Awakening Your Felt-Sense, by Debbie Rosas.

Buddha says, “If the body is not mastered, the mind cannot be mastered. If the body is mastered, the mind is mastered.”

I have learned that awareness is the foundation of all education and personal growth for me. It directs my mental attention, deepens my understanding, and expands my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical knowledge. I have also learned that all learning begins with attention and that what I notice—what I allow myself to truly sense and feel—determines how deeply I embody wisdom and skills.

Thanks to neuroscience, we now know that the brain and body are inseparable. When I talk about awareness, I am speaking of embodied awareness—an awareness that integrates the body, mind, emotion, and spirit’s unique presence. For me, the body has been my greatest teacher and my most direct source of wisdom. Through it, I have explored the depths of sensation, movement, and connection.

Not just to myself, but to others, the Earth, and the vastness of the Cosmos which orders the Universe. I’m not unique. Our bodies are rich with sensory messages, yet we are often conditioned to overlook or silence them. My body and life personal and professional journey has been about reclaiming my body’s voice and about developing a method to sense and discern the healthy from unhealthy.

In the beginning, pain dominated my awareness. It was the loudest voice in my body, demanding my attention. But through Nia, I learned to shift my focus. Instead of being trapped in the experience of pain, I expanded my perception to listen to all the other sensations available to me, such as pleasure, strength, energy, and fluidity. I learned that my body wasn’t just a place where pain lived.

My body was an evolving landscape of experience that offered me wisdom in every moment. As I became more fluent in the language of the body and my body’s language, I developed what I call Sensory IQ—an ability to interpret the messages my body sends to me with clarity and curiosity. This process wasn’t just about knowing what felt bad or what felt good—it was about understanding my body.

My body has awareness; an intelligent system that constantly communicates through sensation, thought, imagery, and emotion. By tuning in without judgment, I have learned to receive these messages and respond in ways that nurture my health and well-being. One of the most profound lessons I’ve learned is that awareness is not about force—it is about a new kind of relaxed attention.

Instead of trying to control or push toward a specific outcome, I learned to soften into awareness and allow my feminine spirit energy to guide me. This approach transformed not just my movement practice, but my entire way of being and learning which resulted in my teaching a whole being model of four realms—body, mind, emotion, spirit—for learning, understanding, growing and transforming.

Each of these realms offers a lens through which I can explore knowledge, deepen skills, and refine intuition. The art of awareness allows for cultivating an interactive relationship with the body. I call this practice listening to the Voices of the Body. Each sensation, each movement, each breath carries information. By attuning to these voices, I develop a sense of what is either healthy or not healthy for me.

A simple way to begin the practice of awareness is to notice where you are right now. Can you feel the surface beneath you? The air on your skin? The rhythm of your breath? Your awareness begins in the small, quiet, still moments of noticing. In Nia, Art of Sensation for Body + Life education, we explore the foundation of felt-sense wisdom. We begin developing awareness and body literacy.

Sensory IQ Listening to Whole Being:

1. Body – The Language of Sensation

• Pause and scan your body from head to toe. What do you notice—tension, ease, warmth, coolness?
• Focus on your breath. Is it deep or shallow, smooth or uneven? Let it guide you into awareness.
• Move gently and pay attention—how does your body respond to shifts in weight, posture, or rhythm?
• When in pain, shift your awareness to what feels good. Balance sensation by exploring pleasure.
• Touch different textures (fabric, water, skin, air), and notice how they affect your sense of aliveness.

2. Mind – The Language of Thought & Imagery

• Observe your thoughts like clouds drifting across the sky. Are they fast, slow, repetitive, creative?
• Use visualization—imagine light moving through your body, energizing areas that feel sluggish.
• Ask yourself, “What do I know to be true in this moment?” and see what answers arise.
• Engage curiosity—approach thoughts as invitations rather than conclusions.
• When faced with a challenge, mentally step back and see the bigger picture. What shifts?

3. Emotions – The Language of Feeling

• Name what you feel without judgment: “I feel energized,” “I feel tender,” or “I feel uncertain.”
• Place a hand on your heart or belly. Does touch bring comfort, connection, or grounding?
• Tune into how emotions shift throughout the day—what sparks joy, irritation, calm, or inspiration?
• Express your emotions through sound, movement, or writing—give them a place to be heard.
• Ask yourself, “What is this feeling teaching me?” and listen without rushing to fix it.

4. Spirit – The Language of Surprise & Intuition

• Notice moments of synchronicity—when things align effortlessly, offering insight or affirmation.
• Sit in stillness and listen. What whispers arise from within? What messages feel true?
• Pay attention to your gut instincts. What sensations arise when something feels right or wrong?
• Spend time in nature and sense your connection to something greater than yourself.
• Trust the unexpected—a sudden idea, a deep knowing, a feeling of presence. Let it guide you.

I love watching the faces of my students light up as they practice sensory anatomy for studying and learning through my pedagogy and methodology in The Nia Technique that develops a deeper relationship with their body. I see in their moments of awareness how new wisdom transforms their movements into medicine—helping everyone in ways that bring them greater joy, vitality, and healing.

Listening to the body’s wisdom is a lifelong practice. The more we develop our Sensory IQ, the more we can navigate life with clarity, intuition, and ease. Awareness is always available—right here, right now. Start where you are and let your whole being speak to you. We don’t always need to know why something hurts to heal. Feeling better doesn’t need a reason. It just requires that we listen and use awareness.

I have learned to listen. You can too.

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