Hey all

It seems that I can only be aware of my sensations in front of my face. It have been like that for a longer time. When. I try to feel sensation of hand etc it simply dosen’t work. I think it come down to how my practice was years ago which created a resistance. Anyone been through this issue or know how to deal with it? Feels limiting

Funny, I was just having a conversation with someone last night about how this is a common problem in Western culture--so many people are very cut off from their bodies and quite literally living in their heads. The woman I spoke to said she used to refer to her body as her car when she was a child because it didn't feel like it was a part of her. She had to work very hard to overcome that.

Activities that can help one become embodied: yoga, martial arts, dancing, and many sports. If that's all too much, even just walking meditation can be very helpful. I'm sure people have managed with just sitting meditation alone, but that sounds like a slow and inefficient way to go if you ask me and some combination seems ideal. 

All very good, and I’ll add that focusing on the bottoms of your feet while doing these things may be a good beginning to having something else manifesting other than being in your head, or the front of it. 

Thanks for the tips, will try it out!

Your Breathing Body (https://www.amazon.com/Your-Breathing-Body-Reginald-Ray/dp/1591796598) is a set of practices designed to develop deeper embodiment, helping awareness to permeate the body. This is basically tailor-made for your situation, which is quite common. Some of the techniques from the set are on this page: https://www.dharmaocean.org/meditation/learn-to-meditate/learn-to-meditate-foundational-practices/. The 10 Points Practice (a pretty standard body scan technique) is really fundamental and powerful. 

You may benefit from a body-oriented form of trauma therapy or bodywork like EMDR, somatic experiencing, Feldenkrais, Hakomi, or Rolfing. Fellow DhO user Noah and I both had a lot of success with EMDR therapy. The mind develops a habit of ignoring the body in order to escape from emotions & sensations that it finds unacceptable. Body-oriented therapeutic modalities can help you to fix this problem, often with rapid results.

Developing deeper body awareness is a prerequisite for entering jhana, which precedes awakening.