Part One
Where Emotions Live in the Body
Research by neuroscientist Lauri Nummenmaa mapped how emotions are felt as physical sensations across the body. These aren't metaphors — they're real physiological patterns. Recognising where you feel something is often the first step to understanding what it is.
Chest & Throat
Grief, longing, fear, love, the impulse to speak what hasn't been said. Tightness here often signals something held back.
Belly & Gut
Anxiety, dread, deep knowing, instinct. "Something feels off" usually starts here before the mind catches up.
Shoulders & Neck
Responsibility, burden, the weight of what you're carrying. Chronic tension here is often unexpressed pressure.
Jaw & Face
Anger, frustration, the unsaid. Clenching, bracing, holding the expression still — all tell a story.
Hands & Arms
The urge to act, reach, push away, hold on. Anger and fear both show up here as activation or restraint.
Legs & Feet
Fight, flight, groundedness, the impulse to run or stay. Shakiness here often means the body wanted to move and couldn't.
Part Two
The 5-Step Body Tracking Practice
Use this when you notice a feeling but can't name it, when you feel numb, when you want to understand something that words can't reach, or simply when you want to check in. Go slowly. There's no right answer — only what's true right now.
Name What You're Noticing
Don't interpret yet — just name the raw sensation. Not "I'm anxious" but "there's tightness."
What are you aware of in your body right now?
Locate It
Where exactly do you feel this? Be precise — not "in my chest" but "in the centre of my chest, slightly to the left."
Where in your body is this sensation sitting?
Describe It in Detail
Treat it like an object you've found. What are its qualities? If it had a shape, size, texture, colour, temperature, weight — what would those be?
How would you describe this sensation if you had to draw it?
Stay With It — Watch What Happens
Don't try to change it. Just be present with it. Often, simply being witnessed — even by yourself — allows something to shift. If it intensifies, place your attention on something stable (feet on the floor, breath, the room around you) and then return.
As you stay with this sensation, what do you notice happening?
Broaden Your Awareness
Now bring attention to the rest of your body. Somewhere there is also steadiness, ease, or simply neutral sensation. Both can be true at once.
What else is happening in your body right now, alongside what you've been tracking?
Why This Works
The principles behind the practice
Trauma lives in the body, not the story
"Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the event itself. They arise when residual energy from the experience is not discharged from the body." — Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing
The felt sense
A felt sense is a physical, bodily awareness that communicates everything at once — before words, before analysis. Learning to access it is learning a different kind of knowing.
Feelings don't cause suffering — defenses do
What hurts is not the feeling itself but the layers we build to avoid feeling it. When you turn toward sensation with curiosity instead of fear, something softens.