To increase your sensitivity in the office – you have to get in touch with your physical body
In 2009, I took classes in Awareness through the Body©. I believe this work helps us be more sensitive to what goes around inside ourselves and around us. I have translated some of what I learned into these 5 suggestions to increase your sensitivity.
1. Walk through the building
Easy does it.
You do it all the time! Next time you do, pay attention to how and where you place your feet as well as to where and how you breathe. Do this every time you are walking through the building from the moment you get up from your desk, irrespective of where you are going (meeting, restroom, canteen, car park). And if you find yourself interrupted because someone starts talking to you, no worries. Have your talk and just continue afterwards. You now increase your awareness of your body.
2. Check your emotional response to what happens
Add smileys to your notes!
Check how you feel – emotionally – before and after each meeting. At the start of the meeting, take some time to check out how you feel while the others are coming in. Just witness this and leave it at that. At the end of the meeting, you can do this as soon as you walk out of the room. There is no right or wrong feeling. Just notice whether there is a difference in how you feel before and after a meeting.
If you want to take this one a step further, you can write down how you feel (e.g. add smileys) as well as take a moment to determine if you know what changed your emotional state of being.
- Do you always sit in a certain way when you end up jotting down ;-(
- Do certain words result in 😉
- Do certain people make you ;-(
- Does it only happen when you sit in a certain spot in that room?
- Or always in the same meeting room?
- Etcetera: just notice what is happening.
3. Food for thought & thoughts before lunch
Stick to a healthy diet.
How? Here’s a simple recipe: check out what you are thinking before you pick and order your food in the canteen. When you walk toward or into the canteen, take a moment to register your thoughts. Why? Because, what you think has a big impact on how you feel about yourself. How you feel about yourself has a big impact on your physical state of being. And how you feel physically, impacts what food you will pick. The food you eat, impacts your mood and you are back at square one.
4. Check out your cocoon
Thought only butterflies know all about cocoons?
Have you ever entered a room where no one was talking and yet you knew instantly whether the relationship between the people in that room was good or bad? You used your sixth sense.
Living inside your own cocoon means that you check out regularly what it feels like in the first two feet between yourself and the people and objects around you. How does it feel to stand in the elevator with your colleagues? Is there a difference between the one and the other colleague? When do you think someone is getting too close? How do you register this? How does each position in a meeting room feel different from the other? Check out this cocoon around you. Use your sixth sense when you do.
5. Experiment
Always wanted more play at work?
Here’s your chance! This suggestion really only comes into play when you have tried the first four. When you have observed yourself walking, sensing how you felt before and after meetings, registered the relationship between what you choose for lunch and what you think and are aware of what goes on inside your cocoon… then you are ready to play and experiment. It means you have become more transparent and aware of what goes on inside yourself.
Suggestions on how to experiment
- When you usually walk and breathe very quickly, slow down. Reversely, when you often walk very slowly, now quicken your pace for a few days. How does that feel? What happens inside of you?
- Certain meetings make you ;-( and you know what is causing it? Address the root cause. And if that is too daring, then try e.g. to attend standing up and walking about. Put a smile on your face and see what happens. Fake it till you make it and pretend to be very happy. How do your colleagues react? Use friendly words. Give a compliment. Or reversely, speak up. Do something radically different from what you usually do and again, observe what happens. Experiment! Be bold & daring.
- You always eat the same food? You think the same thoughts? Now, eat something completely different. Copy your colleagues’ selection of foods and see what it does to your state of being and thoughts. Fast for a day. Or have a desert for a chance. Bring in your own lunch. Just change your regular pattern and see what it does.
- Like your cocoon? Then try and register what it is that you need, to feel good inside your cocoon in case the circumstances around you are not to your liking. Do you need a moment to yourself? Do you need to talk to that friendly colleague? Do you need a brief chat with your boss? Do you need a bite to eat? And experiment with going for what you need and reversely, doing exactly the opposite. I.e. have a glass of water instead of food. Go for a walk instead of a talk. Go talk instead of taking a moment to yourself. And again, observe what happens inside of you.
What would our world look like if we were all trained in awareness, from kindergarten throughout university? If we know what and who impacts us and vice versa? And are able to use the language of our bodies and emotions as well as that of business and computer science etc.?
Let me know what you do to increase your sensitivity
Note
The founders of Awareness through the Body©, Aloka Marti & Joan Sala, live in Auroville, a spiritual centre in India. They say that with this work, they aim to increase the capacity of being, to be present and to manage mind, body and emotions in a “better” way. Our goal is to contribute toward a more aware and harmonious life by expansion of the consciousness. Their site provides information also on how they have used this material extensively in groups of children, from kindergarten to high school.
