Sensing is a surprisingly subversive concept that I find challenges me every day.  Last night I was reading Charlotte Selver, who brought sensing practices from Germany to the U.S., describing a man she was working with who had intractable back problems.  She shows a photo of him sitting slumped forward with his forearms on his knees, his ‘comfortable position’.  Instead of coaching him towards better posture she encourages him to inhabit the posture more fully.  Gradually, he begins to feel the discomfort in the posture, The weight in his arms, the closing of his breathing and strain on his back and neck, and the related fatigue.  At a certain point, she asks him what shifts his body want to make as it feels its way to easier breathing.  Gradually he feels out the shifts that bring his arms and shoulders back, his chest more open....because that’s where his body wanted to go.

 The magic in this for me is that whether I am being present to my morning achiness as load the washing machine or notice how I am slumped in a chair, just noticing begins to free me to what wants to happen next.