The Body Awake – Details, episodes & analysis

SA is part meditation, part body awareness, and part sitting with another who's attuning to, listening to, asking about, and following along with your developing experience, particularly the raw experience of arising sensation.

This practice can actuate profound changes in one's mental and physical well-being.

Sessions last 50 minutes. Payment is on a sliding scale, $75 - $125.

If you're feeling stuck, are wrestling with something difficult in your life, have a sense you've lost connection to something vital, or would like to be more in touch with your direct experience … then this work could be really good medicine.

We sit together and bring attention to what's arising. I listen deeply to you, not just to the words you're saying but to the whole experience. So much can unfold from there, it's hard to say "and then this is what happens …" but often, there are at least moments of:

• guided somatic meditation

• both of us attuning to your body's sensations

• slowing down, especially when there's a lot of feeling arising

• feedback, conversation rooted in here and now

There may be grief and tears. There may be uprisings of joy and gratitude. We don't know what to expect, but expect a dedicated, loving presence with you in that unknown. Remarkable changes can unfold from that place.

This practice as its own entity really arose out of my bodywork sessions: often, when someone would come in with a particular body ailment, the very act of describing the pain would appear to begin a healing process … if I felt that way, I note that, and say "this seems fruitful; are you open to staying with this for a few minutes (instead of just getting on the table)?" If they said yes, which they usually did as we could both feel the powerful potential here, we would simply stay with the ever-evolving sensations. This kind of inquiry would often span the entire length of the session, and we were both often surprised at the deep, radical, and permanent shifts in the pain symptoms they'd come in with, perhaps more effective than hands-on work would've been.

My guidance, listening, questioning, developing education, and ultimately Somatic Attunement as its own healing practice, has stemmed from those spaces.

So really, in short, my life's work — including tens of thousands of hours learning and teaching various mind-body modalities — has led me here.

Yes. My life was profoundly altered by sitting with my teacher regularly for many years in this way, and it all took place over the phone. To say our body of work together was life-changing is an understatement; nearly every session felt worth its weight in gold.

Yes. I am not a therapist. That said, you may seek this work for similar reasons that you would seek therapy. An example of how this is different might come from if a client says "I am so angry at my mother." If you said that, I wouldn't say "oh, interesting; tell me about your mom" and start taking notes. I might encourage you, instead, to feel the sensations in your body as you say those words, or as you respond to a question I ask you based on that statement.

The scope of practice of somatic coaching is very, very important to me, for both our sakes. If our work enters territory beyond my scope of practice, I will redirect us, and recommend a therapist if appropriate.

Sessions happen over Zoom. If you would prefer no video, we can also work together over the phone.

Wonderful. Please send me an email at liam@thebodyawake.com, and we'll take it from there.

This episode, I chat with a new teacher of mine, from a course called "Healing from Presence," Riyaz Motan. We talk about relating from an embodied, being-at-home place, and the many wonders and pitfalls of working, and ultimately being, with others.

Find Riyaz's work, and sign up for his newsletter, at his website here.

I also allude to this interview with Pico Iyer and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Birth and death: an update. Thank you for being here!

💛 Danny Schmidt "Just Wait Til They See You"

💛 Rev angel Kyodo Williams On Being

💛 David Whyte's Clear Mind, Wild Heart

Peter Levine founded Somatic Experiencing, a body-oriented approach to healing trauma. In this interview, we hear about the origins of that work, and a lot about what's now, and what's next, for this pioneer.

Find Somatic Experiencing, and more of Peter Levine's bio, at https://traumahealing.org/

Happy third anniversary, friends 💛

Links

My "how to start a podcast" guide

My interview with Donna Martin

My interview with Angelo Coppola

I started following Ryan's page on Instagram. I was nearly immediately put on edge by some of his posts. He, at least a lot at that time, was playing a bit of a villain, challenging me and anyone else reading to put ourselves out there in a way I'd been, and to a large extent still am, uncomfortable with.

This episode is really about communication, how we talk to ourselves and others alike. It's a challenge to find the passion in the work you're doing.

(There's a line about midway that's been rattling around in my heart ever since, something about "if you're not excited about what you're posting, you're not posting the right stuff" ... which sounds a bit hokey now that I put it out of context, but didn't feel hokey then and, hopefully, doesn't to you when you listen.)

Blessings, LB

ps he swears a lot and I have no beep'r

Links to Ryan's work:

Unusually Focused

His podcast

you can search #randomtalkingvideo on Instagram

And, again, his page on Instagram

Patty Townsend has been teaching yoga since waaaaaay back in the day when there were only a couple yoga studios in LA. That alone would give her lots of credit to be on this show ...

And so it's such a bonus that she offers her experience with a refreshing humility and clarity. We go into what teaching yoga in the States in the early 80's was like, the distinction between purification and clarification (this one's good), even a really sweet — if not super disarming — tip for teachers on how to begin a class ... a home practice you can do to feel the buoyancy of your internal organs ... and heaps more.

I really enjoyed this one; hope you do too!

Show Notes

Patty Townsend and EmbodYoga

The YTT manual and other free resources

And here's a schematic to give you an idea of what and where the mesentery is inside you.

Welcome back 💙

In this episode, we wrap up Season 2 of The Body Awake with a mix of retrospect, looking around and some personal sharing from me.

Here's that poem I mention at the end.

With love, LB

Don Hanlon Johnson has had his interest at the intersection — or perhaps mutual expression — of "taking care of your body stuff" and "political, social and taking care of the environment stuff" for a long time now.

We cover a lot of ground. I was delighted to join him, an early pioneer of what we now consider the broad term of "embodiment" practices.

==

DHJ's new book, authored by a wide array of body types and lineages, is called Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: towards an inclusive somatics

Other show notes: Bone, Breath and Gesture: practices of embodiment

and his website, DonHanlonJohnson.com