This is a question our Yoga Therapy director, Anne, has often asked during our studies. Anything to report from the interior before we go on? What a beautiful question! I wonder what our social interactions would be like if we actually took time to check in with each in a deep and meaningful way that included noticing and acknowledging our emotions and body sensations?
Instead of asking "how are you?" and having a socially conditioned response, "fine", we might ask "anything to report from the interior?" and have a response like "yes! I notice that my heart feels lifted and my breath is long and calm today." Or, "yes!, I feel heavy and as though I cannot digest what is going on right now." Or "I notice that the news this morning makes me feel nauseous and unsure about everything. I am taking short breaths."
Luis Vivanco (2018) describes a way of understanding embodiment that acknowledges that our bodies are a subject of/in culture, not an object in relation to culture. We can then see that "...diverse social phenomena – power, oppression, violence, discrimination, ideologies of gender and race, etc. – produce sickness, morbidity, emotions, pain, stress, and other psychological and biological outcomes in the body.” Yet, in everyday practice and convention, we don't usually connect with our bodily being in the world.
Imagine having a conversation from this starting point.... who knows what might emerge!
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