Mindfulness vs Somatic Intelligence

What is the difference between mindful awareness and somatic intelligence, and how do they interrelate?

Being mindfully aware is being conscious. This is different from being conscious in a medical sense. The consciousness I am referring to is being aware of experience. Medical consciousness implies that there is information being processed—meaning that one’s nervous system and brain are functioning and informing the organism of stimuli. The more esotericsense of consciousness refers to being personally cognizant and aware of this stimuli. This is commonly understood as mindfulness, which, as I see it, is basically being aware of experience itself.

Modern society values this thing called mindfulness, as if it is some wonderful and powerful thing.

It is!

Being aware of your experience in life is the beginning of living a true and vital life. People develop this skill of mindful awareness by engaging in practices like meditation, breathwork, psychotherapy, prayer, and remaining in relationships. It’s true that all activity results in experience, but some activities make you more conscious of what and how you are.

Experience arises from being a human organism with a nervous system and a brain. The nervous system is connected throughout the entire organism—the body and brain—and reports back to both about the outside world (and the inside world) through the medium of experience.

When we say we are practicing mindfulness or aiming to enhance our awareness, we are really saying that we are practicing becoming conscious of our continuous experience.

Now, why would we want to do that?

Because within that lies everything we are. Learning the extent, nature, and character of this experience is deeply satisfying.

Not all experiences are pleasant, and most of us lack the courage to remain in reality when our experience of a particular situation is painful. We revert to emotions or dissociation when we are unable to remain present—in reality, in truth, in experience. This turning away builds up walls between the self and the true experience the self is having. That is why, later in life, when we suddenly want to do some deep self-reflection or discovery, we tend to encounter barriers between ourselves and our essential being—a mystery to be unravelled.

Somatic intelligence is a practice that not only assists in developing awareness but also supports the maintenance of natural somatic coordination, which enables and upholds true experience. And true experience is what we are looking for. When we pull our heads back and down, we cut off the information coming in from the nervous system. When we hold our breath, we are subconsciously trying to run away from a moment that overwhelms us. Learning to intentionally enable better coordination of our organism helps us to go deeper and deeper into the truth of who and what we are—to discover the mysteries that abide in unhindered, conscious experience.

Allow your neck to be free.
Head forward and up.
Back to lengthen and widen.
Hips free.
Knees forward and away.
Allow your shoulders to release and direct your arms away to your fingertips.

Be aware, and then direct yourself. This will strengthen your capacity to remain aware and to experience what it is to be alive.

#Mindfulness

#Mindbodyconnection

#Somaticintelligence

#Consciousguidance

#Nervoussystem

#Physiology