We’re All Having Out Of Body Experiences!

My theme over the next month is dissociation and embodiment. I have a big month ahead of me – moving into a new place – and I want to give myself every advantage as I make this major transition and beyond. That is why for the next 30 days, at least, I’ll be practicing a number of embodiment techniques and exercises. Embodiment exercises are designed to combat dissociation, and bring us back into our body, feeling strong, grounded and present. But what exactly is dissociation? And how does it occur? First of all here are a few of the major symptoms of dissociation:

• Feeling like you are existing behind a thick pane of glass
• Feeling like you can’t “touch” life
• Feeling as though life is distant and unreal
• Numbing of certain body parts, or dulled sense of touch
• Spacing out, unable to focus
• Missing and losing time without noticing
• Feeling as though you are outside of your body. Perhaps looking at yourself from outside
• Feeling as though you are actually two or more people
• Desensitized to violence, either against the self or witnessing it in real life or on TV

The Causes

The most common cause of classic dissociation is a traumatic or life threatening event such as a car accident, a violent fight or sexual assault. Witnessing an horrific event can also trigger the same response. Without going into too much depth, dissociation is a natural defense mechanism. When we are threatened we dissociate in order to minimize the pain and horror of the situation. It’s actually quite merciful. However if the mounted survival/defense mechanism energy is not successfully renegotiated after the danger has passed, we can become trapped in this feeling of dissociation. This can begin a downward spiral of panic attacks, phobias, obsessive compulsive behaviors and PTSD.

As well as a single, or multiple, traumatic event/s, disembodiment or dissociation can occur passively in a number of ways. I love computers and technological devices as much as the next guy, I mean I need them to do my work! But I am aware that they are effectively dissociation machines. Since the 1950′s and 60′s, when televisions made their way into most home in the US and much of Europe, the ways in which we interact with screens and devices, and the lengths of time spent using them have become more varied and much longer. Sure we had books in the past which are a form of escapism, and there’s the radio, but I don’t think anyone would argue that they can compare with what he have today. For many of us our work, recreation and social life all involve and take place, at least partially, in screens and devices including phones, tablets, computers and televisions. In the next few years things will go up a gear with the release of devices like Google Glass and Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift in particular looks to be an incredible device, bringing virtual reality to where it should be! However when I hear the designers of Google Glass telling me that the human body will be the next computer interface, I wonder where we are going with this:
“Think about this scenario: You see someone at a party you like; his social profile is immediately projected onto your retina–great, a 92% match. By staring at him for two seconds, you trigger a pairing protocol. He knows you want to pair, because you are now glowing slightly red in his retina screen. Then you slide your tongue over your left incisor and press gently. This makes his left incisor tingle slightly. He responds by touching it. The pairing protocol is completed.”

Yeeeeaaaa, count me out. We are spending more and more hours each year with our bodies motionless, simply acting as an interface between our cognitive mind and the terminal, be it a computer at work, a phone on the train or a games console at home. We are passively dissociating more and more all the time. And I shudder to think how this will affect the generations born with ipads in their hands!

What Can We Do?

I must sound like a right grump, but let me assure you that I’m a gamer, I’ve had just about every console since then SNES and I work primarily on a laptop. I’m not anti technology. I just think we need a balance. When we take time to get back into our bodies sex feels better, food tastes better, life feels more alive! So let’s look at a couple of simple exercises that you can do (and that I’ll be doing every day for at least 30 days) to counterbalance our reliance on devices, or indeed if you have experienced a traumatic event, and get back into your body!

Tracking Body Sensations - During your day take a moment to put away your devices and sit or lie down somewhere comfortable and where you will not be disturbed. This only takes five minutes. Once you are comfortable, with your eyes closed, bring your attention to where your back or buttocks make contact with the surface you are lying or sitting on. Ask yourself how it feels. Is it soft? Hard? Supportive? Warm? Scratchy? Now feel how your shirt feels on your chest, on your belly and on your arms. Ask how your feet feel in their socks or shoes, of if you are bare foot, how they feel against whatever surface they are on. Is your head resting on something? Describe to yourself the physical sensation. And that’s basically it. Do this daily, and do it whenever you think of it, the more the better. Bringing your focus and attention to the physical sensations on your skin brings you back into your body and let’s you experience everything more vividly and pleasurably!

Tapping - Unlike the acupressure and meridian tapping of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), this kind of tapping does not focus on any particular parts of the body. Begin by gently tapping the top of your head with your finger tips. The idea here is to bring focus and attention to specific body parts and take note of any sensations that you feel. As you work your way down from the top of your hear tap your ears, different parts of your face, neck, shoulder, arms and all the way down to your toes. Tap only one area at a time as you want to focus on each part fully. Fore example, when tapping today I noticed that while my right thigh felt fairly dull with little sensation, my left thigh was quite sensitive with a distinct tingling sensation when tapped! There’s no doubt that EFT tapping would help with embodiment as well.

Feel Your Body!

Next week I will share another couple of embodiment techniques and exercises. Feel free to join me in the month of embodiment. These techniques will take no more than 10 minutes of your time, but are so important in counterbalancing the use of technology or healing dissociation after a traumatic event. You see we are not simply pilots, sitting in a cockpit in our heads controlling this body machine to do our bidding. We are not using our body, are our body – all of it! So try out the exercises – don’t fret if you find it hard to find and notice body sensations early on, it takes a while to tune into our body, especially if we are dissociated in any way – and remind yourself throughout the day to stop, become aware of your body and how it’s feeling!

Good luck and have fun! Thanks for reading

Rohan.

Related Articles:

• Oculus Rift – So Real It Hurts
• 20 Signs of Unresolved Trauma
• Your Body Does Not Want To Be An Interface
• Tap Tap, Fizz Fizz
• STOP!

Rohan Healy is the author of “Greeks to Geeks: Practical Stoicism in the 21st Century”, “The 7 Things That Made Me Genuinely & Irreversibly Happy: And How They Can Do The Same For You” and Sci Fi Action/Adventure novel Gyaros: The Mice Eat Iron!

Click the book titles to visit their Amazon pages, read the reviews, and sample or purchase the books.