This exercise introduces the “felt sense” - a way that part of our brain communicates with us - more in grunts than in clear conceptual messages.
- Bring to mind two people in our life. Could be parents, children, friends.
- Bring the first person to mind.
- Notice what happens in your body. Feel the bodily experience that happens when we bring them to mind.
- Bring to mind the second person.
- Again, notice what happens in your body.
- Now compare these two feelings. Are they the same? Are they different? Could that difference be communicated?
These two responses are examples of the “felt sense”. They are likely each unique, nuanced, different, but not in a way that can be captured conceptually. You could say that they are summary of everything about our experience of that person, in a single felt sense.