Body Aha insights can be trusted more than mental ones because they involve no story spinning nor tortuous mental wrangling. Your body just knows. Instead of driving yourself nuts weighing up rational pros and cons of any situation, Fritz Perls advises: “Get out of your head and into your senses”. It is only by tuning into your senses that you receive emotional guidance. Without this guidance, how can you identify your own true loves and values? Your body will tell you whether you’re life is being lived according to your own drives and passions, or whether you’re still giving all your power away to please others. Aha moments help you reclaim your own power by highlighting the values that are uniquely yours.
Often the things you think you love merely reflect the ambitions of other minds, the minds of parents or schools or society in general. Allowing your mind to be so conditioned condemns you to slavishly seek love outside of yourself, follow the herd, or otherwise pander to ideas and values that are not your own. Maybe you really do want to be the doctor or lawyer or prime minister of your parents’ dreams. Wouldn’t that be convenient? But what if your hidden fantasy is to become an actor or a singer or a jumper-outer of aeroplanes? Maybe you’ve allowed yourself to be so hypnotized by others that you don’t even know your own values.
The only way to separate your unique values from your brainwashed self is to check in with your emotional barometer. Your body will respond to any scenario you play out in your mind. When an Aha moment strikes a key value, you feel an energy so powerful that it calls you to action:
“Aha. Energetic, restless, twitchy, wanting to move about. Positive energy – optimism”. (H.G., client)
When we rest in the whole feeling sense, we receive our own inner direction. Insights bring to the surface our secret, unconscious drives and desires. There can be an intuitive ‘click’ in the form of an image, a feeling, or the whisper of an internal voice. Aha moments that drop anchor in the heart can depict your life purpose:
“The “Aha” landed in my heart and showed me what’s truly important to me. There is a clear image – visual realisation of my life’s purpose” (S. B., client)
Some cultures call the heart and gut the second and third brains. Intelligence from the third brain can bring the intuitive clarity that inspires action:
“I felt this Aha moment as a breakthrough and really wanted to act on it immediately. I felt tummy churning and knew that this is what I had to do”. (L.W., client).
Visual hits of insight should not be ignored when it comes to making important decisions:
“The Aha comes in a visual hit. Whenever I have ignored it, I have made the wrong decisions. Now I always trust these insights” (N.Y., client)
The trust in yourself that insights bring encourages you to try new things. They emboldened the next client to challenge herself to behave differently. Her confidence grew as she abandoned her shyness to play the part of exhibitionist:
“The Aha moments showed me that I could challenge myself to take on new behaviours and it could be fun to try different ways of being, For example, I challenged myself to be exhibitionistic and it went well and I felt good”. (M.M., client)
Accumulated body Aha moments lifted clouds of depression for this client to stand in his power as a leader:
“I’ve gone from passive depression to energetic action. I show up as a leader in a way I haven’t in years” (P.L., client)
The new ways of thinking and behaving that spring from Aha moments are obviously crucial to making changes. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always had! So get out of your head, into your body and feel the sparks of insight that will light the road ahead. Aha moments will give you the self-confidence and courage to take bold new action that honours your own unique, heart-felt values.
Practice for Action
Sit down and reflect on what is deeply important to you at this juncture of your life. Make sure they are your values and nobody else’s. Write a long list.
As you contemplate each one, close your eyes and breathe it into your body.
Check for feelings of excitement, motivation. Your body will tell you which ones to prioritize.
Then write a list of your top ten values.