When was the last time you noticed your feet?
Not looked at them. Not thought about them. Actually felt them — the weight they are holding, the temperature, the texture of whatever surface they are touching right now. Most people cannot remember. Not because there is anything wrong with their feet, but because modern life has become almost entirely a neck-up experience.
The Neck-Up Experience
We live in our heads. We process information, form opinions, send messages, make decisions, consume content — all mental activities. The body has been reduced to a vehicle that carries the head from screen to screen, occasionally fed and exercised when guilt reaches a certain threshold.
But your body is not a vehicle. It is you. And it is running an entire intelligence system that most people have stopped consulting.
Disembodiment as Cultural Norm
In somatic psychology, this disconnection has a name: disembodiment. It is not a disorder — it is a cultural norm. We are trained from childhood to prioritize thinking over feeling, to "use our heads," to override physical signals in favor of cognitive goals. Tired? Have coffee. In pain? Take a pill. Uncomfortable? Push through.
The body adapts by going quiet. Not because it has nothing to say, but because nobody is listening.
Erickson's naturalistic trance induction works by reversing this process — not through dramatic techniques, but through the simple act of bringing attention to physical sensation. The feeling of breath entering the nose. The weight of the body in the chair. The subtle warmth of blood moving through the hands. These are not esoteric practices. They are the most basic form of being present to your own existence.
Three Sensations
A practice: right now, wherever you are reading this, notice three physical sensations. Not visual, not auditory — physical. The pressure of the chair. The temperature of the air on your skin. The feeling inside your hands. Spend ten seconds with each one.
You may notice that your breathing changed. That your shoulders dropped slightly. That something in your chest softened. This is what happens when consciousness returns to the body — the nervous system recognizes that someone is home and begins to settle.
The session Remembering You Have a Body is a 23-minute guided return to embodied awareness. Not as an exercise, but as a homecoming.