The Felt Sense: Unlocking Inner Guidance and Navigating Change

As a Somatic coach, it can be challenging to adequately communicate what somatic, or body-oriented coaching is all about.

I embarked on somatic coaching training last year because I want to help people create real, lasting change, success, and fulfillment in a way the reflects their humanity, not just their hustle.

Most coaching frameworks focus on the thinking mind, ignoring what the body is trying to communicate. This approach misses an important part of the human potential equation.

The body's intelligence.

One of the ways I help people reconnect with their body and its wisdom is through the felt sense. When we pay attention to the felt sense (our sensations, feelings, thoughts, pain, and emotions) with loving awareness, we can use that wisdom to rewire our brains, heal our bodies, transform our lives, and elevate our work.

This prayer/essay has a beautiful way of communicating the felt sense in poetry. I'm so glad I found it and wanted to share with you. Hope you like it.

The “Felt Sense” Prayer

Author unknown – as shared by Tara Brach

I am the pain in your head, the knot in your stomach, the unspoken grief in your smile.

I'm your high blood sugar, your elevated blood pressure, your fear of challenge, your lack of trust.

I'm your hot flashes, your fragile low back, your agitation, and your fatigue.

You tend to disown me, suppress me, ignore me, inflate me, coddle me, condemn me.

You usually want me to go away immediately, to disappear, just back into obscurity.

More times than not, I'm only the most recent notes of a long symphony, the most evident branches of roots that have been challenged for seasons.

So, I implore you. I am a messenger with good news, as disturbing as I can be at times.

I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself, the place where you can hold yourself with compassion and honesty.

I may ask you to alter your diet, get more sleep, exercise regularly, breathe more consciously.

I might encourage you to seek a vaster reality and worry less about the day-to-day fluctuations of life.

I may ask you to explore the bonds and the wounds of your relationship.

Wherever I lead you, my hope is that you will realize that success will not be measured by my eradication, but by the shift in the internal landscape from which I emerge.

I am your friend, not your enemy.

I belong.

I have no desire to bring pain and suffering into your life. I'm simply tugging at your sleeve, too long immune to gentle nudges.

I desire for you to allow me to speak to you in a way that enlivens your higher instincts for self-care.

My charge is to energize you, to listen to me with the sensitive ear and heart of a mother attending to her precious baby.

You are a being so vast, so complex with amazing capacities for self-regulation and healing.

Let me be one of the harbingers that lead you to the mysterious core of your being, where insight and wisdom are naturally available when called upon with a sincere heart.

I can help you get in touch with your felt sense. Connect with me here.

To your humanity and innate potential,

Tamie