You feel a felt sense in your body, usually in the middle of your body: abdomen, stomach, chest, throat. (Although felt senses can be in other parts of the body, too.) Sometimes a felt sense is there when you bring your attention into your body, and sometimes it needs to be invited to form. You can start by feeling a felt sense in your body, and then asking what it's about in your life, or you can start by choosing an issue in your life, and asking your body to form a felt sense about that.Felt senses are different from emotions, although they are likely to contain emotions. if emotions are like primary colours, felt senses are like subtle blends of colours. if you pay attention to a felt sense, you will find that it has a sense of "more than you've put into words yet." Felt senses are often (but not always) elusive, vague, temporary, subtle, and hard to describe. They can be so slight and hard to pin down that part of you wants to say they're not there at all. At other times they can be strong, intense, and definitely there.
Felt senses are felt in the body, and they are always connected to something in your life. They have this double quality: in the body, of the life. This doesn't mean you will necessarily know what they're about at first, but you will be able to sense a quality that they're about "something."
Although a felt sense is felt in the body, it is not merely physical. It is not your muscle soreness from exercise, or the tightness of your belt. A felt sense usually (not always) moves easily. It is not "in" a particular organ of the body, though you may want to speak of it that way for convenience.
It can take practice to allow felt senses to come into your body, if you are not used to sensing there. To feel a felt sense: let your awareness be in your body, especially the middle of your body, the stomach/chest area. Ask yourself how it feels in there right now. Take some time to just notice, gently. After a while, you may notice something, an awareness of something vaguely but definitely there.
About Felt Senses - Ann Weiser Cornell
