen amid all the layers of stress and unprocessed emotions. We don’t even feel it, because we’ve become so numbed out or desensitized and that makes it very difficult for us to gain access to the underlying source of our issues. It’s so important for us to train ourselves to be fully present with all of the feelings and sensations that we experience within our body. Working with our feelings, emotions and sensations will lead us to the underlying source of the issues so that we can really heal.

We need to make this process part of our daily practice. It’s important for us to take time to check in by breathing softly and deeply as we focus our awareness within the feelings and sensations that we are experiencing within our body. With continued practice we will eventually come to a place where we can be present with our feelings and bodily sensations in the midst of whatever we’re doing.

Feelings and sensations can be very subtle, so it’s going to take a real concerted effort to become aware of what we have blocked out of our consciousness for so long. Our body and mind senses through feeling at every given moment, but many of us are just too busy and over stimulated to notice. We will need to slow down long enough to really notice what it really feels like within our body.

We experience such a wide range of feelings and sensations from day to day. There are times when we feel sad, hurt, angry, confused, anxious, fearful or upset and our body begins to contract. We may feel a sense of agitation at other times, or feel as if we are being pulled in many different directions. We become fatigue or feel a sense of heaviness at other times. There are also pleasurable feelings such as comfort, joy, excitement and anticipation. We need to pay attention to any feelings or sensations that we experience as we find ourselves interacting with different people or as we deal with various situations. All of our feelings and sensations are valid body-mind responses to what’s happening in our lives and our interpretation of them. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to act on them, but we do need to process our sensory impressions and feeling responses. We facilitate this process by breathing softly and deeply while centering our awareness within the feelings and sensations.

We’re not going to enjoy all the feelings and sensations that we experience within our body. But those feelings will remain trapped within us indefinitely if we fail to process them. We can process much of the stress and unpleasant feelings as we remember to breathe into them. Other resources such as body work, healing sessions and vision quests will help us to process what we can’t get to on our own.

It’s important for us to realize that our cognitive and sensory capabilities are not limited to the brain. Our mind extends throughout our physical and subtle bodies. We gain greater access to the mind through our body as we breathe into our feelings and sensations. Focusing our attention on feeling and sensation enables us to awaken our senses and develop a stronger connection to our physical body.

You will feel yourself going down through many layers as you work with this practice. More and more feelings, memories and sensations continue to emerge. Most people are amazed by the range and volume of feeling and memory that surfaces. Feelings and issues are brought to the surface where they can be processed. This will enable you to bridge the gap between your conscious and subconscious mind. You will become more present within our body and your immediate experience. You will also enjoy more and more pleasurable feelings and sensations and experience a greater sense of aliveness within your body.

Processing feelings and issues will help you to develop the fluidity within your body and mind that will enable you to adapt to life’s ever challenging and to grow as an individual. You will also become more loving and accepting of yourself and this will enable you to experience greater empathy and compassion for others.

©Copyright 2008 Ben Oofana. All Rights Reserved.　 This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission.