What Is Conscious Body Listening?

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Conscious body listening is about continuously, effortlessly, and consciously i.e., intentionally observing your body’s actions and reactions.

It’s an inherent part of your functioning to use your body wisdom for your body’s — and in a broader sense, for your own — benefit in order to prevent illness, stay healthy, and experience maximum well-being.

Conscious body listening involves getting acquainted with the core concepts of body listening and exploring your six body attunement domains, which consist of your postures, movements, senses, breathing patterns, internal organs functioning, and vitality.

You explore those domains by asking and answering the three questions: What am I doing? What do I sense? and Can I do it differently? which you apply to each of the domains.

In addition to actively exploring the attunement domains, you can also regularly perform a quick body test, which — through gentle stretches and joint mobilization exercises — explores your body’s abilities and limitations.

Whenever you experience discomforts, tensions, or pains, you can try to resolve those issues by asking and answering three other questions: When did it start? What has changed? and What can I change?

Although body listening should involve the whole body, in practice you’ll tend to focus more on the areas that feel weaker or are more prone to tension and pain. That’s perfectly natural and completely okay.

You could also say that the stronger parts of the body can fend for themselves and, moreover, should support the weaker ones. In the end, it’s one body — one you — and, like a tree, its roots, trunk, branches, and leaves are all needed and must work together to bear fruit.

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